KWS Pasco

Variety Positioning

Pasco was identified by Agrii within official and breeders’ trials as a stand-out performer from a very early stage. This exciting new variety is a superb addition to the Early sector for growers looking to maximise both very high quality forage and huge overall yields. The big varietywith a bright future!

Key Points:

A Farmers View

Working closely with Agrii ensures we are growing the best maize varieties on the market to help reduce overall feed input costs and enhance reliability and quality of the crops we produce each season.

We had previously been growing KWS Avitus as this variety offered significant yield and quality improvements within its maturity class
when it first came onto the UK market. We’re always looking ahead to the future, so we trialled some KWS Pasco on behalf of Agrii before it was even named as a variety, and witnessed further improvements still, compared with KWS Avitus.

Back in 2021 we grew 20% KWS Pasco and although the weather broke during harvest, and added nearly a two week delay to harvesting, KWS Pasco held itself together and retained its quality with stay green ability until we got going again.

The KWS Pasco crop was still harvested by the 15th of October and yielded 25 tonnes per acre at 38% DM and 34% starch.

Achieving more from an earlier harvest is becoming more important to our system as we look to reduce any impact on soil health and gain extra forage where possible.

We are able to establish and harvest Lunator forage rye between our maize crops without compromising on overall maize yields from growing earlier material anymore, and by working with the right advice and variety selection from Agrii. This gives us the potential to almost double the volume of forage produced from our maize ground over a 12-month period compared to previous years.

For the 2023 season we have grown 100% KWS Pasco and the variety has performed incredibly well again, despite the delayed drilling season and challenging harvest period.

However, we will continue to trial early line material with Agrii to identify any further advances as varieties continue to improve and additional gains achieved.

For us, KWS Pasco has proven its worth and since being added to the Descriptive List in 2023, it’s looking as impressive on paper as it does in our fields and clamps!

Andrew Griffiths | Bulls Green Farm, Cheshire