Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

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Hoffa82
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Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

Post by Hoffa82 »

Hello everyone.

I have a question about feeding my cows, and since I have no experience of cattle IRL I'm turning to the community once again.

Not to turn it in to a novel, here are the numbers.

20 dairy cows eating approximately 96 000 L feed per year, according to seasons info tab.
First cut from 3.5ha grass field yields approximately 200 000 L of fresh grass for the clamp.

So if I get at least one more cut, I can feed my cows for more then four years of 3.5ha.

As said, I have no experience IRL with cows, but does this reflect real life somewhat?
I understand that it can't simulate 100 percent how it works for real, but is this even close?

I run 12 day seasons, if that makes any difference.

I'v tried to educate myself, but the math is somewhat confusing when all real information is in tonnes and in game everything is in litre.

Thanks and stay safe.
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JensChrDK
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Re: Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

Post by JensChrDK »

I haven't got much real life experience myself - but first of all, 20 cows ain't that many..
Been playing WAAAAY to many hours - PC with Logitech G27 and Thrustmaster Simtask Farmstick
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Hoffa82
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Re: Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

Post by Hoffa82 »

Yes, I know 20 isn't many, but I'm starting small, and it's a small farm. I try to play somewhat realistic and I don't want to cram 200 cows into a tiny cowshed made for perhaps 40-50 max.
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JensChrDK
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Re: Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

Post by JensChrDK »

Then you could see it as if your field was made for 150-200 cows, and you don't have to cut it all.. Or cut it all, sell most and keep what you need for your cows.
Cause I feel your pain, you need a whole lot of animals to justify the fields we have in the game, they seem to give us much more than we need.
Been playing WAAAAY to many hours - PC with Logitech G27 and Thrustmaster Simtask Farmstick
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Hoffa82
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Re: Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

Post by Hoffa82 »

So I did some measurements and reading. The shed is approximately 300 sq m, and according to the info I found, around 10 sq m per dairy cow is recommended. So my shed can hold 30ish cows.

I'll look around the code and see if I can raise the food required per cow, because as it stands now, the lawn behind my farmhouse is enough to feed my cows...

If I calculated correctly, my cows eat 0,4 sq m feed per month, and even if I've seen different numbers around when trying to research, nothing that low has ever come up.
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Hoffa82
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Re: Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

Post by Hoffa82 »

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I do feel that I should need more then one day per four years with my trusty 309Ci and euroboss 330t to feed my cows. Seems too easy to me.

And by the way, again I'm saying this without any real life experience, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think 3.5ha across two fields are made for 150-200 cows.
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kahfs
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Re: Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

Post by kahfs »

I think 96000 liters per 20 cows is not enough. But it depends on how you think about it. If cows are not on pasture, you need to put all feed in the trough. If they are on pasture part of the year, you can reduce the trough feed.
I did some calculations on feed intake for dairy cows when developing the RealLifeNumbers mod. If we assume 10 dairy cows and each of them get a calf which we keep and feed for one year, the whole heard will need about 220000 kg/year or 650000 Liters per year. That is about 160 bales of 4000 Liters. I get about 51000 L grass per ha in my mod, hence I need 12 hectares or 30 acres for 10 cow-calf pair. This might be a bit too high. A rule of thumb says 1.5 to 2 acres of pasture per cow-calf pair per year (called Stocking rate, look it up for your part of the world). In Farming Simulator the pastures are way too small. So you should, to be realistic, feed all intake in the trough. That is a lot of feeding.
K. Henneberg/ArmChairFarming. Author of RealLifeNumbers (FS19, FS22)
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Hoffa82
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Re: Maize plus + Forage Extension + Precision Farming + Seasons cows feed rate question.

Post by Hoffa82 »

It's about the same here, the figure I found was 1,5 cow-calf pair per ha. So roughly the same, but please bare with me, I've been thinking about numbers all morning so my brain might have stopped working for today :lol:

I also understand that when playing with seasons, the days-a-year compression messes everything up, so if the daily consumption is real, the yearly is low and vice versa.
Maybe I just need to stop thinking about it and drive my tractor :biggrin2:

Or me and my rivet counting mind need to play with 90 days seasons :hmm:
(I know it's 91,3125 days, if we're counting rivets, but I'm trying to be "normal")
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