Grass harvesting/planting

[NDDan]

When I buy a [future grass] field, I plow it + rockpick to get rid of rocks, then seed and use a field roller, to get rid of "needs rolling" state. Then after each cut I use a grass roller, that bumps up the fert state and sets it to growing again, from harvested.

I tested grass rolling the other day...all it did was fertilize.

There is a difference between rollers and grass rollers. They are, apparently, not interchangeable.

If you roll a grass field immediately after planting, you will get a rolled state. This must be done with a regular roller, not a grass roller. The rolled state will remain, I think, indefinitely. So this would be a 2.5% bonus on every future cut until you till the land. Once the grass emerges you cannot roll it.

Regular rollers will not fertilize or reset the growth state. Only grassland rollers will do this.

Also, plowing and lime have no yield effect on grass. This is the same as FS19. The field info hud will say it needs plowing or lime, and the yield bonus will appear lower, but it does not actually affect it. You always get plow and lime bonuses on grass.

[Feirmeoir Eireannach]

Lovely thank you all, just skipped quiet a few months before it went back to growing stage

Are you playing with seasonal growth turned on or off, if by chance it's the latter you could set you're months to 1 day and then the grass will grow one stage every day.

[dan1109]

When I buy a [future grass] field, I plow it + rockpick to get rid of rocks, then seed and use a field roller, to get rid of "needs rolling" state. Then after each cut I use a grass roller, that bumps up the fert state and sets it to growing again, from harvested.

I tested grass rolling the other day...all it did was fertilize.

There is a difference between rollers and grass rollers. They are, apparently, not interchangeable.

If you roll a grass field immediately after planting, you will get a rolled state. This must be done with a regular roller, not a grass roller. The rolled state will remain, I think, indefinitely. So this would be a 2.5% bonus on every future cut until you till the land. Once the grass emerges you cannot roll it.

Regular rollers will not fertilize or reset the growth state. Only grassland rollers will do this.

Also, plowing and lime have no yield effect on grass. This is the same as FS19. The field info hud will say it needs plowing or lime, and the yield bonus will appear lower, but it does not actually affect it. You always get plow and lime bonuses on grass.

Yes, I know the difference. I stated "grass rolling" to indicate I used a grass rollER. We need to start using the term field or soil roller for "regular" rollers however, as it can cause confusion.

Seasons on, 2 day months - my behaviors observed

Grass rollers only fertilize 1 state, for free - haven't tested them on a non-grass field yet, - the only reason in fact I tried it was that I want to get the edge of my irregular shaped grass field...CP misses some spots. Same reason I need to buy a weeder for my non-grass fields.

Soil Rollers on a grass field, I get the 2.5% rolling bonus after I plant, but that's it. Harvest wipes it out, and it states needs rolling once back in growth state. I've also soil rolled on a grass field after harvest, and it did not advance the state to Harvested to Growing. It will however reset Ready for Harvest grass back to growing, if you wanted to do that for whatever reason.

I figured it didn't matter, but I did lime and plow my grass field the first time, just in case things changed in FS22. My grass field has shows that it does not need lime or plowing according to field info, nor has it returned after +18 harvests.

I don't really care to reset grass and harvest more than 3 times per year (people who have stated they can do this, claim 5 harvests a year) - my non-grass crop acreage is getting quite large now, so I'm busy every month. However, I still would like to know if you are indeed advancing artificially advancing your Harvested State to Growing state in the same exact month, by use of a soil roller. Or if getting the rolled 2.5% bonus after soil rolling a harvested grass field - I am not.

[NDDan]

Okay. I will use the terms "grass roller" and "Soil roller." I agree; it is kind of confusing.

I did some testing on my test plots, similar method to the herbicide and weeding tests I posted elsewhere. I made 4 identical plots, each exactly 1 hectare, with no plowing, lime, fertilizer, rolling, or mulching beforehand. I painted to get rid of the grass around the fields.

One field I mulched before seeding grass. Another I seeded and soil rolled the same month. Another I limed and seeded. Another I subsoiled and seeded. I did short cuts, since this is just a test and I wanted to fit each crop in one loading wagon. I've done two cuts so far, and they confirm that plowing and liming have no effect, the initial soil rolling effect remained for the second cut. Mulching had an effect only for the first harvest. Here's the data. Bonus percentage is in parentheses. It's based on 26,240 ltr/HA base yield for a short cut.

