Grass harvesting/planting

[cwattyeso]

For grass, the yield per square meter is 4.37 if you mow it, because the mower leaves it as a windrow. It’s another value in the xml file, just a few lines down. I suspect if you use a forage harvester with a direct cutter head, the 3.28 liters would apply.

I have changed both values to match in my custom xml. So for me Litres Per Square and Windrow values for Grass and Meadow are set to 8.75. I never use a forage harvester for cutting grass, only use a mower, so that would make no difference to the yield. It also would not effect the outcome or failure of baling contracts to complete, as baling contracts never offer you a forage harvester to undertake them, they only ever loan you mowing equipment.

[dan1109]

Well now - Spring is here and my November cut grass was still in harvested state and the 4m grass roller I bought to cleanup CoursePlay spraying misses along the field edge was used to attempt to grass roll the field in this state. It worked. It transitioned from harvested to growing immediately. It was however fully fertilized, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. I'll roll this entire field this time. Getting a full cut in May for me instead of a half cut (ok, its technically 2/3 of a cut) is worth about $150k in aditional silage sales, so definitely worth the time even if I used 2 small tractors with AI workers and buy the 6m grass rollers. hehe, and it is indeed tempting to try to do this as often as possible using Course Play which I have been using and testing with grass silage baling since it came out.

Here is an update of current courseplay 7.0.0.17 with grass silage baling:

Mowing - works incredibly well, missing only a handful of spots (need to set lower tool to early) - I use BigM450 however, because of its beautiful swathing during turns - tractor pulled mowers will miss many more spots on turns...massive headland overlap would probably be required to prevent this. Stock AI hardly misses spots with the BigM450 and misses many with towed mowers, just like CP.

Baling works VERY well - the only problem I have is that my grass field has nearly up to a 30 degree incline at north field edge (greedy, trying to get biggest field I could) - this causes CP and even GPS to get out of alignment between the baler and the grass swath from the mower. I believe it has something to do with the "altitude" and the fact that the mower is so much faster than the baler, causing a difference. With grass swaths on full cuts, baling requires incredible precision for alignment to prevent from leaving behind tons of product on the ground from missing a 0.75m width part of the swath, which happens with 10m wide full cuts because the swath is so dense. I even tried with GPS, perfectly aligning the baler...once moving and being perfectly straight, it baled perfectly and didn't miss a drop. However, next row, whenever I would turn on the north elevated part of the field, I would immediately start to miss that 0.75m strip of the swath on one side or another - manually, I could correct it early, and it would be fine for the rest of the row, but CP certainly doesn't correct that - considering CP can autodetect bales, they may be able to autodetect the swath, but I would think it to be a big effort to do that and get low priority. Again, this only happens if you have big elevation changes on large parts of your fields. From testing on field 71 on Elm Creek, it works perfectly. To fix my problem, I mod my balers to have a wider pickup width. It also extremely helps with straw baling as the combines will leave large piles when the slow down or stop to take turns. I don't however cheat the system, and use this wider pickup to make even larger swaths with a merger...I just want my grass fields to look like perfect golf greens after being cut and picked up.

Standalone Wrapping - I opened a feature request for CP to support the Standalone towed wrapper implements when CP first came out, and I just got an email from them that I could test it now. Its in the current main branch of CP (not in the current version of CP which is 7.0.017), so look for this to be in 7.0.0.18. Or you can unofficially download the main branch, however they won't support you. The stand alone wrapping using their bale detection algo worked extremely well. It does not require a course, rather a new option for wrapping/collection instead of first/nearest waypoint when creating the job. Just put the job on the field with that mode and hit start job, very simple. There were several bale collisions that I'm looking into, however most times it did turn to avoid collisions and never got stuck (I even had it running on the field while the baler and mower were going, several near collisions with the baler, haha). Its stopped perfectly when the last bale was made and shutdown...surprisingly it kept pace with the square baler, almost lurking and following the baler like a preying shark while baler made its last few bales. It was VERY cool. It doesn't auto unfold or re-fold when finished, small easy workaroundable issues that will be fixed quickly. There is room for improvement, but it may require a VERY different algorithm. I would prefer that the wrapper follow a course but use the bale detection algo to ensure alignment with the wrapper. Then there is less driving around by the wrapper, bales are ALWAYS dropped on the original course with the same alignment - I will suggest this, but it may get extremely low priority. The current algo has the wrapper driving around randomly seeming to scan for the nearest bale, which is never on the same row, so it was quite a chaotic course it took in the end, but surprisingly was very successful. You definitely want to pump up non-working field speed limit in this mode. It's very usable at this point in this state.

