Setting up a new farm from scratch is never easy, and with FS19 options to start with just a pile of money and nothing else it makes the mountain of choices overwhelming. Since I am on PC for FS19 rather than Xbox, I decided to create a test profile, load it with stupid money ($250m – because I can), and do some testing. This simple spreadsheet is the result so far of a work in progress, but I think it’s at a point worth sharing with anyone interested.
The Goal is to help the user make business decisions about which fields and crops will be most profitable. I tried to make it as ‘scientific’ as possible, therefore there are variables included and excluded as outlined below:
Inclusions
- Settings - Crop destruction set off, lime/plow, and fertilizer states are on.
- Test Field - All crops planted in an unaltered field 15 on the Felsbrunn map. Selected for its relatively small size, rectangular shape, reasonably easy working area for workers (I vastly underestimated the incompetency of workers), and nice scenery for me to look at while testing.
- Equipment Condition - Each piece of equipment was repaired after each use to ensure no loss due to condition.
- Field Prep - Each crop was planted after applying lime and subsoiling/cultivating ensuring that each crop was planted with equal field preparation.
- Work Method - Most work was done by workers and I just came in afterward and finished the bits where they missed. I verified once the crop was growing that the entire field was planted.
- Fertilization - Each crop was fertilized at planting by the sower, and again during the 2nd growth stage to 100%.
- Weeding - Each crop was weeded to 0%.
- Harvesting - No crop was left in the soil, 100% of each test planting was harvested.
- Fertilizer/Lime quantity – unlike seeders which don’t put seed in the ground outside of field boundaries, or inside if there is already seed (of the same type) there, spreaders will continue to spray fertilizer anywhere they are, field or not, fertilized or not. For this reason, I didn’t measure fertilizer because overlap depending on field size vs. spreader reach, cleaning up after sloppy workers, and just the simple fact that probably anyone is more efficient at spreading fertilizer.
- Crop Value – since this changes from time to time I figured it was futile, maybe at some point I’ll take time to collect data and graph each yield to prices, but the quantities are there, a little calculator work is required to figure out the rest.
- Mods – None whatsoever, not even my preorder Mahindra Retriever.
- Expanding Fields - I did not take into account any potential for expanding fields – just too many variables.
- Maps/Fields - It is assumed that there is no difference in productivity based on field, or map when the field is properly prepared, and the crop is adequately cared for. That if an x acre field produces y crop, a 2x acre field will produce 2y of the same crop cared for in the same way. This seems promising based on my test in Field 16 which was close to projected quantities (see spreadsheet).
- Equipment – It is assumed that there is no difference in yield based on equipment used so long as it is appropriate for the task (Amazone planter vs. Seedhawk etc.).
- All figures are based off a normal mode game, if the seed price is different in the other modes you can easily change the purchase cost in the excel spreadsheet.
- I got the field sizes from a google search, let me know if one of the sizes is wrong.
- In the spreadsheet, select the map from the Map dropdown. In the current state I only have the base game maps (Ravensport and Felsbrunn).
- Select the field number from the Field drop down list.
- The spreadsheet should predict your seed usage and yield within a reasonable margin of error!
- Use the spreadsheet to evaluate field purchases before making them for maximum profitability and before deciding what to plant and what equipment to buy.
- If I were to do it again, I would turn off autosave and only save after lime and plow, then sow and harvest, exit and come back in again (just in case anyone wants to try to build on this base).
- I’m not done with this yet, I still plan to do grass and wood chips as well as other forage crops, but I will be away from FS19 for a little bit while moving so putting this out there for anyone who can use it and feel free to add on and modify the spreadsheet and share as you wish.
I’m stuck at sugar cane (hence not filled in). Trying to harvest the sugar cane has proven to be the most frustrating experience I have ever had in FS. Every time I hire a worker he/she goes off in a random direction. When they do go into the field they keep starting and stopping all the way down the row, and instead of turning around try to back up all the way the whole length only to get confused and start heading off in a random direction again. Anyway, assuming that will get fixed by the time I get back on and maybe it will work then, for now I have just wasted 3 hours of my life in frustration. ~rant off~
- Bear in mind that this ‘calculator’ may not be perfect accurate, but it should at least give you a relative comparison of different crops.
I guess I could have saved myself a bunch of time had I found it first. Just doing a quick check of Wheat, he says he got 28,379 liters out of field 19, my spreadsheet predicts 27,839 which I would put within the margin of error (+/-5%). I am definitely going to do some more testing, probably need to buy field 19 and see if I get the same results as him. Thanks for the link, it helps make it feel more scientific.
