PAC 624 and PAC 606IT provide the right mix for Denman dairy farmers

After harvesting their Spitfire wheat and baling the stubble back in early December 2019, the Latimores at Denman planted 25ha of PAC 606IT and watered it up on Christmas Eve.

“We always plant later than most as we usually grow a winter crop, utilising both the grain and straw in our dairy feed ration,” Peter Latimore said.

“Our best corn crop was a couple of years ago with PAC 624, but we realise planting later PAC 606IT gives us a little more safety against potential early frosts.

“In parts of the pivot, the PAC 606IT looks equally as good as our good crop of PAC 624 from a few years ago.

“We chopped our crop on May 5, possibly a week later than we would have liked, but we were still very happy with the quality and quantity we got at over 1000 tonnes.

“It was about 130 days to chopping and probably should have been 125 days which is spot on for a 114 CRM corn planted late and we have not had a lot of heat since the February rain.

“We came close to a frost in the first few days of May, so our decision to plant PAC 606IT over PAC 624 was vindicated giving us those few extra days up our sleeves.

“We have now turned our country around and are just about ready to plant our wheat again.

“This year we have chosen the variety Mustang on the advice of Rob McCarron.

“Being a bit quicker and May being the ideal month to plant it, it suits our farm plan better.

“If we can harvest it a little earlier, it will take a bit of pressure off come corn planting time and the risk of an early frost later on.”