Collection - in the code for the main branch, there was mentioned that collection is not supported at this time. Heh, I tried it anyways using the Arcusin Square Baler loader. Wow, first 6 bales loaded perfectly. then it would approach a bale at a bad angle (detection algo doesn't seem to take bale alignment into consideration) and barely miss. The stock in game Arcusin bale autoloaders actually have a very small pickup window and range compared to modded autoloaders which can pickup from several meters away. Also, the alignment does seem to matter with the Arcusin in order to pick up the bale (which is ultra realistic as well). The collector would then try to turn around and try again, failing again over and over in almost every occurrence of this scenario. It had to be manually stopped, else it would do this forever. I have no reason to believe however that the Roland Modded autoloader and all future modded bale autoloaders will have any problems due to their large collection range and superior turn radius (the Arcusin has a poor turn radius comparatively due to the fact it has no front axel - great for reversing, poor for turning). Lastly, the autoloader would not transition from Transport to Operating position and visa versa at the start and end of the job - easy problem to fix, however as CP still does not notify you of a device being full, the collector continues attempting to pickup more bales even though it cannot, charging you worker costs, fuel, and equipment hours. I wasnt playing FS19 when this feature came out on CP6.x, so I have no idea what their intentions are once it is full. Deliver it to a spot off the field or on your farm? Immediately dump the large stack on the field? Lol, have a front loader automatically transfer them to a waiting Semi Trailer (that would be cool and realistic AF). I would consider it somewhat useful in this state, however as you can drive as fast as you want and collect bales, I think CP is a long way away from this being truly useful in an automated sense.

[paul_c]

I've always done baling and wrapping myself. Its kinda fun. For Elmcreek's field 71, I set off AI workers on the mowing and windrowing though.

[dan1109]

I've always done baling and wrapping myself. Its kinda fun. For Elmcreek's field 71, I set off AI workers on the mowing and windrowing though.

It does get old after 6 seasons, and my 40 acre grass field is now matched by several equally sized non-grass crop fields. I'll probably continue to do the collection manually so I can keep an eye on the money train.

[paul_c]

Its a balance, and its part of the game, I guess. I am running thru 2 game saves. One is in Elmcreek on easy settings. I figured that's a good place to start, and I've kept it going because the easy money gives chances to try things out and progress further and faster. The other is Erlengrat on hard settings. I'm finding I need to really think about the spending and money; and do everything myself, but for some reason its more captivating than the other.

Some fieldwork jobs are soothing and some are just plain boring though!

[dan1109]

Some fieldwork jobs are soothing and some are just plain boring though!

True, but after 3000 bales, its gotten boring to me

[paul_c]

Silaging is certainly a cash generator, and with the cheap/small equipment its not too onerous a capital outlay (approx £130k plus a 100hp tractor with loader). Obviously, the nice stuff like autoload trailers add to that.

It would be interesting if, on the hard settings, the way the price model depresses demand after a few years squashes the prices sufficiently so some other money-making scheme rises up as a better option. Then, it keeps the interest going long term.

[mort]

could you tell a newbie: is there a difference in the amount of collected grass when using forage harvester or mower?

[NDDan]

could you tell a newbie: is there a difference in the amount of collected grass when using forage harvester or mower?

