Getting started at Westbridge Hills

[Griphos]

I have sheep!

It's funny how happy that makes me. I actually have about 40 sheep IRL, two different meat breeds. I enjoy watching and tending them, but getting my first (25) sheep in the sim tickles me.

I sold the Farmall. I sure did like that old thing, but it's useless! SOooooo sloooow! I did two mowing missions with it and a little cheap Kuhn arm mower before I decided the return on labor for those was ridiculous (tantamount to cheating) and turned missions off. However, the profits from those two missions and the sale of much of my other redundant or unneeded equipment allowed me to buy a cheap trailer for the Kramer and a Bobcat (mod) with pallet fork. I'd already bought the cheap little Profihopper mower. I've moved all that equipment down to the sheep pasture. I had time to do a single load of grass for the trough just mowing in the area before the sheep were delivered, and then had to return to the main field as the canola is ready to harvest!

I have very little money left. May have to sell some of the grain already in the silos when I bought the farm (was hoping to wait for Great Demand prices). I've got about 20 hens (fewer than in RL) and the sale of eggs is a nice little cushion for covering interest on my original loan.

I plan to increase the number of sheep once I can afford a grass field somewhere (still like the looks of fields 19 and 20 for that). Field 12 might be more grass than I need (although it would be fun to work it, since it's so scenic up there). But that means at least a forage wagon, if not balers and related equipment, so all of that is several harvests down the road, I think. It's nice that a lot of the equipment I'll eventually get for that will also work for cows (although there's a whole additional set for them, apparently!!)

I may have to try hard mode on the next place. So far, normal mode has proven to be fairly unstressful.

I also get a silly degree of pleasure from walking up to the house at sunset and then alt-tabbing out of the sim while it ticks off the time until the next morning (while I browse the forum or watch videos or research mods). Then I hop back in, look at the field as I drink my morning cup and plan out the day's work.

[pigpen]

to get a pallet of wool every day you need at least 100 sheep. 50 sheep will give you pallet every other day. to feed the sheep all you need is the Amazone lawnmower.

[Griphos]

Thanks. I'm not sure I can feed that many sheep just with the grass I cut around that area. I'll see how much I can cut and then add sheep to capacity.

[pigpen]

Thanks. I'm not sure I can feed that many sheep just with the grass I cut around that area. I'll see how much I can cut and then add sheep to capacity.

for every 100 sheep it takes 12000 liters of grass to fill to capacity. I usually have 900 sheep and plant half of field 17 to grass.

[Griphos]

That's very helpful information! So, I think I recall that the little Profihopper mower gathers 2500 l per load (and fills pretty quickly). That's five loads for 6 days. That doesn't seem too difficult to manage. I think I'll buy another 75 sheep and give it a go. I can always plant a strip of Field 16 in grass if I run short otherwise (until I can buy a dedicated grass field). I'd need a forage wagon, though. That little mower is too slow to drive back and forth between F16 and the troughs.

I can always sell sheep, I suppose, if grass runs short. That's what I do IRL. Drought around here has been pretty bad until this year. Two years ago I had to sell all the animals as there was just nothing to eat and no hay available.

Shows you how linear my non-farmer thinking is. I hadn't really thought about planting fields in multiple fruits, but I don't see why not. Just cuts down on my grain production.

[pigpen]

one thing I forgot to mention is if you go to your PDA press the I button till you get to statistics then press 9 till you get to sheep this will tell you what percent of wool you have. when it turns red its time to move your pallet.

[Griphos]

Thanks, I'd noted that. I also downloaded the Animal HUD mod and it keeps me informed about the sheep and chickens at a glance. It may take up too much screen real-estate though, so I may just go back to checking the PDA.

[Griphos]

I've been watching a few videos and notice that in some, the tractors and equipment have a nice realistic coating of dirt, mud, and grime on them, rather than the shiny newish looking equipment I'm using. Since my own equipment IRL looks a lot more like those dirty ones, how is that managed? I see there's something called "washable" that some mods feature. I haven't been able to find anything out about that really, though. How is it used?

