Well, something’s up with my harvest contracts. I had thought some of my previous issues might be due to having multiple contracts of the same type, and at least one problem was because I dumped some of the harvest in the wrong sell point. But I just did a corn harvest contract that was the only harvest contract I had open and everything went to the right sell point and I still only reached 99% (95% transported). Guess I’ll have to try switching off Better Contracts and hope it fixes things. That was a really big field, too.
Is that the mod giving me benefits to discount farmland if I finish contracts for CPU players? I think it may be. I haven’t attempted a harvesting contract using this mod yet, now you have me scared. I prefer plowing/cultivating/fertilizing contracts. If I see a huge harvest contract though I sometimes jump on it. Now I know.
Actually I think it’s the map. From his comments on the map by others:
Most harvesting contracts are really tight in the amount of crops yielded and the amount needed to finish the contract. at time not being enough to finish.
Field 26 cannot actually finish as the field work portion cannot be completed (stops at 99.9%)
That would make sense, I’ve used the same mod on other maps without issues. I kind of wonder if the issue is actually that contacts expect yield calculated at high efficiency, when most of the CPU owned fields are notorious for issues like weeds, fieldstone, lack of lime, lack of re-plowing, etc.
Made it to my first own crop harvest. Courseplay is having real trouble staying out of the ditches, which is odd because it’s normally pretty good at that. I’ve also had to manually edit a few courses because the autogen ones were driving way off the field - it really doesn’t like those fingers that lots of the UMRV fields have. Also discovered rather late that the forage mixers (certainly.the one I bought because it was on sale anyway) are modded to take dry corn rather than straw, so I guess I’ll have to wait a few more months to start cows.
I’d probably just buy the corn feed from the shop for the first round since it buys time for breeding and more cows more quickly. I’ve not gotten any playtime this week due to work and I’m jonesing a bit to play, myself.
The ditches are a bitch on this map. They dip quite steeply. I only have one field so far but I was thinking if I get one like that I may just trim down the field itself to give more header space from those ditches. Or I guess I could raise the ditches a bit but that’s something that sounds simple and ends up being hours of work trying to get it right.
Hmm, now straw is working, though it’s still showing the icon for corn stalks, so I’m not sure what’s going on. It wouldn’t even fill before, but now it seems to work fine.
Edit: It seems to need you to put something else in the mixer first, then add the straw. Straw first doesn’t work.
Hay or silage. Then straw (which you don’t even have to use, but it extends the first two ingredients.
Does your mixer not show the mixing ratio when you’re sitting in the tractor it is attached to?
Is it a TMR mixer?
It’s a self-propelled one. It’s possible this is how they always work. I usually use bales, so I just physically put them in in the right proportions and then hop in the cab. Order doesn’t matter when you do it that way. But with the silo on this map I’m using forage wagons instead and filling directly from it. And noticing the corn stalks icon threw me a bit.
As you’re seeing this in a mixing wagon … no clue. There’s a lot going on for this map to learn.
I’m looking forward to beer and whiskey. And chips.
Another learning! The old “sell your crop to the production and then buy the production and get the crop back” trick doesn’t work with the custom productions.
Ooooh, I didn’t even know about that loophole so never exploited it. I would have though. I still lean on some crutches though. Super strength is a must have. Lumberjack is as well, and the mod that lets me cut any trees or make terrain changes as though I owned the property. Oh, and the one that lets me make said terrain changes for free.
I’ve been known to get pissed off at something like access to a field I’m doing a contract for and pruning trees around the header space and laying a gravel access path in and out, etc. About the only time I’ve abused the no-cost terrain changes was on the base map when I leveled all those areas behind the starter farm, no more stream, no more hills, etc. Most of my changes now are to give myself more space around a field.
Finally got some gaming time and kept going with the Upper Mississippi River Valley map. With hard economy it’s slow and I’m struggling a bit unless I take the occasional contract but I’m -almost- floating now with just my first farm and field. I started by paying off the hard mode loan of 300K, then took my remaining 200K and bought a nice Challenger branded Fendt large tractor that was on sale. With 39mph top speed and a decent amount of horsepower it’ll get me around this map well, even if a bit overkill at first.
Then I added in order:
- A plow to start taking plowing contracts.
- A solid fertilizer spreader.
