Assorted Questions

[jasonbarron]

New to FS22 and pretty much forgot everything I learned from FS19. I'm playing now on Alma MO, new farmer mode, about 45 acres of land starting out but plan to get more soon, with seasons on and have some noob questions:

Is crop rotation required or optional?
I have a silage fermenting silo on the property, what crops yield straw when harvesting?
Assuming I have 45 acres starting out but hope to quadruple over a few years is mulching/rolling worth the effort, assuming I'm doing all the driving myself?
What do I do with alfalfa?

Edit: a bit more detail on the alfalfa question. I mowed the alfalfa down with a swather, then picked it up with a forage harvester and hauled it over to my fermenting silo before realizing the silo wouldn't accept alfalfa. So, now I have a full forage wagon of the material and not sure what to do with it. Also, what do I do with the alfalfa that's just swathed and still on the ground? Do I need to ted it and will it turn into a material that can be fed into the fermenting silo or do I need to just bite the bullet and make hay bales out of it?

[GrimGandalf]

- Crop rotation is not needed at all.
- On Alma Rye, wheat, oats, and barley produce regular straw. Soy creates soybean straw. On maps without extra crops it just wheat, barley and oats.
I have not used the fermenter or alfalfa so I can’t help there.

[jasonbarron]

- Crop rotation is not needed at all.
- On Alma Rye, wheat, oats, and barley produce regular straw. Soy creates soybean straw. On maps without extra crops it just wheat, barley and oats.
I have not used the fermenter or alfalfa so I can’t help there.

Thanks for the info GrimGandalf

[DirectCedar]

New to FS22 and pretty much forgot everything I learned from FS19. I'm playing now on Alma MO, new farmer mode, about 45 acres of land starting out but plan to get more soon, with seasons on and have some noob questions:

Is crop rotation required or optional?
I have a silage fermenting silo on the property, what crops yield straw when harvesting?
Assuming I have 45 acres starting out but hope to quadruple over a few years is mulching/rolling worth the effort, assuming I'm doing all the driving myself?
What do I do with alfalfa?

Edit: a bit more detail on the alfalfa question. I mowed the alfalfa down with a swather, then picked it up with a forage harvester and hauled it over to my fermenting silo before realizing the silo wouldn't accept alfalfa. So, now I have a full forage wagon of the material and not sure what to do with it. Also, what do I do with the alfalfa that's just swathed and still on the ground? Do I need to ted it and will it turn into a material that can be fed into the fermenting silo or do I need to just bite the bullet and make hay bales out of it?

I have not used the fermenting silo on this particular map, but the other ones that I've used accept the same green ingredients as the bunker silos, meaning corn chopped with a forage harvester, and green grass either chopped with a forage harvester or gathered in a collecting wagon. Both of these will ferment into silage. Dry straw, from cereal grains such as rye, wheat, barley, in real life will not ferment into silage. Maaaaaybe the fermenting silo is set up to accept dry straw; there are lots of peculiar things done in mods.

I also have not used alfalfa on this map, but in my other experience with it, it is treated the same as grass hay. Cut and bale for silage bales, or cut, dry, and bale for hay bales. However use this info as a starting point to do some tests as the modder may have set this map up differently. It's strange that the silo won't accept fresh chopped alfalfa, as in real life that does make good silage. However these things are all at the modder's discretion.

[jasonbarron]

New to FS22 and pretty much forgot everything I learned from FS19. I'm playing now on Alma MO, new farmer mode, about 45 acres of land starting out but plan to get more soon, with seasons on and have some noob questions:

Is crop rotation required or optional?
I have a silage fermenting silo on the property, what crops yield straw when harvesting?
Assuming I have 45 acres starting out but hope to quadruple over a few years is mulching/rolling worth the effort, assuming I'm doing all the driving myself?
What do I do with alfalfa?

