Speaking to Farmer’s Weekly, Ignasius Voort, a grain grader at VKB Reitz silo, said that the company’s silo capacity was 90 000t, but that it had needed to add two extra bunkers, each with a 7 000t capacity, to cope with the amounts of grain being delivered on a daily basis.
A recent Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) press release said that the size of the expected commercial maize crop had been reset to 15,969 million tons, which was 2,16%, or 338 250t, more than the previous forecast of 15,631 million tons.
“It is the largest maize crop produced in the history of South Africa. The area estimate for maize is 2,629 million hectare, while the expected yield is 6,08 t/ha [on average], also the highest yield ever,” the press release said.
The production forecast for white maize was 9,507 million tons, which was 0,43%, or 40 250t, more than the 9,467 million tons of the previous forecast. The yield for white maize was 5,79 t/ha.
For yellow maize, the production forecast was 6,462 million tons, which was 4,83%, or 298 000t, more than the 6,164 million tons of the previous forecast. The yield for yellow maize was 6,56t/ha, the CEC press release said.
