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| Hey guys,
just ran across this old article from 1999... did this stuff ever get commercialized?
Joel
WIU Agriculture
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http://www.topcropmanager.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie...
A new corn variety has been registered and is moving through the seed multiplication process and may soon provide an alternative to feed grains on the prairies. The semi-dwarf variety has the ability to mature in lower heat unit areas of the prairies and can be grown with conventional cereal grain equipment.
"We've grown the semi-dwarf corn from Newfoundland to Lethbridge and it seems to have a wide adaptation," says Bob Hamilton, recently a corn breeder for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa, who now works for CanaMaize Seed of Winnipeg. Hamilton was part of a national group of researchers and farmers who are carrying on work started in 1971 by retired Lethbridge researcher Mac MacDonald.
The short season corn has three important differences from the corn that is typically grown in hotter areas of the country. First, the corn is a semi-dwarf variety which allows it to be sown and harvested with normal cereal grain equipment. It can be solid row seeded through drills or air-seeders like wheat or barley, so a precision corn planter is not required.
Harvesting can also be done with a normal cereal combine. Hamilton says farmers have successfully swathed or straight cut the short season corn. "Swathing is a first for corn, that's for sure," says Hamilton. "Cattlemen may also leave the swath in windrows to allow fall and winter grazing."
A second difference between short season corn and the super-hybrids is the number of heat units required to mature the crop. Based on a heat unit map developed by AAFC and the University of Manitoba, the 2000 corn heat units (CHU) required for maturity of this corn makes much of southern Manitoba, parts of southern Saskatchewan including Outlook, Yorkton, Melville, Weyburn and Carnduff, and southern Alberta around Lethbridge, suitable for short season corn.
"I would like to see more trials across western Canada to check into its potential, but it seems pretty adaptable," says Hamilton. "Some borderline areas may require drying the grain."
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Short corn an alternative to cereals