Mulched: 40,056 ltr (52.65%)/45884 ltr (74.86%)
Soil rolled: 40058 ltr (52.66%)/46661 ltr (77.56%)
Limed: 39325 ltr (49.87%)/45886 ltr (74.87%)
Plowed: 39333 ltr (49.90%)/45886 ltr (74.87%)

The numbers don't work out perfectly. I have done tests with small grains that do work out perfectly, but there seems to be something about grass where you get a little bit of variation. Regardless, you can see that only mulching and soil rolling had an effect on the first crop. Plowing and liming did nothing. You always get the plowing, liming, and weeding bonuses on grass (15%+15%+20%=50%). The jump in the second crop is due, of course, to the free fertilization, which was apparently 25%. Only the field that had previously been soil rolled received 2.5% above the other three. According to the soil map, the soil rolled state remained after the second cut as well. I am assuming this bonus remains until the soil is tilled again. It's interesting that this has not occurred for you.

I have not used a soil roller on grass after the initial planting. Out of curiosity, I tried soil rolling grass on my test plots after harvesting, and it did not fertilize. In my regular save game, I grass roll after every harvest. And yes, I do this the same month.

One last thing: the only month I have observed where grass rolling affects growth is November. If you mow in November, and do not grass roll, it will not advance a stage in December, but if you grass roll, it will. In my regular save, I mow full cuts in April, July, and October. However, It seems that you could also get full cuts in May, August, and November as long as you grass roll after you cut in November. Those who claim to cut five times a year probably are, but it's only 2/3 cut. I agree with you; I don't see this as worth it. You do everything two more times to get only 1/3 extra harvest.

[NDDan]

I have to correct my percentages. I was taking data from the wrong spot in the game file (data/maps/maps_fruitTypes.xml). The base yield for grass is 43,700 ltr/hectare for full cuts. A short cut (2/3 would then be 29,133.333). This gets my bonus percentages closer to exact numbers:

Mulched: 37.49%/57.50%
Soil rolled: 37.50%/60.16%
Limed: 34.98%/57.50%
Plowed: 35.01%/57.50%

So I was wrong about the free fertilization being 25%. It is 22.5%, which makes more sense as half of 45%. Apparently the automatic bonus for grass is calculated as 35%, not 50%. So we must be getting either lime or plow bonus for free, as well as the weed bonus. That doesn't really change anything in how we play the game, it just makes more sense of how the game calculates the yield.

[dan1109]

My game is from 1.1.0.0, perhaps it may have something to do with my initial rolling after planting not returning forever like yours.

OK, to clarify, you can only advance the cut 1 month, if you roll same month as Harvest, in November only, with a grass roller? Interesting. However, cutting and getting all of my bales off with time to spare with slow rolling would be quite difficult for me, probably not worth the effort because of all the other important stuff I have going on that late in the year. I just bought a grass roller, to manually roll/fert the field edges, which Course Play doesn't cover perfectly on all of the curves I have on my grass field. I'll try it out when I can and share if the results are the same as yours.

Just thought of another thing - the people claiming 5 cuts a year...the probably weren't playing with seasons enabled. I'm not sure how many seasons converts we have in FS22 - still a lot out there that just want to harvest every day - crop growth has certainly slowed them down, but oats and sorg take only 4 months...

[NDDan]

My game is from 1.1.0.0, perhaps it may have something to do with my initial rolling after planting not returning forever like yours.

OK, to clarify, you can only advance the cut 1 month, if you roll same month as Harvest, in November only, with a grass roller? Interesting. However, cutting and getting all of my bales off with time to spare with slow rolling would be quite difficult for me, probably not worth the effort because of all the other important stuff I have going on that late in the year. I just bought a grass roller, to manually roll/fert the field edges, which Course Play doesn't cover perfectly on all of the curves I have on my grass field. I'll try it out when I can and share if the results are the same as yours.

Just thought of another thing - the people claiming 5 cuts a year...the probably weren't playing with seasons enabled. I'm not sure how many seasons converts we have in FS22 - still a lot out there that just want to harvest every day - crop growth has certainly slowed them down, but oats and sorg take only 4 months...

