Bavaria: More rapeseed, soybeans and sunflowers in the fields

Fürth (dpa / lby) - Farmers in Bavaria have grown more barley again this year.

Bavaria: More rapeseed, soybeans and sunflowers in the fields

Fürth (dpa / lby) - Farmers in Bavaria have grown more barley again this year. There was also a trend towards more soybeans, canola and sunflowers. By far the most important crop in the fields, however, remained corn, even if the area under cultivation has decreased somewhat, as the State Statistics Office announced on Wednesday: Silage corn or grain corn was sown on 516,500 hectares - this corresponds to a quarter of all arable land in the Free State. Silo maize is either fed to animals or used to produce biogas.

When it comes to cereals, wheat continues to dominate with a cultivated area of ​​509,600 hectares. In addition, more barley was grown again, the area for this increased by almost five percent to 306,600 hectares. In recent years, barley cultivation in Bavaria has declined.

The state office registered a clear increase in soybeans, although the arable land is significantly smaller than that of grain: soybeans were cultivated on 30,300 hectares - 52.3 percent more than in the previous year. There was also strong growth in sunflowers, the bright yellow plant grew on 9,300 hectares, almost 47 percent more than in 2021. Farmers harvested winter rapeseed on 104,500 hectares - an increase of 13 percent.

A total of almost 3.1 million hectares were used for agriculture in Bavaria and cultivated either as fields or as grassland.