Pateke Farms Maize and Sunflower Silage

Bruce and Hamish had a great site visit to Pateke Farms (Koromiko) to check in on their Maize and Sunflower silage crop.

Why would you sow sunflowers with silage maize?

- Improved palatability

- Improved nutrition

- Biodiversity in the field

- Soil structure improvement

- Reduced seed cost

This is an idea first tried in 2017 by Pateke Farms and continued with ever since. Sowing sunflowers one row in four is a simple way to improve your silage chop. Protein, ME and nutritional components in the sunflower seed result in improved feed quality in the resulting silage.

Sunflower seed is cheaper than maize and brings a host of benefits when done right!