Seasons - Weed Intensity Setting

[dogwalker1]

Hello,

With weeds on I did a test on whether herbicide was worth the expense. I did two run throughs from the same savegame - one spraying the whole field and one with no herbicide. The starting point was a field already at stage 1 growth. The herbicide was not worthwhile as the weeds in the no-herbicide run were very sparse at harvest time. In fact the herbicide cost more than the value of the crop lost to weeds.

Then I noticed the Seasons settings option to change weeds intensity - it was set to 20%. So I reloaded the savegame and did the no-herbicide run again with Weed Intensity (and also Crop Damage) set to 100% this time, and let the weeds run their course. The weeds did reduce yield further, but not by much. In fact still not enough to justify the cost of the herbicide to spray the whole field, without even taking fuel, equipment running & maintenance costs, or my time into consideration.

Compared to spraying the whole field with herbicide, crop loss without herbicide with Weed Intensity set to 20% was only 0.3%, and only about double that with it set to 100% - way less than I would have assumed...

What gives? Could it be the map I'm playing? (Ravensberg, Start from Scratch mode) Can map modders even change the way weeds work? (For what it's worth, I'm also using Precision Farming. The soil conditions in the test were optimum.)

Thanks,

[DEERE317]

Also, would run into year 2, I've heard that year 1 is set easy.

[dogwalker1]

Interesting... guess I'll have to do the test again in y2 to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Depends on what the price of your herb is (it can change on mod maps) and what your weed intensity setting is at if spraying is worth the money or not really. Fall seeded crops also have fewer weeds at harvest I have noticed because the winter kills them off. Spring seeded have more because they have more time to grow.

It's also a personal preference.

[Bryan83]

For my style, I usually spray shortly after sowing. A few will invariably pop up before I can get to it, but I'll leave those for a touch of realism. Most of the farming videos I watch on YT, it seems that no matter how much product they spray, some weeds always make it through.

[Crazof]

I tend to spot spray the day before the field turns to harvest if I spray at all.

[greenbelt]

I got a little hand hoe mod that costs $15.

[squerble]

Worth noting too that the game engine "plants" weeds when a field changes to "harvested" state, so definitely would be more noticeable into Year 2 as you'll (probably) have harvested fields towards the end of Year 1. This means it's best to spray just after harvest, or just after cultivation/planting, to avoid weeds coming up in the future.

[dogwalker1]

I got a little hand hoe mod that costs $15.

Lol, I will not do that on principle! I loathe hand weeding my lawn & garden irl - I'm sure I wouldn't do that on a farm.

Worth noting too that the game engine "plants" weeds when a field changes to "harvested" state, so definitely would be more noticeable into Year 2 as you'll (probably) have harvested fields towards the end of Year 1. This means it's best to spray just after harvest, or just after cultivation/planting, to avoid weeds coming up in the future.

Well that would explain what DEERE317 said above about it being easy on year 1... I'm probably going to run the test again on yr2 - just 'cause I'm a bit obsessive and need to put a number to the difference (even though I know the difference will be variable from harvest to harvest). As to when it's best to spray though... I'd say that's debatable? It's safe to say you need one application per crop regardless, and spraying at stage 1 I saw 0 weeds at harvest time.

[DEERE317]

With spraying it kills all weeds until it’s harvested again even spraying stubble. I spray sometime after planting depending on time.

[Bryan83]

I got a little hand hoe mod that costs $15.

Yeah I got that too, but soon found out that using that on Welker map is a lot like trying to fight a forest fire with a squirt gun.

[Cmtaylor]

Interesting... guess I'll have to do the test again in y2 to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks.

If i may add too this im a farmer my dad is returning from the farm this year so im taking over everything but running tests like this is common for farmers to do, like last year i did a population test with soybeans the population sets were 50k 75k 100k and 140k and the yeilds are as follows 50k=38 bushels to the acre 75k, 100k, 140k=45 bushels to the acre normally we get 55-70 bushels to the acre, but going to do the same test but in a larger field which is 3/4 of a mile long to see if there is a difference in a larger size to have a better result.