Corn area continues to decline in Germany
Farmers in Germany are growing less corn. The area under silage corn has decreased by 4.2% in 2025 compared to 2024, falling to 1.96 million hectares. For the first time since 2010, it has fallen below the 2 million hectare mark.
The country’s silage corn sowing peaked in 2020, when it reached 2.3 million hectares, mainly due to the increase in biogas plants. But it has recently declined again due to legal restrictions and a reduction in livestock numbers.
The sowing of grain corn has also decreased. Its area is estimated at 488,900 hectares in 2025, down 1.9% from 2024, meaning that the 500,000 hectare mark will not be reached again.
In Germany, grain corn areas last exceeded this threshold in 2008, after which they began to decline, falling to 410,900 hectares in 2018. Since then, the area has grown, reaching the second-highest level of 498,400 hectares in 2024.
As for the volume of grain corn production in Germany this year, it will increase by about 0.8% to 4.5 million tonnes. According to the German Maize Committee (DMK), in 2024 the average yield of silage corn in Germany was 43.4 t/ha, and the yield of grain corn was 9.4 t/ha, which is slightly below the 2023 level of 9.7 t/ha.
Among the main reasons for the decrease in the area under corn and interest in growing the crop, experts from German agricultural media cite a decrease in livestock numbers and a decrease in the number of biogas plants.
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