I’ve never used a forage harvester for grass, but from reading the game file (data/maps/maps_fruitTypes.xml), it appears that using a forage harvester with a direct cut header would yield only 75% as much as if you mow it. More specifically, if you harvest it directly into the machine, the base yield is 3.28 liters per square meter. If you mow it (lays on the ground), the base yield is 4.37. I haven’t tested it to know for sure. I could be missing another factor. But that looks like how it works. And I have no idea why they would make it this way.

[NDDan]

Here is an update of current courseplay 7.0.0.17 with grass silage baling:
...

Thanks for the review of CP7, I have only tinkered with it a little. I haven't gotten big enough yet to really need other workers. So I have not even figured out how to do much with the new interface. With CP6 in FS 19, I was fairly pleased with how the bale loading worked. You would record a transport route from your field to your drop point (BGA, sell point, etc.). With reversing, it could even create a stack for you if you were storing it somewhere. In the field, it would scan for bales, pick them up until the trailer was full, and then switch to transport mode. It was a bit easier to use than the combi mode, but it sometimes failed to find bales if it was a large field or if they were over a hill. I'm excited to see what CP7 will eventually do. It blows my mind that modders create these cool things and give them away for free.

[mort]

could you tell a newbie: is there a difference in the amount of collected grass when using forage harvester or mower?

I’ve never used a forage harvester for grass, but from reading the game file (data/maps/maps_fruitTypes.xml), it appears that using a forage harvester with a direct cut header would yield only 75% as much as if you mow it. More specifically, if you harvest it directly into the machine, the base yield is 3.28 liters per square meter. If you mow it (lays on the ground), the base yield is 4.37. I haven’t tested it to know for sure. I could be missing another factor. But that looks like how it works. And I have no idea why they would make it this way.

thanks. console settings should be the same?

[dan1109]

Silaging is certainly a cash generator, and with the cheap/small equipment its not too onerous a capital outlay (approx £130k plus a 100hp tractor with loader). Obviously, the nice stuff like autoload trailers add to that.

It would be interesting if, on the hard settings, the way the price model depresses demand after a few years squashes the prices sufficiently so some other money-making scheme rises up as a better option. Then, it keeps the interest going long term.

My silage prices did start to fall year over year, but by season 4 they started recovering as I am now doing multiple crops. By year 6 I was back to $350/kL on medium...the highest I was able to get in the dark years was $330.

[Tay95]

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.

Its turned on

[NDDan]

could you tell a newbie: is there a difference in the amount of collected grass when using forage harvester or mower?

I’ve never used a forage harvester for grass, but from reading the game file (data/maps/maps_fruitTypes.xml), it appears that using a forage harvester with a direct cut header would yield only 75% as much as if you mow it. More specifically, if you harvest it directly into the machine, the base yield is 3.28 liters per square meter. If you mow it (lays on the ground), the base yield is 4.37. I haven’t tested it to know for sure. I could be missing another factor. But that looks like how it works. And I have no idea why they would make it this way.

thanks. console settings should be the same?

I would assume so. Can’t say any more than that.

[dan1109]

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.

I tried grass rolling in March, as my grass cut in November stays Harvested until April, where it turns to Growing Stage 3. The rolling indeed advanced it from Harvested to Growing Stage 1, however in April it still went to Growing Stage 3 rather than Harvest Ready. Not sure if the days/month could play a role in this or not. However, it looks to support your conclusions that if I cut in November, then I need to grass roll in November...which mostly I won't have time for. Who knows...CP now support square bale wrapping, and Collection with autoloaders. The Collector vehicle will stop when its full, so is very useful now...when towing the Ponge 24 and 32 bale trailers in tandem, my top speed is not great anyways, so I may let Course Play do the entire thing starting in early November, while I tend to all of the other critical late harvesting. Maybe I'll have time for rolling. The AI worker costs are trivial compared to the extra money I would make the next May when I cut again. And fortunately, the way I have setup things, only 1 tractor from my entire grass setup is needed elsewhere - for carting - but I should probably get a larger auger wagon and I have 3 larger tractors that are used for planting/tilling that are not used at the time.