GIANTS Software - Forum

Bailer square.
Auto stacker
Tedders
Windrowers
Loading wagon
Mixing wagon
Field 35.

Then Cows.

dont NEED the autostacker. and can use the round bailer if you do it right. but you DO need an FEL. and can get enough grass from just trimming the grass around the farm. just getting borders on the default map I have MORE then enough grass and hay. dont forget about a mower of some kind. preferably the two red mowers that you mount on a tractor, or the big M. once you have some silage and bales ready, you can start getting cows. I would also recomend getting the bale shredding waggon. makes it easier to spread the straw bedding.

yah FEL .... Auto Stacker is not a must, however makes life easier... ( i have 2 field for straw, and 1 other for hay) ...

because i have a really large field near my sheep for hay, i use the large mower in the game... i also use a Mod Front hook Windrower (2 blades) and a forage wagon makes quick work of fields and have plenty of feed for the sheep ...

I'm using the 2 rivers map. This is what I need for cows.

1. Kuhn Confort self-propelled mixing wagon.
2. BigX for making silage.
3. BigM 500 to mow the grass.
4. Tractor and Krone forage harvester to pick up grass/straw.

Here's why.

(I recently learned) The Kuhn is for picking up loose material. That's why it has a conveyor from the attatchment on the front to the TOP of the wagon (I always wondered that). The Kuhn can basically make mixed rations by itself (but the forage shed mod really makes this work by giving you a place to store loose material) I havnt tried to pick it up directly from the ground (like after mowing). When you make mixed rations it's 4200 of each grass (doesnt have to be hay) and straw and then fill the rest with silage (3600). (Equipment eliminated: Lizard, Baler, Autostacker, tedder, windrower)

in my opinion Giants needs to look at what their doing in the Hagenstedt map and make it possible to use the equipment correctly. The Kuhn needs attention anyway since half the time if you're doing it the dump-from-the-top way you lose material (an incredible difference in the amount of silage between the two methods too)

thanks for the help but what does FEL mean.

Front End Loader

Correct me if i'm wrong:confort spv 12 is for a small and medium farms according to manufacturer spec. cost of svp 12 is around 172.000 euros.In game it is for large heards and it cost 136.000 dollars.Mixer feeder wagons without self propeling system are for large heards.

You don't need all of that, you just need a wagon to feed the cows and a mower and forage wagon to collect the grass. I usually collect grass using the front mower on the front of my tractor and the forage wagon on the back. You do not need maize/chaff or even straw for your cows unless you want to invest the time and machines to do it. I would suggest a small area of maize only really and I would not buy the Big X unless you have a lot of cows. It is very expensive.

It would be nice to see real implements of how to make quality silage.The best silage is made of maize and adding 30% of grass.I made silage in that manner even it is not supported by the game,in a sence that only grass or maize silage will produce less milk.Best time to harvest grass for silage is when grass is "young'' i'm not gonna go in details but since game already supports different stages of grow presented by color change it would be good that best time for mowing grass for silage is when color is pale green but little less amount you get when is mowed in that time...etc...etc

The only thing you need to farm cows, is a cow. This will give you 5% milk production. After that you use combinations of hay, straw, grass and silage to increase productivity to a maximum of 100%. There is a post somewhere on this forum that lists what gives what percentage production. Grass alone will give 35% production for example.

nada - 5%
only straw - 10%
only silage or grass - 35%
straw + either grass or silage - 44%
straw+grass+silage - 80%
mixed feed alone - 90%
mixed feed + straw - 100%

and with the feeder trailer, you only need a 50/50 mix if silage and hay to feed, dont need straw as food, only as bedding... or was that only need straw and silage and not hay? will have to look. the two it says you need 30-70%.

You can create total mixed ration with just hay and silage. Straw is not "required" for mixed feed -- I just like to use it because silage is worth so much $$ to biogas plant, and hay is a bit harder to make with the mowing+ teddering, etc. Straw is basically 'free' when you do wheat/barley, so I try to use as much as I can in my mixed feed.

Loose straw, used as bedding, increases cow productivity by about 10%. i.e. it takes you from 90 to 100% when using mixed feed, from 35 to 44% when feeding grass or silage. I think there's a line missing in what I typed above - I *think* from memory that feeding grass plus silage is 70%, and adding straw to that gives 80%.

That 10% also makes the wheat/barley fields more profitable, because the straw bi-product is so valuable. I harvest 100k wheat, and get 100k free straw - that I then use to increase my milk production. In hard mode, 1000 cows makes you 250k dollars per day, so that 100k straw is worth $25,000 ($250/t) - that's more than the wheat is worth, by giving it to cows to sleep on!
** and of course, since hard mode silage is worth 400/t to the biogas plant, this straw is clearly an outstanding 'filler' in mixed feed.

Agreed, that is a lot of work so you need lots of workers but then it makes a lot of money.

I am still looking for a Krone header to lift grass swaths but to no avail.

Thanks for all your advice.

I missed the front loader off because i have the deutz Agrofarm 430 with front loader. IS the Deutz 35.7 better?