Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Mythtaken
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2013 6:27 pm

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Mythtaken »

I think pigs can be profitable --or not-- depending on how you play the game. There are so many factors that can determine it. If you play with Seasons and pigs as your primary product, then yes, it will be very difficult to show more than a minimal profit because the input costs are so high, not to mention the equipment, seed, spray, etc. But if pigs are secondary to your operation, they can be more profitable, since the input costs are covered from selling the grains and you are just diverting some of the produce to their feed.

It also depends on what other mods you might be using, from cheaper equipment to lower animal prices, and whether you are making money from the bi-products (slurry and manure) which can be increased using mods.

At the end of the day, pigs can be as profitable if you really want them to be. That's the beauty of this game.
If you sow your wild oats, hope for a crop failure.
IseOlen
Posts: 215
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2017 7:53 pm

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by IseOlen »

I didn't run the pigs test today - will wait for updated Seasons. Just played around with some numbers. Seems manure is the key. Use it for greenhouses (you need frontloader for cleaning and water tank for pigs anyway - so no extra equipment needed). Just balancing nr of pigs vs nr of greenhouses.
Of course - you get manure from cows too. So cows are still way better.
User avatar
Dexzilla
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:39 am
Location: The Shire

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Dexzilla »

Mythtaken wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 6:58 pm At the end of the day, pigs can be as profitable if you really want them to be. That's the beauty of this game.
Totally agree, the game offers so many ways to play. I am a little restricted for mods on Xbox, but fruit trees are an option over greenhouses, though the return may be artificially high for my taste.
I also feel that one of the fundamental, and realistic, things about seasons is the need to make cash in ways other than your main business no matter what you concentrate on. You certainly have the time to do this too. Perhaps the issue is as much how over inflated profits from pigs and cows are in the base game, not what seasons changes? I am not sure the income from the crops would really be much higher if you sold it rather than let the pigs eat it, especially if you cannot choose when to sell at the best possible price because you need the cash now. But there are so many factors to take into account as others have mentioned clear calculations are not there to make, and does it matter? This is a game, it is more fun (for me) to have to various things to do rather than repeat the same days over and over with no worries. In fact most of my play throughs stop once I know I just have to keep doing the same over and over and a million will be in the bank. It is getting to that point that is the interest for me!
XBOX YouTube:
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Cow Care and Cattle Calculations https://youtu.be/1LE5vF1b5v8
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Basic Forestry: The Wood is Good https://youtu.be/uKG1fEsLujs
Let's Play FS19 XBOX Ravenport HARD Pig Farm Pt:11 BAD MOTHER-TRUCKER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI84FSCccHU&t=89s
DirectCedar
Posts: 1025
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2017 12:47 am

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by DirectCedar »

Wellllllll I've started an informal small-scale study on pig profitability with seasons on my little Scandinavian farm and the early results are not looking promising at all.

Playing PC Bjornholm 17 on Normal with 6-day seasons at 15x, no additional GEO installed. Occasional fast-forwarding, skipping most nights.

I used to run pigs in the vanilla game and found them very cost-effective, and I've got sheep and dairy on another seasons farm and they are also a good return on investment. So I assumed pigs would be comparable in seasons.

Over the past two crops I've placed a bin system nearby the pig farm and filled it with what I thought would be plenty of feed for my small herd for a year or two (everything pigs require to eat except root crops). Finally I bought the little field beside the piggery and grew corn on it (8500L; very small field) and put that in storage for the pigs. So I thought the feed was sorted for the short-medium term. I waited till the lowest pig price of the year in mid fall and purchased 11 pigs (like I said, small farm). I did the buy-one-sell-it trick first to jumpstart the animal health % bug. Filled the feed trough and water. I do not have any straw yet and recognize that will incur a penalty. Finished my other fall work and went logging.

Checked again in two days to find the feed and water indicators all over the place. One still close to full, couple in the middle, one in the red. Hmmm. Seemed weird as they should have all been three days worth. Refilled everything and was alarmed how much corn it took. Went back logging. Came back in two days and found same thing except with different things full and different things empty compared to first check. Refilled all, repeat as required through winter. All winter the health never went above 76% and the cleanliness never went above 0% no matter how many times I cleaned the feeding area, which also never showed any visual overflow.

Now it is early spring and I am OUT of corn and I am only about 2/3 of the way to the first new pig being born (yes I know they do not reproduce in the winter - this is the accumulated reproduction time from fall and spring). The trough is full so the corn should last till the first pig is born before productivity plummets. So rounding off I will get one pig from about 8500L corn, 4200L barley, and 3400L canola (ballpark). That's approximately $11000 in feed costs. This is to produce approximately one pig which if I sell on the highest day of the year will hopefully bring $2500.

I understand this is a snapshot and small scale but it still feels an awful lot like Bankruptcy Simulator.

