The Dovaston family are stoked to have another Pioneer Maize Grain for Yield Competition under their belt.

Dovaston Agricultural Ltd won the Bay of Plenty regional Pioneer Maize Grain for Yield competition for the fourth time in seven years at the end of 2020.

Daniel Dovaston, who runs the business with brother David, says the consistent wins reinforce that they’re staying at the forefront of the maize grain industry.

“It means we’re going down the right track,” says Daniel.

“A lot of planning goes into growing maize but at the end of the day, the biggest player in the success of a crop is the weather.”

Each year, Pioneer Brand Products runs a series of grain strip trials as part of its hybrid testing programme. All growers who run a grain strip trial are entered into the competition.

The Dovastons' winning hybrid, P1253, yielded 19.64 tonnes per ha, the third highest regional yield in the 2020 competition.

While new hybrid P0937 was grown by four of the five regional winners, hybrid P1253 was the stand-out in this trial, with P0937 taking second place.

“P1253 certainly suits the Bay of Plenty climate.”

The Dovastons plant and harvest the crop themselves in order to have full control over all inputs.

Their family has been growing maize since 1967. The brothers attribute an element of their success to paying close attention to detail.

“We’ve been in the industry for a long time, and back then there wasn’t a lot of information available. It was trial and error,” says Daniel.

“Today, we don’t do anything new or out of the box; we do what’s recommended. We don’t cut corners.”