Yeah. Technically, grass rolling always sets it from harvested to the initial growing stage. Every other month, it doesn’t matter in terms of growth, as harvested and the initial growing stage advance to the same stage. But from November to December, harvested does not advance, while the first growing stage does.

As for the five cuts, I think you could do it with seasonal growth on, but they’re all 2/3 cuts. If you grass roll in November, you could do 2/3 cuts in March, May, July, September, November. But that’s a lot of extra work for what would be only slightly more than three regular cuts.

My farm is not so big yet that I’m in a time crunch. I’m also doing 2 day months. I am slowly getting into more small grains, because grass all the time, as lucrative as it is, is getting boring.

[dan1109]

My game is from 1.1.0.0, perhaps it may have something to do with my initial rolling after planting not returning forever like yours.

OK, to clarify, you can only advance the cut 1 month, if you roll same month as Harvest, in November only, with a grass roller? Interesting. However, cutting and getting all of my bales off with time to spare with slow rolling would be quite difficult for me, probably not worth the effort because of all the other important stuff I have going on that late in the year. I just bought a grass roller, to manually roll/fert the field edges, which Course Play doesn't cover perfectly on all of the curves I have on my grass field. I'll try it out when I can and share if the results are the same as yours.

Just thought of another thing - the people claiming 5 cuts a year...the probably weren't playing with seasons enabled. I'm not sure how many seasons converts we have in FS22 - still a lot out there that just want to harvest every day - crop growth has certainly slowed them down, but oats and sorg take only 4 months...

Yeah. Technically, grass rolling always sets it from harvested to the initial growing stage. Every other month, it doesn’t matter in terms of growth, as harvested and the initial growing stage advance to the same stage. But from November to December, harvested does not advance, while the first growing stage does.

As for the five cuts, I think you could do it with seasonal growth on, but they’re all 2/3 cuts. If you grass roll in November, you could do 2/3 cuts in March, May, July, September, November. But that’s a lot of extra work for what would be only slightly more than three regular cuts.

My farm is not so big yet that I’m in a time crunch. I’m also doing 2 day months. I am slowly getting into more small grains, because grass all the time, as lucrative as it is, is getting boring.

Haha, just like me with 2 day months - playing 5x speed, work 5am to just after dark. My grass silage business, my initial investment, has brought me $1M/year in gross annual profits from day one. Its funded my expansion. At year 6 I'm up to about $700k gross annual profits from non-grass silage and productions. I think in 1-2 years, non-grass will overtake my grass profits, however with 3-4x the equipment, land, and time costs. Grass is still OP in FS22!

[deerefarm]

Now this is interesting and if it's already been pointed out I apologize. But I was quite happily making a ton of money off of silage on Elmcreek. As has been pointed out it's made me millions and funded a large part of my farms growth. Then the bug on Erlengrat made me take a look at my silage/grass operations. I had always assumed that by using the grassland care roller you got your free fertilizer state, and the field went back to 100% productivity. So I went back to Elmcreek and took a look at field 71 which had just been harvested and rolled. Sure it had the 100% fertilization state but the field's yield bonus was only at 98%. Why 98% and not a 100% I asked myself. Then it hit me. So I mulched the field after the next harvest, and then rolled using the grassland roller. Boom the field was back at 100% Yield bonus.
I always assumed that the roller did both, fertilize and mulch, after all why would it set the growth stage back if it wasn't mulching at the same time?
Have any of you noticed this?

BTW, thank you for the info on doing your last cut in October then waiting. I had already figured out 3 months was optimal but didn't have the right months worked out. October's perfect as it gives you a guaranteed 3 full cuts per year.

[dan1109]

Now this is interesting and if it's already been pointed out I apologize. But I was quite happily making a ton of money off of silage on Elmcreek. As has been pointed out it's made me millions and funded a large part of my farms growth. Then the bug on Erlengrat made me take a look at my silage/grass operations. I had always assumed that by using the grassland care roller you got your free fertilizer state, and the field went back to 100% productivity. So I went back to Elmcreek and took a look at field 71 which had just been harvested and rolled. Sure it had the 100% fertilization state but the field's yield bonus was only at 98%. Why 98% and not a 100% I asked myself. Then it hit me. So I mulched the field after the next harvest, and then rolled using the grassland roller. Boom the field was back at 100% Yield bonus.
I always assumed that the roller did both, fertilize and mulch, after all why would it set the growth stage back if it wasn't mulching at the same time?
Have any of you noticed this?

