Maize grows very fast - 3 months from the time it is sown the maize at Boston Park is taller than an adult.
Of 10,000 items in a typical supermarket, at least 2,500 items use maize in some form during production or processing.
Maize for Food
We eat maize in many different ways. These include:
| As a breakfast cereal (eg cornflakes) | As a snack (such as Quavers) |
| As cooking oil (corn oil) | As a sweet (pop corn) |
| As a thickener (corn starch) | As a vegetable (sweet corn) |
Other Uses of Maize
Maize has many uses other than food. Maize products can appear in:
| Adhesives | Paper plates and cups |
| Batteries | Rugs and carpets |
| Fuel ethanol | Soaps and cleaners |
| Hospital drugs | Shoe polish |
| The cylinder head in your car engine | Wallpaper |
| Plastics | Whisky |
Maize on the Farm
On the UK Dairy farm the whole plant is harvested around the middle of October and all the plant (cobs, leaves and stalk) is usually turned into silage. In October the Boston Park Maize Maze will be harvested and fed to the cows. A cow could eat 8 tonnes of maize silage in a year.
1 acre of forage maize provides enough maize silage to feed 2 cows for the winter. These 2 cows produce 16 tonnes of slurry, which is spread on the land and contains enough nutrients to grow 1 acre of forage maize.