GIANTS Software - Forum

This question is probably best answered by the real life farmers out there: what is the best way to use a planter if you don't have room to turn outside the field? I've tried turning within the field using a back and forth pattern, but when I do that, I end up missing spots on the edge of the field. The larger the planter, the larger the missed spots. This is with square or rectangular fields. With irregularly-shaped fields, the situation gets even more complicated without room to turn outside the field. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

jeremyj621 wrote:This question is probably best answered by the real life farmers out there: what is the best way to use a planter if you don't have room to turn outside the field? I've tried turning within the field using a back and forth pattern, but when I do that, I end up missing spots on the edge of the field. The larger the planter, the larger the missed spots. This is with square or rectangular fields. With irregularly-shaped fields, the situation gets even more complicated without room to turn outside the field. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Howdy. I can help as I have worked extensively in real life agriculture.

When you are doing any kind of field work, it is typical to work the headland first. The headland is the part of the field around the outside. You do this by going around and around in a square. The number of times you would do this (working inwards each time) depends on how wide a headland you want, and how wide your implement is.

Once you have done the headland you begin to work the middle of the field working up and down in straight lines as far as possible. If you have a curved section of field, continue to work it in straight lines anyway, and let those lines become shorter- this is the 'short work'.

Lift the implement (drill/seeder in your case) when you reach the headland, do your turn, and then drop it again when you reach the unworked edge.

Hopefully these photos will help:












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The idea as shown above is that you work the outside of the field first, giving yourself room to turn when doing the landwork in the centre.

Bear in mind that you don't need to work up and down in opposing passes all the time- if you are doing this it means you have to perform very tight 180 degree turns every time. If you want you can work by working the field in 'squares' if you like, by 'striking out' (choosing a bout to work down the longest length of the field) and working alternately up and down.

Yesin real life for jobs like planting or mowing, I go around the outside a few times first, and do any odd shaped bits.
Then when I have a nice squared off bit in the middle, I do that with straight runs up and down.
You will see on real farms, we can't work right into the corners of a rectangular paddock, unless we reverse the equipment right up to the fence so usually we just turn carefully at the corners to try and get as close as we can to the edges.

Thanks for the replies, this really helps! It does make sense to work the headlands first, but I didn't think it was a good idea to drive over areas that have already been sown.

jeremyj621 wrote:But I didn't think it was a good idea to drive over areas that have already been sown.

That's being super realistic. I am not very realistic (but I can be), but you can drive over sown fields when growing and when ripe to harvest. UNLESS, you have a mod that makes that you cannot run over sown fields and kills them.

jeremyj621 wrote:Thanks for the replies, this really helps! It does make sense to work the headlands first, but I didn't think it was a good idea to drive over areas that have already been sown.

You wont hurt already sown areas, even in real life. In fact, the headland often emerges first, before the remainder of the field, simply because the seed bed has been made firmer by being driven over.

Of course you could work your headlands last, but you would need to know where to lift and drop the drill and give your self enough room to turn.