The Combine Harvester in German Grain Farming
The combine harvester — known in German as Mähdrescher — remains the central machine of the German cereal harvest. It cuts the standing crop, threshes the grain from the straw, separates the grain from chaff and straw, and delivers clean grain to an onboard tank. On large farms, an accompanying trailer or grain cart runs alongside to take over-the-field unloading without stopping the combine.
German farms operate machines from several major manufacturers. Claas, headquartered in Harsewinkel, North Rhine-Westphalia, holds a significant share of the domestic combine market and exports globally from its German manufacturing base. John Deere, AGCO (Fendt, Massey Ferguson), and CNH Industrial (New Holland, Case IH) are the other principal suppliers.
Combine Harvester Types
Two main threshing systems are used in German machines. Conventional (straw-walker) combines use a series of oscillating sieves to separate grain from straw; these are well suited to dry, brittle crops like winter barley. Axial-flow or rotary combines use one or two long rotating cylinders to thresh and separate, making them more effective in difficult conditions with damp or tangled straw — common in the wetter northern states.
Header width varies by farm scale. Smaller operations may run 5–6 metre cutting headers, while the largest combines working the open landscapes of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or Brandenburg use headers of 9–12 metres. Draper headers — which use rubber belts rather than augers to move crop — are increasingly common on wider configurations to prevent blockages.
Claas in Context
Claas produces its combine range at Harsewinkel in Westphalia. The Lexion series represents the company's highest-capacity line, used extensively on large arable operations in northern Germany. The Trion and Evion series address mid-range capacity requirements. Claas also manufactures forage harvesters under the Jaguar brand and mowers, balers, and telehandlers — many farms in Germany operate a mixed Claas fleet across harvest operations.
Specialised Harvesting Equipment by Crop
Potato Harvesters
Potato harvesting in Germany uses self-propelled or tractor-mounted harvesters that lift entire rows with a share blade, carry the tubers up a shaking web (where soil falls through), remove haulm (potato tops) with rollers or belts, and deliver clean potatoes into a following trailer or bunker. Two-row and four-row self-propelled harvesters dominate on larger farms. Grimme (based in Damme, Lower Saxony) is a globally recognised manufacturer of potato harvesting and handling equipment with deep roots in German agriculture.
Stone separators are fitted to most German potato harvesters — the country's heavier soils in some growing areas carry sufficient stone content to damage both crop and machinery without this step. Optical sorters and camera systems are increasingly fitted at the bunker stage to remove clods and damaged tubers before they reach storage.
Sugar Beet Harvesters
Six-row self-propelled beet harvesters are the dominant configuration on German sugar beet farms. These machines top the beet (removing the leaf crown), lift the roots from the soil with angled shares, and clean them on a series of cleaning webs before depositing into a large bunker or following trailer. The cleaned beet is then hauled to roadside clamps for temporary storage before factory lorry collection.
Ropa, based in Sittelsdorf, Bavaria, and Holmer, also Bavarian, are the main German manufacturers of self-propelled beet harvesters. Both companies export their machines across Europe's beet-growing regions. The harvest campaign in Germany typically runs from late September through November, timed to match the processing campaigns at Südzucker and Nordzucker factories.
Forage Harvesters
Self-propelled forage harvesters (SPFH) chop green maize, grass, and other fodder crops for silage. The chopped material is blown into following trailers. Claas Jaguar and John Deere's 8000 series are commonly seen on German silage operations. Silage maize harvest from late August uses machines at high throughput rates; on large biogas plant supplier farms, harvest can run around the clock for short periods.
Grape Harvesters
In Germany's wine regions, two approaches to harvest coexist. Mechanical grape harvesters — machines that straddle the vine row and shake the berries off using oscillating rods — are used for volume production of everyday wines, particularly in flat-terrain zones of Rheinhessen and the Palatinate. These machines can work at night when temperatures are low, helping to preserve fruit quality.
Hand harvesting remains essential in the steep vineyard zones of the Mosel, Ahr, and parts of the Rheingau where gradient makes machine access impossible. On slopes above 30%, all harvesting is by hand. Many premium estates across Germany choose hand picking regardless of terrain to allow selective harvest of individual bunches at optimal ripeness.
Asparagus Harvesting Equipment
White asparagus, harvested below the soil surface, has proven resistant to full mechanisation. The most common semi-mechanised approach uses a modified tractor-mounted frame that straddles the ridge and lifts the black plastic film to allow workers to cut spears without kneeling. Fully automated asparagus harvesters exist — notably from German and Dutch developers — but adoption in Germany remains limited due to the precision required and the labour cost differential.
Precision Agriculture & Machine Guidance
RTK GPS guidance systems are now standard on most new combines, tractors, and large self-propelled harvesting machines sold in Germany. These systems provide centimetre-level positioning accuracy for section control (turning off individual header sections as they pass over already-cut ground) and for controlled traffic farming, where machinery consistently follows the same wheelings to reduce soil compaction.
Telematics and remote monitoring have become increasingly common on German farm fleets. Manufacturers offer cloud-connected systems — Claas TELEMATICS, John Deere Operations Center — that allow farm managers to track machine performance, fuel consumption, and field coverage in real time from a smartphone or desktop.
Variable rate application of inputs based on yield mapping from combine sensors is practised on a portion of German arable farms, particularly larger enterprises. Combine-mounted yield sensors measure grain flow continuously, allowing post-harvest mapping of yield variation across fields. These maps are then used to plan variable fertiliser application in subsequent seasons.
Machinery Hire and Contract Farming
Many smaller German farms do not own a combine harvester. Instead, they engage agricultural contractors (Lohnunternehmen) who operate large machines across multiple farms during the harvest period. This arrangement is economically efficient — a contractor running a large machine across many customers achieves better machine utilisation than any single farm could sustain.
The German Agricultural Society (Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft, DLG) publishes guidance on machinery costs and contractor rates. The DLG organises Agritechnica, the world's largest agricultural machinery exhibition, held biannually at the Hanover exhibition grounds (Hannover Messe). Agritechnica draws manufacturers and farmers from across the world and is a primary venue for machinery launches in the European market.