United Kingdom
March 22, 2021
High dry matter yields and excellent standing power are two of the hallmarks of a new National Listed RAGT maize variety earmarked for sale next season in the western half of England and the East Midlands.
RGT Pixxon is an early-maturing variety with a similar dry matter percentage to Ambition, one of the biggest sellers in the early sector, but with a higher overall yield, says RAGT’s head of forage crops Helen Wilson.
Across three years of breeders’ screening trials at four sites in the west and south of England, RGT Pixxon produced an average dry matter yield of 19.55t/ha, around 1t/ha better than Ambition. Starch levels were almost 2% higher, at 34.28%.
“The variety displays uniform, well-filled cobs from bottom to top,” says Helen. “It is also up there with the best for digestibility. Importantly, it has excellent lodging resistance, which has become a hallmark of RAGT varieties, protecting yield and quality through to a trouble-free harvest.
“RGT Pixxon is a very good-looking variety, which has already attracted keen interest among merchants down the western side of the country."
“RGT Agiraxx has been a stalwart over the past 10 years in this area and it remains a grower’s favourite. We would also expect RGT Pixxon to do very well on farm – like RGT Agiraxx, it is a clean variety and consistent across different seasons, sites and soils, and could well offer a step up in performance.”
RGT Pixxon is undergoing Descriptive List trials and will be considered in June 2022 for the 2023 list. Selected merchants each have a few packs for their own trials this coming season and bigger volumes will be rolled out next year for growers to test commercially.
RAGT maize varieties lead the field for South West merchant
Delivering consistently impressive performances over several contrasting years and a range of soil types have helped RGT Duxxbury and RGT Oxxgood build a strong following across the south west of England.
Giles Simpson of Dorset-based Pearce Seeds, which trades from Hampshire to Devon and up to Gloucestershire, says both varieties have proved themselves in trials and in the field and are now the most popular varieties in the company’s maize portfolio.
They have good eyespot tolerance, useful in this high-pressure area, as well as proven standing ability to keep harvest running smoothly.
“RGT Duxxbury is now our top seller and over the past four years has proven to be early with good yield and quality figures, a very reliable performer in some very different seasons,” says Giles.
Giles places RGT Duxxbury in maturity class 11. In Pearce Seeds’ trials over the past four years the variety produced the following figures:
- Early vigour 7
- Dry matter 37.4%
- DM yield t/ha 18.1
- Starch % 34.8
- Starch yield t/ha 6.3
- ME yield (MJ/ha) 210,975
RGT Oxxgood has also become a growers’ favourite, becoming Pearce Seeds’ top seller in the mid to early group. Giles places it in maturity class 9.
This variety is also proving to be very reliable and has delivered excellent results over five years of company trials (see below).
“It has also done very well as grain maize with yields regularly at 12.5t/ha at 35% moisture, thanks to its good eyespot tolerance and standing power,” says Giles.
- Early vigour 7
- Dry matter 35.1
- DM yield t/Ha 18.2
- Starch % 36.1
- Starch yield t/Ha 6.4
- ME yield (MJ/ha) 214,336
To learn more about our maize portfolio click here.
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