Germany vs France: The Silage Duel That Feeds Europe (2015-2024)

The Fixture: Green Maize Head-to-Head

Green maize — silage maize harvested whole-plant, stalk and cob together — is the crop that never reaches a dinner plate. It is chopped, stored and fed to dairy and beef cattle, or loaded into biogas digesters. That invisible job makes it one of the largest arable crops on the continent: the EU-27 produced 245 333.5 thousand tonnes in 2024 in Eurostat dataset apro_cpsh1.

Germany is the fixture's first name: 90 925.6 thousand tonnes in 2024, 37.1% of all EU green maize. France is second with 49 048.4 thousand tonnes and 20.0%. Poland completes the podium at 25 721.1 thousand tonnes (10.5%), ahead of Italy on 22 667.1 (9.2%). Denmark, with 11 216.2 thousand tonnes and 4.6%, is the next name on the list.

That concentration is the story. Two countries grow the raw material behind a large share of Europe's milk, beef and biogas. Poland's 10.5% is roughly half of France's 20.0%, and after Denmark's 4.6% the next shares in the table fall to 3.1%. Whatever moves in Germany or France moves the European average with it.

Germany's Double Engine: Cattle Sheds and Biogas Plants

Germany opened the decade at 87 218.9 thousand tonnes in 2015 and closed it at 90 925.6 in 2024 — a net gain of 4.2%, modest for the largest producer in Europe. The path between those two figures is anything but flat: 99 473.4 in 2017, a dip to 77 485.9 in 2018, then a decade peak of 104 839.3 in 2021.

The 2022 harvest of 73 206.7 thousand tonnes is the lowest German figure in the series. Drought and heat cut the whole-plant crop, and a silage crop cannot be rescued once the plant has dried out; 2023 recovered to 84 270.0 and 2024 returned to 90 925.6, so the deep years read as weather events rather than a change of direction.

Two demand engines sit behind the volume. Dairy and beef herds need silage through the winter, and Germany's biogas fleet digests maize silage alongside manure. The 2024 yield figures in the table — 44.38 for Germany against 38.49 for France — point to the intensity of that system. What the dataset does not contain is any split between feed use and energy use, so the share of the crop going to digesters cannot be read off these numbers.

France's Silage Tradition and Where It Is Fading

France began the decade at 49 792.8 thousand tonnes and ended it at 49 048.4 — a net decline of 1.5% across ten years. The plateau hides real movement: a 2017 peak of 54 542.1, a 2021 level of 50 395.4, and then the 2022 trough of 39 271.5, the lowest French figure in the series.

The rebound was quick — 49 726.1 in 2023, essentially back to the 2015 level, then 49 048.4 in 2024. France's silage belt follows its dairy belt: Brittany, Normandy, the Pays de la Loire and the Grand Est, where maize silage is the winter ration and the crop rotates with wheat and grassland. A flat decade is consistent with a dairy herd that is no longer expanding: the hectares are still planted, but the pressure to add more has eased.

For European buyers, France's role has changed from challenger to stabiliser. It holds second place with 20.0% of EU output, but its ten-year change is negative while Poland's is strongly positive — a producer that once stood for growth in the sector now stands for reliability instead.

The Growing Pie: Why Output Rose 11% in a Decade

The EU-27 total rose from 220 155.9 thousand tonnes in 2015 to 245 333.5 in 2024, a net gain of 11.4% — green maize is one of the few large EU field crops that grew over the decade. The series never fell below its opening level: even the weather-hit 2022, at 218 236.2, stayed within 1% of 2015. The 2021 peak was 269 254.2, and the decade mean is 240.6 million tonnes.

The growth did not come from the duel's two leaders. Poland nearly multiplied its output, from 11 315.3 thousand tonnes in 2015 to 25 721.1 in 2024, a gain of 127.3%, while Italy added 16.8%, from 19 405.9 to 22 667.1. Germany contributed 4.2% and France lost 1.5%; the Netherlands closed slightly below its opening level, at 7 602.0 against 7 964.0. The expanding EU pie is mostly a Polish and Italian story.

It is also an efficiency story. The EU harvested green maize on 5 867.9 thousand hectares in 2024 against 6 100.0 in 2015 — roughly 3.8% less land for 11.4% more crop. The EU-27 series is a published aggregate in every year from 2015 to 2024, not a sum of member states, and it is comparatively steady: a coefficient of variation of 6.5%, far below the year-to-year swings of individual producers such as Germany.

What the Duel Means for Milk, Meat and Biogas Prices

Green maize is the cheapest large source of digestible energy for a dairy cow and the standard feedstock for on-farm biogas. When its output swings, the effects land on farm costs and eventually on the price of milk, beef and biogas — but not mechanically, and not immediately.

Start with what the data can support. Poland is the expansion supplier: +127.3% over the decade, 25 721.1 thousand tonnes in 2024, adding supply that did not exist in 2015. Italy, +16.8% to 22 667.1, reinforces the same direction in southern Europe. Germany, the incumbent at 90 925.6 thousand tonnes, grew only 4.2% and carries the largest single-year swing in the group, its 2021 peak of 104 839.3 giving way to 73 206.7 in 2022. France, at 49 048.4 thousand tonnes, is the stable second source that is no longer adding volume.

What the dataset cannot support is any statement about price: apro_cpsh1 reports volumes only and carries no cost or price column. A short German harvest tightens silage availability for farms that buy feed and for biogas plants running on purchased maize, and a Polish surplus loosens it — but how far that shows up in a milk cheque depends on energy markets, feed imports and the size of last year's clamps, none of which is in this table. Read these volumes as supply signals, not as prices.

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