LAST year was one of the best maize growing years for a long time with most varieties achieving the magical 30% whole plant DM - even the later and cheaper material.

The temptation is to assume that as something did particularly well on your farm last year, it will do well again this season.

Before you do order, I would ask you to remember that not only was 2003 the best year for ages, but the previous year (2002), was the WORST for a long time, and that the variety you choose should be the one that has consistently given you 30% DM, regardless of the season. This means that in most areas and certainly any area that is remotely considered marginal, you should consider an early maturing variety.

Ideally, you should be looking to harvest no later than the first week of October (late September is preferable), with whole plant DM's being in the region of 30%-33%.

The key in achieving the optimum DM is to maximize starch content at around 30%. If you go for later maturing varieties, the energy within the crop is more likely to be in the form of sugar rather than deposited as starch in the cob. In such immature crops, there is a real risk of significant clamp losses through effluent run-off. In addition, a very high percentage of sugars in immature maize crops are lost in the ensiling process through fermentation, representing a real loss in energy compared to the freshly harvested crop.

In previous years, I have always advocated using at least a maturity class 7 on marginal sites as anything below that is virtually always too late. With new hybrids coming through, there are now a number of maturity class 8's and 9's that you can choose from that offer even earlier maturity without experiencing a significant yield penalty. Crown, for example, is not only higher yielding than Melody but is over a week earlier. In an extreme year like 2002, that week could mean the difference between a successful harvest and one that is still in the ground in November. Kingdom is another variety that warrants a mention having the highest starch yield on the NIAB 1st choice list (115%), plus the same maturity as Crown.

I strongly recommend that your preferred variety is not only on the NIAB 1st choice list but, most importantly for marginal growers, has been tested and recommended by Kingshay.

Kingshay , like NIAB, are totally independent and have been trialling maize varieties on both mainstream and marginal sites for a number of years. Their choice of marginal sites, especially Devon, is far more representative of the marginal conditions that we experience locally and their results must surely be a useful tool when making your varietal choice. Basically, if it hasn't been tested by Kingshay and done well on their marginal sites - especially 2002 - then you should really be asking yourself the question ''Is this variety right for me?''

With ever improving maturity and no significant yield penalty, farmers who, believing that their land is too late and are as yet not growing maize, could be tempted into trying a few acres this year.

Another advantage of early maturity is the ''double crop''. By harvesting by, say, October 7, you should, under normal circumstances, be able to follow your maize with either winter wheat or grass. This practice is also environmentally friendly as the new crop takes up surplus nitrogen and stabilises the soil, thus reducing leaching and surface water run-off. Word has it that legislation is not too far away when we will have to do this anyway.