Osflo Maize Mix

Maize Fertiliser

Maize ground is the hardest-working ground on the farm

A 20+ tonne crop takes a serious amount of nutrient off the paddock, and most of it never comes back. A maize silage crop yielding 20 tonnes of dry matter per hectare removes around 220 kg of nitrogen, 40 kg of phosphorus and 240 kg of potassium. Osflo goes on ahead of planting as either straight product or a purpose-built maize mix — sized to what the crop is going to remove, not to a standard bag rate.

Soil-first farming on maize ground means planning for the paddock after the crop, not just the crop. A yield you took out of a soil you ran down isn’t a win you can repeat. Osflo carries the nutrient a conventional blend would, and the organic matter it carries with it is what rebuilds structure, drainage and moisture-holding on the ground that gets worked hardest.

Three ways to do it

Straight Osflo puts nutrient and organic matter on together and suits paddocks where the fertility base is reasonable. A maize mix is built back from what the crop will remove. Where the soil test shows real gaps, we’ll build that mix with additional phosphate, potassium, sulphur and magnesium on top. Same pass, same truck, three different answers depending on what the test says.

Potassium sets the rate

On maize ground, potassium does most of the deciding. Where soil K is low we run the high-K maize mix at a full rate; where it’s holding up we can pull that back and still meet the crop. On a runoff block where you’re also putting on conventional fertiliser, the rate comes back again.

Leave the lime out at planting — usually

If your maize paddocks are sitting between pH 5.7 and 6.3 with adequate calcium, lime at planting isn’t doing much for you. Autumn is the time for lime and pH correction, applied separately. Autumn is also when the ex-maize paddocks get their potassium back — more where the crop has stripped it, less where K held up.

Typical maize rates — confirm against soil test

The paddocks that have grown maize for years

Repeat maize ground is where soil-first farming earns its keep. Organic matter drops, structure goes, and on any paddock with a slope you start losing topsoil down the hill. That’s the point at which the conversation stops being about this season’s crop and starts being about whether the paddock can keep doing this. We’ll do a visual soil assessment while we’re sampling and tell you honestly what we find.

Book your maize paddocks in for a soil test before the ground gets worked.