So my questions for Realismus or for anyone who has already gone through this:

1) Should the pigs be eating this much (~770L corn per pig over the winter plus one fall transition and one spring transition)? They do eat substantially more in winter than in fall or spring (as expected), but overall consumption seems very high.
2) Should they be consuming different feeds at different rates, or should troughs full at the same time all last the same time? This seems buggy.
3) Is it is a bug that productivity won't go above 76%? I am expecting a penalty for no straw and no root crops, but thought I should still get to ~85.
4) Is it a bug that I cannot clean the feeding area, and that it never visually appears dirty, but will only register 0% cleanliness? This is probably a map issue. Likewise if there is a cleanliness penalty because of this (there probably is) that would explain question 3 and 76% would make sense.
5) Does feed consumption and reproduction change non-linearly with herd size? I recognize this is a small herd of 11 animals. Is there a magic "critical mass" herd size in such a non-linear progression where the economics tip to make more sense?

I don't need or expect anyone to solve any of this; just wondering if others are having the same experience and if this is how pigs are intended to work in seasons. At this point based on my experience it looks like pigs are completely infeasible. I'm going to try scaling up the herd and track feed costs over a longer interval and see if anything changes.
User avatar
Dexzilla
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:39 am
Location: The Shire

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Dexzilla »

Can I just 100% confirm that on PC the livestock buy prices vary with the financial graph? On my xbox pigs cost 3036 no matter the level, map or season, only the sale prices vary.
I do not think this is a big issue, just wondered?????
Last edited by Dexzilla on Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
XBOX YouTube:
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Cow Care and Cattle Calculations https://youtu.be/1LE5vF1b5v8
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Basic Forestry: The Wood is Good https://youtu.be/uKG1fEsLujs
Let's Play FS19 XBOX Ravenport HARD Pig Farm Pt:11 BAD MOTHER-TRUCKER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI84FSCccHU&t=89s
User avatar
Dexzilla
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:39 am
Location: The Shire

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Dexzilla »

DirectCedar wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:02 pm So my questions for Realismus or for anyone who has already gone through this:
10 Pigs eat this much: (on xbox) per season not per 'day', by my figures you pig should have eaten 575l corn in those 5 transitions

Image

Note the 3 day capacity in the troughs is based on the current season, so full troughs at 11.59 will maybe be emptier or over full at midnight if the season changes. Don't worry you do not lose anything that becomes over the limit due to this and bales will overfill troughs too so long as there's enough missing for it to take a bale.
The trough counters have never been an exact science. You can fill them with '3 days worth' before you have any animals and it doesn't seem to sort that out until herds a Big. This is the same in vanilla.
Yes piggin is tough..but only in that it makes you get ingenious and do other stuff...... breed pigs for love and interest, not just for the £$£ (sorry no euro on my keyboard, not a Brexit thing!)

My Goldcrest seasons pig farm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP6RzxjwQIA&t=332s

Ep2 up later
Last edited by Dexzilla on Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
XBOX YouTube:
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Cow Care and Cattle Calculations https://youtu.be/1LE5vF1b5v8
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Basic Forestry: The Wood is Good https://youtu.be/uKG1fEsLujs
Let's Play FS19 XBOX Ravenport HARD Pig Farm Pt:11 BAD MOTHER-TRUCKER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI84FSCccHU&t=89s
User avatar
Farmer216
Posts: 320
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2017 3:30 am
Location: Left Coast, USA

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Farmer216 »

Dexzilla wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:57 pm..not for the £$£ (sorry no euro on my keyboard)
Hold ALT
Type 0128
Release ALT

I play on Xbox3 (Which they called the "One" for some reason)
Addicted to Farm Sim since: 6-26-2k17
FS17@ 5,336hrs ~ FS19@ 3377hrs (updated 2.18.21)
User avatar
reallogger
Posts: 537
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 10:08 pm

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by reallogger »

DirectCedar wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:02 pm 1) Should the pigs be eating this much (~770L corn per pig over the winter plus one fall transition and one spring transition)? They do eat substantially more in winter than in fall or spring (as expected), but overall consumption seems very high.
2) Should they be consuming different feeds at different rates, or should troughs full at the same time all last the same time? This seems buggy.
3) Is it is a bug that productivity won't go above 76%? I am expecting a penalty for no straw and no root crops, but thought I should still get to ~85.
4) Is it a bug that I cannot clean the feeding area, and that it never visually appears dirty, but will only register 0% cleanliness? This is probably a map issue. Likewise if there is a cleanliness penalty because of this (there probably is) that would explain question 3 and 76% would make sense.
5) Does feed consumption and reproduction change non-linearly with herd size? I recognize this is a small herd of 11 animals. Is there a magic "critical mass" herd size in such a non-linear progression where the economics tip to make more sense?
1) Pigs will eat less in the next version. Has been mentioned quite a few times now.
2) Not something Seasons change so either similar in the base game or you have a dodgy mod that affects this
3) It should go to 100%, but it takes time. Keep them fed with all they need and you get healthy piggies
4) Map issue and has nothing to do with Seasons
5) Everything is linear
Dexzilla wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:49 pm Can I just 100% confirm that on PC the livestock buy prices vary with the financial graph? On my xbox pigs cost 3036 no matter the level, map or season, only the sale prices vary.
I do not think this is a big issue, just wondered?????
Yes we are aware there is an issue with the economy graph. Not heard about buy price being locked before though.
Last edited by reallogger on Tue Feb 20, 2018 11:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Corstaad
Posts: 406
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:14 am