Edit: a bit more detail on the alfalfa question. I mowed the alfalfa down with a swather, then picked it up with a forage harvester and hauled it over to my fermenting silo before realizing the silo wouldn't accept alfalfa. So, now I have a full forage wagon of the material and not sure what to do with it. Also, what do I do with the alfalfa that's just swathed and still on the ground? Do I need to ted it and will it turn into a material that can be fed into the fermenting silo or do I need to just bite the bullet and make hay bales out of it?

I have not used the fermenting silo on this particular map, but the other ones that I've used accept the same green ingredients as the bunker silos, meaning corn chopped with a forage harvester, and green grass either chopped with a forage harvester or gathered in a collecting wagon. Both of these will ferment into silage. Dry straw, from cereal grains such as rye, wheat, barley, in real life will not ferment into silage. Maaaaaybe the fermenting silo is set up to accept dry straw; there are lots of peculiar things done in mods.

I also have not used alfalfa on this map, but in my other experience with it, it is treated the same as grass hay. Cut and bale for silage bales, or cut, dry, and bale for hay bales. However use this info as a starting point to do some tests as the modder may have set this map up differently. It's strange that the silo won't accept fresh chopped alfalfa, as in real life that does make good silage. However these things are all at the modder's discretion.

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the info.

Another question I have is about the order of chores for any given field: say I'm going to mount a mulcher on the front of my tractor and pull a plow of similar width, at what point in the process, before or after plowing/mulching, do I add lime and fertilizer?

[NDDan]

Another question I have is about the order of chores for any given field: say I'm going to mount a mulcher on the front of my tractor and pull a plow of similar width, at what point in the process, before or after plowing/mulching, do I add lime and fertilizer?

If you're trying to match real life, probably add lime before plowing so it mixes into the soil. If you just care about the game mechanics, you can apply lime right up until the time you harvest.

With fertilizer, if you are using organic (slurry, manure, digestate), apply it before seeding if you are trying to match real life. Apply liquid or solid fertilizer while seeding (if the seeder has that capability) or after seeding. If using precision farming, you will get the most consistent nitrogen application by using solid or liquid fertilizer after seeding and using a crop sensor. Like lime, you can fertilize right up to the moment you harvest and get the full benefit.

[jasonbarron]

Another question I have is about the order of chores for any given field: say I'm going to mount a mulcher on the front of my tractor and pull a plow of similar width, at what point in the process, before or after plowing/mulching, do I add lime and fertilizer?

If you're trying to match real life, probably add lime before plowing so it mixes into the soil. If you just care about the game mechanics, you can apply lime right up until the time you harvest.

With fertilizer, if you are using organic (slurry, manure, digestate), apply it before seeding if you are trying to match real life. Apply liquid or solid fertilizer while seeding (if the seeder has that capability) or after seeding. If using precision farming, you will get the most consistent nitrogen application by using solid or liquid fertilizer after seeding and using a crop sensor. Like lime, you can fertilize right up to the moment you harvest and get the full benefit.

Thank you for the info NDDan. I'm playing with Precision Farming turned on and was planning on buying a direct drill seeder that also had the capability to spread fertilizer at the same time. Given that I'm using PF would it be better to seed and THEN follow along with something to spread the solid fert in a separate pass?

[NDDan]

Thank you for the info NDDan. I'm playing with Precision Farming turned on and was planning on buying a direct drill seeder that also had the capability to spread fertilizer at the same time. Given that I'm using PF would it be better to seed and THEN follow along with something to spread the solid fert in a separate pass?

Not necessarily. If you want to use a crop sensor to get the most accurate nitrogen application, you’ll need to apply fertilizer after seeding. The difference is probably negligible.
Your environmental score may be lower if you fertilize with the seeder.
The other consideration is that liquid fertilizer is cheaper, but the base game seeders only use solid. That’s why I usually apply liquid after seeding.
Overall, it’s a matter of whether or not you want to take the extra time to get a marginally better result.