Harvesting field

[Tallyhoo]

I really would like to know how is field harvested in real life. Lets say there is rectangle or square field. Are combines runing in circles around field or do they start at point A and move to B, there turn around and move back from B to point A?

[havoc1482]

depends really on field size. If you can go up and down then thats a way to do it, but if the field is really large and you can't make it from point a to point b without having to dump your load into a trailer then a circle pattern is recommended because the pipe will never be over the crop (making it impossible to get it into a trailer)

[BluetoothThePirate]

In the case of tight-growing crops like wheat and barley, it doesn't matter which way you harvest and the farmers around me (southern Michigan in the US) tend to do it in circles with the pipe on the outside, but the fields around here are usually pretty small. In real life, corn is planted in spaced rows so it matters which way you drive, in the game they cheat it by laying corn out in a perfect grid so the spacing is correct either way, but real corn has a direction to it.

[chaskuchar1]

a lot of the fields here in Nebraska are half mile long. with 200 bushel corn and an 8 row head it is hard to get from one end to the other without dumping into a tipper. usually the farmer splits the field into strips where he drives the combine with the discharge pipe on the free rows he has picked already but then when he cuts a new strip the tipper driver has to drive over some corn to get to the combine. that's where I come in. I pick up the ears that are knocked to the ground and bring them home to feed the squirrels over the winter. I have a lot with 40 trees, half of them black walnuts and plenty of squirrels. I have a board with a long screw in it and I can put ears of corn out for them. one day last week they went through 5 ears of corn... my land is in alfalfa for a couple of years. chas

[Mikeinva]

a lot of the fields here in Nebraska are half mile long. with 200 bushel corn and an 8 row head it is hard to get from one end to the other without dumping into a tipper. usually the farmer splits the field into strips where he drives the combine with the discharge pipe on the free rows he has picked already but then when he cuts a new strip the tipper driver has to drive over some corn to get to the combine. that's where I come in. I pick up the ears that are knocked to the ground and bring them home to feed the squirrels over the winter. I have a lot with 40 trees, half of them black walnuts and plenty of squirrels. I have a board with a long screw in it and I can put ears of corn out for them. one day last week they went through 5 ears of corn... my land is in alfalfa for a couple of years. chas

Shouldn't it work just as in the game?

Let's say you're moving from left to right with your pipe on the left you'd simply need a collection vehile traveling along the left side of the harvester.Now for those times where you have to turn at the opposite end of the field aren't you able to hold the load within the storage tank until you're able to get to a clear spot to unload? Looks like I'm gonna have to find some real life videos on how this is done.

[BlackThumb]

The problem lies in that if they put too much 'realism' into this there 'might/would' probably be a huge outcry from the majority of the 'armchair' farmers saying it's TOO HARD to manage their farms, nevermind that is how it's actually done. Don't forget that developers do have to cater to the masses.

Cheers
(<- Grew up on a farm )