BTW, thank you for the info on doing your last cut in October then waiting. I had already figured out 3 months was optimal but didn't have the right months worked out. October's perfect as it gives you a guaranteed 3 full cuts per year.

I'm certain I tried to mulch harvested grass with no success as well (what's to mulch? it looks like a golf green after cutting, lol). However again this is my 1.1.0.0 game, it may have some bad carry over effects.

[cwattyeso]

Grass will regrow and can be harvested every 2 months. Fertilize right after harvesting and you will get your 100% fert and 95% yield, grass rollers are small and slow. Quicker to fert.

But using the Grasscare Roller forces the field straight back into Growing Status and provides the Fertiliser. This saves time waiting for the field to update from "Harvested" to "Growing" again on it's own time, and without the player needing to advance several days or months in game.

[paul_c]

Tip: rolling (with a grass roller) will get the fert status up to 100%. (Spreading fert won't do it).

Spreading fert won't do it

It doesn’t?
It always has, as long as it’s growing and not ready to harvest

Apologies for the confusion, now I've had a closer look, in fact you can fert the conventional way to bring fert status from 0-->50% and 50%->100%.

GRASS rolling is an alternative, ie its probably slower (narrower than a sprayer) and obviously you'd need to buy the roller, but it has no additional supplies costs. Now, I'm not sure if its possible to roll twice in a row (ie if you needed to go from 0% fert to 100% fert status). I suspect not, because the second rolling would "reset" the grass to its previous state (you can't roll growing grass, only just cut grass). Also, I don't think 0% fert grass ever reaches the ready-to-harvest state, so it would be a "first time only" thing anyway, not ongoing (to roll/fert twice).

[paul_c]

Grass will regrow and can be harvested every 2 months. Fertilize right after harvesting and you will get your 100% fert and 95% yield, grass rollers are small and slow. Quicker to fert.

But using the Grasscare Roller forces the field straight back into Growing Status and provides the Fertiliser. This saves time waiting for the field to update from "Harvested" to "Growing" again on it's own time, and without the player needing to advance several days or months in game.

Does this mean you can cut (harvest) grass, and in the same month roll it, then the next month its ready to harvest again? Its not my experience, it always needs at least 2 months even if you grass roll instead of spray/spread fert conventionally.

[dan1109]

Tip: rolling (with a grass roller) will get the fert status up to 100%. (Spreading fert won't do it).

Spreading fert won't do it

It doesn’t?
It always has, as long as it’s growing and not ready to harvest

Apologies for the confusion, now I've had a closer look, in fact you can fert the conventional way to bring fert status from 0-->50% and 50%->100%.

GRASS rolling is an alternative, ie its probably slower (narrower than a sprayer) and obviously you'd need to buy the roller, but it has no additional supplies costs. Now, I'm not sure if its possible to roll twice in a row (ie if you needed to go from 0% fert to 100% fert status). I suspect not, because the second rolling would "reset" the grass to its previous state (you can't roll growing grass, only just cut grass). Also, I don't think 0% fert grass ever reaches the ready-to-harvest state, so it would be a "first time only" thing anyway, not ongoing (to roll/fert twice).

0% fert? I've never seen a grass field like that. After I cut at 100% fert ready to harvest, to it goes to harvested at 50% fert. I then spray it same month (even though not in growing state yet) to get it back to 100%.

[paul_c]

0% fert? I've never seen a grass field like that. After I cut at 100% fert ready to harvest, to it goes to harvested at 50% fert. I then spray it same month (even though not in growing state yet) to get it back to 100%.

See viewtopic.php?f=963&t=187105

An example is fields 1 and 15 on Erlengrat. I have it on "hard" settings, don't know if this is significant or not. Frustratingly, a few of us have identified its not growing back due to 0% fert but nobody yet has said "do this, to make it grow and be ready to harvest". I'm plodding my way thru August and still have a few more jobs to do, then I can go into September (another busy month, will be a few days IRL to get thru). It might come good in Sept but I suspect it will be October before I know conclusively.