- A trailer for hauling harvested crops.
- This is when I bought my farm, it had barley growing so I again kept doing contracts.
- Bought a harvester and medium sized header with a trailer.
- Harvested my first crop, the barley that was already growing on the farm. I sold off-cycle because I needed quick cash.
- Then a couple more contracts and a forage harvester which I used to grab the straw, this too I sold off-cycle.
- I did more contracts, slowly building up to my next big purchase, a planter, namely the nice Pottinger that plants and fertilizes and can cultivate if needed.
- I planted soybeans because they were closest to their planting cycle.
- I harvested the soybeans as well as something new, the resultant soybean straw, whatever that is. Both I sold off-cycle as I needed more quick cash.
- I purchased a small trailer, and a chainsaw. Time for some work on the farm.
At this point I’ve redone the field, trying to get rid of a few trees and maximize my field size. I’m not 100% satisfied with it, as it was an odd shape to start with so even though I have straighter edges now, it’s still an odd lot and there are parts of it that have the, “you don’t own this field,” tag.
But, I’m only about 75K in debt now and looking pretty good for next season. I have enough cash on hand I should be able to float until the peak price for this next round or two. But I need more land for sure. I only have a small field and a lot of this map is VERY high priced stuff.
Newly changed Valley Bluff farm on field 11:
Farm shot, early March:
Selling the strange, soybean straw as a new byproduct from harvesting soybeans:
Enjoying the fall:
Slowly working out of debt for vehicles:
I’m playing this one on easy as it’s slow enough as it is and I just wanted to check out the map and productions rather than doing a really long build (though I am considering making a BGA from scratch). I’ve got a pretty good money maker setup now, as my corn and barley are feeding all the booze productions, albeit not all year round, while my cows keep the dairy pumping out stuff. Looking to add another field for sugar (beets or cane depending on which harvester goes on sale first) and maybe going into bakery, but anything sizeable is expensive, so I may go the BGA route instead. I’ve never actually built a modular BGA for real. Any ideas on where might be good land for large placeables?
If you don’t mind throwing farmland at the issue, I’ve had my eye on those long, narrow fields towards the to middle of the map, north of the vehicle shop, 60-63:
I’ve thought about buying one initially for grass to silage or corn to silage since they are long and narrow and easy to get implements in and out of. BUT, I’ve also thought converting one ore more to production use would be very easy and they are SO close to most of the shops and needs on that part of the map. If you need a bit more depth to the lots, the ones on the east side are a bit deeper if you clear out a few trees.
Are you doing the modular BGA with that same named mod or is that part of this map as well? I’ve never done a modular BGA, sounds like a fun production to build. And did you buy that gigantic dairy farm on lot 20?
I would be doing the modular BGA mod if I did. Need to save up lots of cash though. I only have my starter farm, the Circle one, so those fields would be pretty far away for a BGA. It somehow has space for 500 cows though. And while I’m waiting for the BGA, I finally managed to automate slurry application, which is a first for me.
500 cows os crazy but the one farm supposedly can handle 1500!!
I read this tidbit earlier:
So just vendor interest and need to get things in the game funds development?!? That’s nuts!
Well, I bought those fields. I figure I can grow grass on one of them and then I just need to transport the slurry from my farm. Can’t seem to get the modular BGA to show up in construction though, so I may just build a large normal BGA. Will be a few months before I can afford that. I do now own pretty much all the productions on the map that my fields can feed, so my harvest makes a lot of cash.
Awesome, I plan to do the same by this weekend but they will be crops for now. Hard economy is a bit of a bitch. :(
Sad to hear about the modular BGA though. I wonder if it’s tied to a lot or something specific?
Don’t think so, I probably just haven’t looked in the right place for it. Anyway, now I’ve got my BGA up, I’m pretty much done for now. May come back to it in a few months and get potatoes going to feed the crisp factory.
Farming Simulator makes it on Last Week Tonight. Pretty shocking expose about how farm workers are treated in the U.S., so it’s worth watching anyway, but the ending is really funny because they make it into a trailer for Farming Simulator 23.
Very pertinent and topical chat by John Oliver, but then again, he does that so well.
That being said, I’m sure Giants cringed at the finale poking fun of things in FS style. But hey, big farming and pro-farming lobbyists need to be called out for what they are doing, no matter the method.