United Kingdom
February 24, 2026
Maize has been grown for grain at Cross Hill Farm, near Goole in Yorkshire, for over fifteen years, delivering multiple benefits for the Welburn family’s arable and cattle enterprises.
It is a valuable break crop, particularly complementing winter wheat, and – crimped and clamped – provides an ideal high energy feed for the farm’s 400-head beef finishing enterprise. Crimped maize is also sold off the farm, adding a further revenue stream, and in recent years the crop has also been ensiled for forage.
In total, Chris Welburn and his father Neil farm up to 600ha of rented or contract farmed land, with soil types varying from wind blow sand through to heavy clay. Winter wheat is their main crop, but on some of the neighbouring contract farmed land, where flooding is a common issue, spring cropping predominates, with maize proving to be a reliable and valuable option over many years.
“We’ve grown maize since around 2009, and have always combined it,” says Chris. “On the lighter land, we’ll grow it several years in a row, then swapping in alternative spring crops like sugar beet, carrots or potatoes, whilst on the heavier land it will be part of a more conventional arable rotation, with winter wheat.
“Across all the land we’re farming, we’re growing around 150ha of maize. Over and above the value of the crimped grain, we find it puts quite a bit back into the farm, both in terms of soil fertility and also wider weed control.
“Growing it for grain means a lot of crop residue is going back into the soil, whilst we always precede a maize crop with good applications of cattle manure, which is another good source of organic matter and soil nutrients.
“Weed control for maize uses different herbicide chemistry, and we find that is helping with the control of blackgrass and other grass weeds in the wheat.”
Variety choice is important, particularly when growing a crop for grain, and Chris’s current ‘banker’ is Limagrain’s Conclusion, a high yielding, high starch option with exceptional cell wall digestibility. He’s also growing the earlier maturing Duke, which alongside high dry matter yields has very low cob moisture content making it particularly well suited for grain. LG 31.205, known for high starch and well-developed cobs, is another variety favoured at Cross Hill Farm in recent seasons, whilst the latest high performance specialist grain option LG 31.160 is set to be included going forward.
“Our Conclusion crops produced over 11t/ha of grain maize in 2025, and it wasn’t a particularly good year given the drought conditions,” adds Chris. “The other important point about Conclusion, and other Limagrain varieties, like Duke and Ambition, is that they crimp really nicely. It’s important, because it affects how long the crimping takes as well as the quality of the crimped grain.”
Chris has found crimped and clamped grain maize form the foundation of the farm’s feeding system
The aim is to have the cobs at 65-68% dry matter for grain maize, with the harvest at Cross Hill Farm taking place anywhere between October and early December, depending on the season. The Welburns have their own maize header for their New Holland combine, simply changing the concave to adapt for grain maize. The aim is to crimp the crop straight off the combine.
“When we’re combining grain maize, most of the crop residue goes under the header, so it creates a carpet for the combine to travel on, minimising soil damage,” say Chris. “We can crimp up to 25 tonnes/hour, adding an inoculant as we go, and clamp everything we need for the cattle. The rest we sell, for clamping off the farm, usually for a little below the price of wheat.”
The crimped maize goes into the farm’s beef finishing ration, typically fed in equal proportions with barley. It’s a feed that Chris believes contributes significantly to the performance of the cattle enterprise, which buys in pure dairy and dairy-cross calves at a week to ten days old and takes everything through to finish at 500-600kg, averaging an impressive 1.3kg/day liveweight gain.
Chris Welburn feeding crimped maize to his cattle, a core ingredient in the farm’s rotation
“Our aim to grow as much of the cattle ration ourselves as we possibly can and crimped maize is an integral part of the finishing ration, fed from around 12 months,” he adds. “It’s pure energy, but can be fed at high levels without the risk of acidosis.
“In recent years, we’ve also starting taking some of the maize as forage, for inclusion in the TMR for the growing cattle.”
The main strategy around growing maize at Cross Hill Farm is to do so as economically as possible, so full use is made of cattle manure to boost soil fertility. The ground is always ploughed when maize is grown after maize, to minimise disease risks, whereas minimum tillage and sub-soiling may be sufficient following sugar beet, for example.
Drilling is typically carried out in the last week of April and into early May, with a liquid fertiliser (16:0:8 NPK), applied down the spout at 200l/ha, and a granular fertiliser spread before the end of May.
“We’re also applying a molasses-based foliar fertiliser whilst the crop is just still sprayable, towards the end of July, as it is a very efficient way of using nitrogen,” says Chris. “We’re always trying different things, in order to grow maize in the best way possible. For example, we’ve tried sowing westerwolds ryegrass after winter wheat, and then taking a crop in April before spraying it off. We’ve then minimised the cultivations by doing low disturbance sub-soiling and using a strip tiller ahead of the maize drill.
“It’s important to keep trying to move forward, to grow the crop more efficiently and with less impact on the environment.”
Amongst all the uncertainty in farming, growing maize brings a degree of consistency and reliability on this North Yorkshire farm. It provides undoubted rotational benefits, will outperform wheat in a drought, underpins the performance in the beef enterprise, and offers the option of a saleable cash crop. With new improved varieties coming through every year, there’s little doubt that it will remain central to plans at Cross Hill Farm for many years to come.
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