IRRIGATION? How do we water our crops?

[Oneblock]

The developers are a European company and most farms simulate the European environment. It rains in Europe.

[Beaner8132]

I live in the Eastern US and I grew up on a farm in upstate New York. There are no farms around here that use irrigation. It rains enough for the crops to grow. And from what I can find out it's about 1 in every 10 farms in the US where they use irrigation and that's mostly in the southwestern us where they have a drier climate.

[hainan]

Also spraying missing. I mean pesticide and herbicide spraying. A must-have feature for the realism of the game.

Best Regards
Alp

[Procobator]

Irrigation is not overly common but the amount of rain you get within the growing season certainly does effect crop yields along with a plethora of other things. It would be interesting to have a mod that incorporates these effects.

[NateS]

I agree. Especially since we can now get localized weather patterns. Playing a map in a dry climate or an exceptionally dry year should require some irrigation for maximum yield. IRL I would say a field starts out at 100% yield and goes down if it's too wet, too cold, too dry, incects, weeds, soil content... all of this will decrease yields if they exist in excess

[fhinze]

I know this might not be quite the right forum for this, but since it is an issue close to my heart, I will mention it here too.

In the region where I grew up in South Africa's northern KZN Province, we farmed mainly with Maize and Soybeans. We had a reddish clay soil; and while you could get away without irrigation, those fields that did have irrigation installed, at least doubled the yield of their crops compared to the crops on the 'dry' (non-irrigated) fields of the same type of soil.

I really enjoyed playing with the "Soil-Mod" back in the FS15 days. I find it so unfortunate that such a brilliant mod has not made it into the vanilla game in later version. I get it, that there are many regions in the world that would hardly benefit from controlled irrigation... But damn, a good portion of the world really does benefit from this and it would be great to be able to play a game that would simulate irrigation too. Who remembers the old "SIM-FARM" from the 90's? That old game had irrigation built-in then already... I find it sad that GIANTS does not value this aspect of farming enough to implement it into their Game as well.

I attribute this unfortunate approach of GIANTS to the fact the most game simulation development has shifted from a much dryer USA to a wetter and plenty-full Europe. In most parts of Europe, irrigation would be a wasted expense, I get that. But then again... we don't all farm in Europe (or similar conditions), and if I can double a field's yield through irrigation, then I would like to be able to do that.

While Seasons-mod in FS19, can simulate 'arid' conditions and cause crop failures, the game does not allow you to take control of the situation as it provides no means to irrigate dry fields - perhaps this should have been something Seasons could have addressed as well?

But, I think, if the base game could at least have soil moisture levels incorporated into the game and keeping those levels between certain thresholds to ensure a high quality crop; while breaching those thresholds either side (to much or to little moisture) has an adverse effect on the yield and then allow the player to address at least the one side of the threshold through irrigation, would elevate the game to another dimension of enjoyment. Seasons did these moisture thresholds very well... But the lack of being able to take control of the matter, such as the inability to water fields to increase soil-moisture, was and is still a real bummer!!!

[DEERE317]

Maybe try one of the million FS22 threads?

[Kieran_Reed]

Sadly irrigation isn't a main feature in the game, there are mods but I can't find them and I believe there quite temperamental and somethings crash the game under high loads, I'm not sure if its really worth it but hopefully, farming simulator 22 will have it as standard