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Corstaad »

In my hard play through its locked at 4600 buy per cow. Its been awhile but when I originally played my play through it was variable pricing.
DirectCedar
Posts: 1025
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2017 12:47 am

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by DirectCedar »

Dexzilla wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:57 pm
DirectCedar wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:02 pm So my questions for Realismus or for anyone who has already gone through this:
10 Pigs eat this much: (on xbox) per season not per 'day', by my figures you pig should have eaten 575l corn in those 5 transitions

Image

Thanks for this Dex this is a much more rigorous compilation of more or less what I am observing. Thanks also for your notes on trough capacity etc. I was aware of those traits but it is always good to have confirmation.

I just did a back-of-envelope tally based on your feed-for-10-pigs numbers and it looks like approx 15k in annual feed costs (not including water or straw) on Normal. 10 pigs in this one-year period I believe will produce 5 offspring (I have not run out a full year of pig reproduction on seasons yet to observe this, but this rate is mentioned a few times on the forum). So pig production for one year out of a breeding herd of 10 is something like $12500 (assuming selling close to the peak). That represents a minimum net loss of at least $2500 per year.

Of course that's sort of a relative loss and not necessarily an absolute loss. However it does mean coming home at the end of the year with less cash after doing all the pig work, than just having hauled in the grain directly to sale. It does though likely mean that if you were buying feed with cash money that you would be incurring ongoing real losses. Come to think of it that is what all my real life pig farming colleagues complain about most of the time :lol:

Dex I'm very interested now to watch your video; have to make some time tonight.

@reallogger: thank you a lot for your quick reply. Your team's mod is absolutely outstanding and I can't say enough good about it. Please don't interpret any of my discussion as criticism. I am aware it has been mentioned more than once that the next version will have modified pig production numbers. I am just working through the numbers in the current version of this really great mod to determine how to approach that part of gameplay.
User avatar
Dexzilla
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:39 am
Location: The Shire

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Dexzilla »

Corstaad wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 11:05 pm In my hard play through its locked at 4600 buy per cow. Its been awhile but when I originally played my play through it was variable pricing.
Which platform are you playing on?
XBOX YouTube:
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Cow Care and Cattle Calculations https://youtu.be/1LE5vF1b5v8
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Basic Forestry: The Wood is Good https://youtu.be/uKG1fEsLujs
Let's Play FS19 XBOX Ravenport HARD Pig Farm Pt:11 BAD MOTHER-TRUCKER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI84FSCccHU&t=89s
Corstaad
Posts: 406
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:14 am

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Corstaad »

I'm on Xbox one. When I switched to six days it went back to variable pricing at the animal dialog box.
User avatar
Dexzilla
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:39 am
Location: The Shire

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Dexzilla »

I am keeping an eye on mine. I glitched the prices last year but got them to go back to normal, the prices are now variable. I am xbox too
XBOX YouTube:
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Cow Care and Cattle Calculations https://youtu.be/1LE5vF1b5v8
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Basic Forestry: The Wood is Good https://youtu.be/uKG1fEsLujs
Let's Play FS19 XBOX Ravenport HARD Pig Farm Pt:11 BAD MOTHER-TRUCKER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI84FSCccHU&t=89s
User avatar
Beastbubba
Posts: 1176
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:09 pm

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Beastbubba »

Diden't see anyone else mention this:

Don't forget about using the pig manure in greenhouses. That will really help offset the cost, especially with seasons mod.
PC gamer.
User avatar
Dexzilla
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:39 am
Location: The Shire

Re: Pigs Profitable in Seasons mode?

Post by Dexzilla »

Beastbubba wrote: Fri Feb 23, 2018 5:11 am Diden't see anyone else mention this:

Don't forget about using the pig manure in greenhouses. That will really help offset the cost, especially with seasons mod.
Yes it may be a good top up, and I am thinking about the placeable fruit trees though their return seems a bit too (exploit) high compared to other 'in game' options ,and they seem 'counter-seasons' though I could just water then spring and summer, lol.
XBOX YouTube:
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Cow Care and Cattle Calculations https://youtu.be/1LE5vF1b5v8
Farming Simulator19 XBOX Basic Forestry: The Wood is Good https://youtu.be/uKG1fEsLujs
Let's Play FS19 XBOX Ravenport HARD Pig Farm Pt:11 BAD MOTHER-TRUCKER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI84FSCccHU&t=89s
Post Reply