EDIT: Okay, I found a modded version of the Schluter tractor I've been using on FS-UK that is washable and has some other nice features. There's a little weirdness to it. I couldn't get it to start and stop with the key (keypad enter) at first, but after cultivating the field, it worked. I liked how the dirt started accumulating on it.

I lost a little money, since it's a separate tractor. I sold my old Schluter and bought the new one, so there went $20,000! I think I'll like it more though.

It's a good tractor. Plenty of gumption, but not too pricey or costly to maintain. I guess I'll have to buy a power washer now, though.

[sfy]

some of the power washers are weird. you have to buy it, transport it your house and then leave the game. when you restart the washer will work for you. the ones i used in the past, probably off mod hoster, would not work unless you restarted the game.

[Bootdancer47]

I haven't been on Westbridge for awhile since I still do not have my disc player replaced yet. When I started the map, I cut the grass surrounding the fields as a "contract" with the county road department and sold it to buy additional land and upgraded equipment and buy and feed my original flock of 25 sheep. I sold the wool to buy more sheep(now at 500) which is where I will stop and use the wool sales now to start my dairy herd. I originally used the Farmall and the JD pull type mower, raked with the NH rake from the Old Timers DLC and NH 378 small baler from the Giants mod contest, and an automatic bale-loading trailer for the small bales until I could buy a front mower for the Buehler tractor and a 15000 liter forage wagon(mod) on the rear. I did a lot of mowing around fields waiting for the crops to grow rather than speed up the time. I play only on hard on this map and all other maps I use now. Haven't been back to original Haagenstadt map for over a year now and have three other maps I use as well.

[Griphos]

Hey, that's a creative idea! I think I'll talk to the county officials tomorrow after I get the canola sown today (going to be raining tomorrow anyway, weather report says). Thanks for the tip on the equipment as well.

I think I'll set it to hard next go round. I don't mind it on normal as I get my feet wet. But it's not as if I'm sweating it much. Of course, there have been three different great demands within a day, so I got good prices on the wheat harvest and some of the other stuff laying around in the silos and bins. I suspect great demands are fewer and farther between on hard.

I'm up to 100 sheep, and mowing the bar ditches around the fields near the sheep pen has provided enough feed so far. I'm not going to be able to spread out very far, though, with the 6 mph top speed of the Profi!! I think a forage wagon will be my next buy.

[reider]

Speak to the Estate Agents too. Grease the right palms and you can purchase a field and put in grass, then sell the field back to them so they get the commission. Still cut the grass, which helps you and them, even though you no longer own the field. It helps them keep the place tidy to make it presentable to sell, whilst being a nice field to create food for the sheep/cows and/or make money. I use it just for the animals these days, none of that bio stuff any more. If the field gets sold to another owner there are plenty more you can reach a deal on.

[Farmer Carol]

Speak to the Estate Agents too. Grease the right palms and you can purchase a field and put in grass, then sell the field back to them so they get the commission. Still cut the grass, which helps you and them, even though you no longer own the field. It helps them keep the place tidy to make it presentable to sell, whilst being a nice field to create food for the sheep/cows and/or make money. I use it just for the animals these days, none of that bio stuff any more. If the field gets sold to another owner there are plenty more you can reach a deal on.

Once you have planted a field with grass the game no longer recognizes it as a field so it would never go under auction (which is what I assume you mean by it being sold again). Also I believe you can only sell fields via the "Bank of Hagenstadt" mod.

Just my two cents,
Carol. x

[reider]

You have to use your imagination there and just move on when you fancy a change of scenery as well. The Estate Agent is real though......

[FarmerJeff]

I used to mow around the golf course in Hagenstedt for a fee and justified it as the golf course management paying me to keep their area looking nice. Not the missions, just along the roads where the wild grass grew.

Griphos, the Giants mod section has an affordable forage wagon, the Claas Quantum 3800K, holds 31,800 liters and costs $21,200. It's served me well and is a good early game solution to selling Straw. You mentioned a while back wishing you could do something with the Straw.

You also commented recently about Great Demands in Hard mode. I keep track of my GDs and have had 33 in 48 game days, so about two every three days. Three or four times there have been two on the same day, not too often.

This is a cool thread with a lot of interesting comments.

Farmer Jeff