NK Bull, the highest yielding variety to appear on NIAB’s Forage Maize Descriptive List was officially launched at the Dairy Show staged this week at Shepton Mallet.

NK Bull from NK, the Syngenta Seeds maize brand, offers yield without compromising quality: as well as leading the 2008 Descriptive List for yield at 111% dry matter of control, it also has highest score of any listed variety for digestibility at 11.5 MJ/kg DM.

These impressive statistics translate into very real benefits for UK maize growers, especially those looking at maize as their primary source of forage. “For these growers, maximizing DM yield and digestibility is a must, and this is where the new variety NK Bull comes into its own," NK’s Nigel Padbury explained. "NK Bull has the highest available DM yield with the best score for digestibility, it delivers an unbeaten 216,000MJ/ha and a very respectable 32.8% starch content, the highest in its class. In addition, NK Bull also has a high vigour rating of 8.5 together with the list’s top rating for standing power.

“Without a doubt, NK Bull is the top quality general purpose variety for 2008,” he said. “It is a variety with the potential to drive forward the crop’s overall yield, and it can enable farmers to make improvements of 10% or more to their crop’s productivity.”

NK Bull was bred by Syngenta Seeds’ planting breeding team whose current programme is designed to match demand from dairy and beef producers in northern Europe who remain unrelenting in their quest to reduce costs and improve overall output, efficiently.

“Our strategy is focused on north west European farmers’ requirements; starch, earliness, early vigour, high digestibility and DM yield, and it features marker technology to accelerate the breeding process,” Mr Padbury explained. “We have also strengthened our focus with the acquisition of the US breeding company, Golden Harvest in 2004 and assimilated its germplasm into the Syngenta Seeds breeding programme. In addition, the application of a thorough knowledge of how best to use the maize crop is contributing to taking our breeding programme forward.”

He adds: “We are very excited about the future of NK maize in the UK. The breeding programme is already impacting in the marketplace with the launch of NK Bull, and it also features a number of pipeline varieties offering real promise.”

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