Field observations across NI indicate there has been a significant increase in the area of land planted in forage maize this year.

It follows on from big jumps in the total maize area over recent years, with official DAERA figures indicating that 3,540 hectares were planted in NI during 2025.

Last year’s maize area represents a 15% increase on the year previous and is almost double what was grown in 2021 when 1,836 hectares were planted.

The area of NI under maize in 2026 is widely expected to be confirmed as the highest on record when official figures are published by DAERA later this year.

As outlined in Figure 1, the 2025 maize area surpassed previous record high from 2008 when 3,495 hectares were planted with the crop.

“Maize has increased massively this year from what I can see. We have existing customers that are growing more maize, as well as new customers that have never grown it before,” said Robin McMullan from agronomy firm Agrii.

Whilst fields of maize under plastic are easily spotted at this time of year, McMullan said there are still crops being grown in the open, especially in parts of Down and Armagh.

He suggests a factor behind the growing popularity of maize is the move towards fully housed dairy herds, where a second forage can boost milk yields and allow concentrate feed rates to be reduced.

McMullan said another important factor is that in recent years maize crops have grown well and conditions at harvest have been favourable in most parts of NI.

“Maize is usually a reasonably consistent crop, especially in places where grass silage can potentially be more volatile,” the Co Down-based agronomist said.

Advice

McMullan’s initial advice to anyone considering growing maize is to make sure that land is suitable for the crop and soil fertility is at optimal levels.

“Don’t put maize into ground that is not a nutritional fit for it to start with it. Maize tends to not like exposed sites with no shelter and it needs to have free-draining soils,” he said.

When buying seed, variety choice is an important consideration which often requires specialist advice and timely weed control is crucial during the growing season.

“Maize is a very sensitive crop to weeds. If you let weeds get strong, a lot of the chemistry to control them is slow acting, so it can take a couple of weeks before you see the full effect of the herbicide,” McMullan said.