Wildlife Habitat

PLOT SIZE and LOCATION:

Food and cover plots are most effective when they are over two acres in size. Locating plots within a short distance of water and shelterbelts or buses will increase the time that game will spend in the cover plot.

 FIELD SELECTION:

• Select land with low trash/residue from prior crop and low weed pressure.
• Warm and well-drained areas with lighter soils will speed spring emergence.
• Avoid aline areas and check chemical histories for restrictions to growing corn.
• South facing exposure helps emergence and maturity.

 SEEDBED PREPARATION

• Exposing the topsoil will speed soil temperature warm-up and enhance emergence.
• Make sure of good soil contact with the seed in freshly broken fields by reducing trash and breaking down lumps of sod and soil.

 FERTILITY RECOMMENDED RATES OF ACTUAL PRODUCT

• Nitrogen 75-95 Phosphorus 37 Potassium 82 Sulphur 15

 PLANTING

• Soil temperature must be over 50 F (10 C)
• Plant between May 12 to June 10
• Seeding depth: . – 1.25 to 1.75 inches. NO DEEPER
• Planting rate: 20lbs / acre = 45,000 plants / acre. 50 lb bag = 2.5 acres
• 8 – 15” row spacing is optimal (block every second run on press drills with narrower spacing) Packing soil ensures seed to soil contact

 WEED CONTROL

• Early season weed control is essential
• Post-seeding burn off helps reduce early problems. Make sure this is done within a few days of planting to avoid seed damage
• There is a wide selection of herbicides designed for field corn that can be used on CanaMaize. Short season corn may be more susceptible to herbicide damage.
• Consult your crop specialist or a Legend Seeds, Inc. Representative for more information on recommended rates and tank mixes.
• CanaMaize food and cover plots enhance wildlife habitat, providing high energy feed for winter and shelter from the elements.

 Concentrated feed not only attracts more game birds and animals, but it also establishes a safer environment than foraging in open fields.

CanaMaize supports safe hunting by providing a direct line of sight and improving visibility of other hunters when hunting in groups.It is important to check and follow all state laws regarding hunting habitat in your area.

Grazing

CanaMaize is an excellent choice if you are looking a short season corn variety that will maximize your acres for grazing and forage for cattle.

The  CanaMaize Advantage for Grazing and Forage for Cattle!

• CanaMaize provides excellent forage for fall and winter grazing
• Great yields provide some of the lowest daily feed costs possible for grazing forages.
• Costs compared to cereal forages
• CanaMaize is an early maturing corn variety.
• CanaMaize matures faster than traditional corn
• Harvest moisture is lower – ears fill faster
• Early maturity means reliable dependable kernel development resulting in high energy forage
• CanaMaize costs less to produce than traditional corn hybrids
• Costs for conventional CanaMaize seed are significantly lower than hybrid corn seed
• CanaMaize can be solid seeded and harvested with conventional equipment – No specialized corn equipment required
• CanaMaize is a short stature corn growing 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet tall. Short stature means:
• More plants can be planted per acre than with other corn varieties
• Higher plant population forms an early canopy – Suppresses weeds & Increases grazing yield
• Swathing is easily managed for swath grazing
• Rapid whole plant dry-down makes baling an option for producers
• CanaMaize has thin palatable stalks.
• Stalks are easily digested and palatable to livestock
• Increased palatability means total plant utilization in grazing areas – less residue left in the field & less waste of available grazing forage
• Despite thin diameter, lodging resistance is excellent

Ask The Expert

CanaMaize™ Q & A

If you have or are planning on planting CanaMaize, you may have had some questions.  The following are question I have had in the past concerning CanaMaize™ and these were my replies as follows.

 Question:  When should I be seeding CanaMaize?

• Answer: Preferably, for optimum emergence, I recommend planting CanaMaize after May 10th in southern regions and after May 20th in northern regions.  Using the state of Nebraska would be my dividing line defining northern to southern regions.

Question:  What should I use to seed CanaMaize™?

• Answer: Preferably, a corn planter always is my preferred means of seeding corn and even soybeans, due to accuracy, but a drill can work if you block every other run.  I have found that you have much better emergence with CanaMaize™ in 15” or wider row width.

Question: With a vacuum planter, what disc should I use?

• Answer: I would recommend using the smallest of the 3 common corn discs, but have had great success using the soybean disc, since CanaMaize is much smaller than hybrid seed corn.  

Question:  What populations should I plant CanaMaize™?

• Answer: In 20-30” rows, I recommend seeding 40-50,000 plants per acre.  Narrower than 20” rows should be seeded at 60-70,000 plants per acre.

Question:  I like to use “pop-up” phosphorus fertilizer on my hybrid field corn and can I use “pop-up” on CanaMaize?

• Answer: CanaMaize™ is more salt sensitive than typical hybrid field corn and since many liquid “pop-up” fertilizers such as liquid 10-34-0 have salts in them, you need to watch your rates.  I recommend decreasing the rate of “pop-up” on CanaMaize™ by 1/3 of what you typically run on hybrid seed corn.  So, if you are running 6-8 gallon in 30” rows on hybrid corn, you should not go over 4-5 gallon on CanaMaize™ in 30” rows.

 Question:  For food plots, what is the typical rate of fertilizer I should apply in a broadcast application of fertilizer?

•Answer: 

*Phosphorus: Typically, 75-100# per acre of 11-52-0 (MAP) or 18-46-0 (DAP)

*Potassium: Typically, 50-75# per acre of 0-0-60 (Potash)

*Sulfur: Typically, 50-75# per acre of 21-0-0-24 (Ammonium Sulfate)

*Nitrogen: Typically, 100-125# per acre of 46-0-0 (Urea)

Question:  What seeding depth should I plant CanaMaize?

• Answer: This is really going to depend upon moisture at seeding.  If there is sufficient moisture at seeding, 1 ¼-1 ½” seeding depth is plenty deep.  If seeding bed is drier at time of seeding, then you need to increase seed depth to 1 ½-2” seeding depth for uniform germination of CanaMaize™.

 Question:  With Roundup Ready CanaMaize, when should I plan on spraying my first in-crop post application of glyphosate?

• Answer: Before answering this question, I must strongly advise that you till the ground clean of weeds prior to planting, or in a no-till system, apply a “burn down” application of glyphosate prior to planting CanaMaize™ to start clean.  Now that I have addressed this important topic concerning CanaMaize™ , I recommend for post application, that you use the weeds as a guide for your first application.  Once weeds have reached 2-3” in weed height, you should apply glyphosate in-crop to kill weeds.  This will get your CanaMaize™ off and going to a great start!

 Question:  What type of seed bed is best suited for CanaMaize™?

• Answer:  CanaMaize™ does not have the vigor of hybrid seed corn, so anything you can do to enhance soil temperature is recommended.  Tillage obviously would enhance soil temperature the quickest, but if you are in a more moisture stressed environment where no-till is the common practice, I strongly advise you use your residue managers (trash-wipers) very aggressively to remove 90-100% of the residue cover to dry and warm the soil as quickly as possible!

 These are just some of the questions I have been asked pertaining to CanaMaize™, but if you have any additional question about CanaMaize, you can reach me on my cell or by e-mail. To order seed call Jim Riley 406-580-4036.