Sugar Cane - What you should know

[IseOlen]

...
Maybe turn radius can be fiddled with in CP though.

It surely is possible - 4th tab has "Turning circle".

[Beastofwar]

After fiddeling with Courseplay settings and get another ( original game ) trailer that works with Courseplay i managed to get full automation out of that A 8800 including it's very short tracked turns. The tractor does some wild manoeuvers but does conntect to the conveyor again so the A 8800 can move forward again.





Now that this works for me and the tractor when full auto heads for the train station and dumps it's load there i need not babysit anything any longer.

It also makes the mod "Follow Me" obsolete for me.

Thanks for all the tips !

[Beastofwar]

After having to babysit Courseplay after all i wanted to revert to a situation using no mods whatsoever.



And to my amazement the game's AI helper is capable of using the smaller cane harvester with the biggest cane trailer with no problems. So he/she can continue until full.



No overloading is nessesary now....when the AI helper stops because the combination is full the whole combination goes to the drop off/sell point without any detaching.

This is probably not realistic at all...but for me in game this works best of all that i tried yet...and uses no mods whatsoever.

I guess the A 8800 is made for multiplay or on AI helper with you in a tractor next to it and for now is no really suitable for full auto single play. ( although it can with Courseplay and babysitting the process )

[swg]

I am just wondering, if due to the south american theme, maybe our farm is part of the sugar industry cartel... preventing other farms in the region to plant sugarcane....

Anyone saw any of the other farmers planting sugarcane? looks like we are the only one allowed in the map to do so.

[jenna_q]

I hate that little harvester now. It is so small, hard to line up to get the full swath, and just having to continually do circles around the field.

Also I was curious, is there any extra benefit to using the sugar mill to sell the sugarcane or is it just another option?

[NateS]

I am just wondering, if due to the south american theme, maybe our farm is part of the sugar industry cartel... preventing other farms in the region to plant sugarcane....

Anyone saw any of the other farmers planting sugarcane? looks like we are the only one allowed in the map to do so.

I was about to post this same thing. Maybe someone from Giants can give us an answer?

I'm on game day #4 and the other fields have had all crops but cane. I even planted sugar beets in a mission.

[Cajunwolf]

I am just wondering, if due to the south american theme, maybe our farm is part of the sugar industry cartel... preventing other farms in the region to plant sugarcane....

Anyone saw any of the other farmers planting sugarcane? looks like we are the only one allowed in the map to do so.

I was about to post this same thing. Maybe someone from Giants can give us an answer?

I'm on game day #4 and the other fields have had all crops but cane. I even planted sugar beets in a mission.

Me three because I kept looking for one so I could get the hang of sugar cane, but none to be found. I was thinking of planting some sugar cane on Sosnovka because I have a farm on that map that's doing quite well, and I have money to spend. They show two sell points, so why not. Personally, I think this sugar cane thing, being new, is going to take a little while to work the kinks out, and sooner or later some great mods will come out for farming cane.

[Beastofwar]

I hate that little harvester now. It is so small, hard to line up to get the full swath, and just having to continually do circles around the field.

Also I was curious, is there any extra benefit to using the sugar mill to sell the sugarcane or is it just another option?

I have yet to deliver a load there because the harbor and the transport company till now consistently offered more. Then there is the problem with volume and prices dropping after a dump....trains are better suited to dump a much larger quantity at once.

[NateS]

The way pricing works in the game makes the idea of a sugarcane plantation tough. My first harvest, I delivered the entire train load, 300,000L and the price was instantly crushed... I still had another train load left to deliver.

I know it's been mentioned before but there needs to be a way to contract a price or hold it for a 2-3 hr period or something. If I deliver 2 loads to a sell point 20 minutes apart, they should get the same price!

[Cajunwolf]

They often contract for prices in real life, this should be an option. I remember the cane farm I worked on in S. Louisiana back in the 70's used have the different mills come around, and they would random test the cane for sugar content, and bid a price per ton. If a mill bought a field under contract you hauled to the mill, no matter how far. As NateS mentioned running a sugar cane farm, or plantation, is what I want to create but in the sugar cane country of South Louisiana.

Okay, now here's an interesting question, what about the bagasse? For every 10 tonnes of sugarcane crushed, a sugar factory produces nearly three tonnes of wet bagasse. This is the soggy pulp that is left over after crushing the cane to extract the sugar. It's used as a bio fuel, to burn to create steam, and also as an additive in some building materials. We should at least be able to collect this for sale to the Bio Gas Plant, right?

[NateS]

There are byproducts of other crops that are not utilized in game as well. Here in Minnesota, we chop and bale corn stalks for example.

[Cajunwolf]

NateS, don't y'all do cranberry's in Minnesota? Now that's an interesting crop. Anyhow, back to sugar cane, the mills in South Louisiana started on natural gas, and once they had enough bagasse in the bins they switched over to it. They have three big concrete bins behind the mills near the boilers, and they roll the bagasse from one to the other as it dries, and the stuff in the third bin gets fed to the boilers via conveyor belt. I was but a teenager at the time, but that mill smelled like caramel and burnt sugar. to this day I love raw cane syrup on hot biscuits.

[SirTheodoreBear]

So I've got two questions about sugar cane...
Since it's basically a grass, can you use it to make silage?
On easy mode, do you need to ever fertilize it's?

[NateS]

You cannot use it for silage.

When harvested, it removes all 3 fertilizer states so I would assume even on easy you would need to fertilize.

It only acts similar to a grass in the fact that it regrows.

[Omez]

Besides, although the planters accept solid fertilizer only, the animation shows liquid is applied while planting. Weird.

I think that is the best way to represent Fert? Maybe solid Fert looked more strange.

If you look on the sides of the planter you see 2 hoppers with pipes down right next to where the cane is dropped, that's the solid fertilizer.

IRL, the planter has a optional liquid tanks for chemical application through the spray bar (insecticide etc).
GIANTS has modeled the spray bar, but not the liquid tanks on the side (should be in front of the solid fert boxes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw9214SApYQ