Precision Farming Help with Spreading/Spraying

Yoshubi
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Joined: Mon May 18, 2020 8:28 pm

Precision Farming Help with Spreading/Spraying

Post by Yoshubi »

Hi guys i just installed the Precision farming addon and Im trying to get my head around the PH and Nitrogen adjusting. First I ploughed my field and then used the lime spreader to change the PH level which worked great, however i then went to spread some manure, when i attempted to switch on the spreader it basically just emptied the whole contents of the trailer (16,000) in about a second. Not sure if this is a bug or i'm doing something wrong but any advice would be well appreciated

Map: New Felsbrunn
https://www.file-upload.net/en/download ... g.txt.html
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TheGazbeard
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Re: Precision Farming Help with Spreading/Spraying

Post by TheGazbeard »

Before you apply lime or nitrogen, you need to survey and analyse the field. To do this, you need ...

1. Place an RTK base station on your farm (there are 2 in the Precision Farming mod, or there are a few in mod hub which are cheaper and smaller to place).
2. AFTER placing the base station, survey your field - use youtube to learn how to use the PF mod's own survey tool, or use the Claas version in modhub (recommended - no survey fees each time you use it).
3. Lime can be spread without a crop seeded in the field - the mod tries to make the whole field ph7.0, which is the optimum.
4. Nitrogen (slurry, manure, liquid or solid fertiliser, digestate, catch/cover crop plough-back, etc) depends on the crop planted - with 2 exceptions ...
- Wheat always wants nitrogen value 200 (the max level) so fertilise away, you can never give wheat too much fertiliser.
- Soybean is nitrogen neutral - it doesn't care what the nitrogen level is, you can put it in the most or least fertilised soils and it still grows and yields good crop levels.
For all the other crops - seed first, fertilise after.

Make sure you have automated application level turned on (look in menu on HUD at top left of screen before turning on the spreader or sprayer)
You will sometimes be spreading your preferred fertiliser on a field and see the spreader/sprayer stop pumping it out - don't panic, it just means you're driving over a patch that's already fertilised to the max for the seed in the ground there.

Practice with it - it's a great system, and I never play a map without it now. I look forward to them adding "preferred soil type per crop", e.g. potatoes like loam, carrots like sandy soil, etc.)
My FarmSim farms on YouTube - Gazbeard
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LoneWolf5841
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Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:17 pm

Re: Precision Farming Help with Spreading/Spraying

Post by LoneWolf5841 »

TheGazbeard wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:10 am Before you apply lime or nitrogen, you need to survey and analyse the field. To do this, you need ...

1. Place an RTK base station on your farm (there are 2 in the Precision Farming mod, or there are a few in mod hub which are cheaper and smaller to place).
2. AFTER placing the base station, survey your field - use youtube to learn how to use the PF mod's own survey tool, or use the Claas version in modhub (recommended - no survey fees each time you use it).
...
You don't need the RTK base station in order to take survey samples I've took them without it. The RTK station only improves the efficiency of AI workers so it's not needed if you don't use helpers.

Game description of RTK Station in the help window.

RTK Station
"There are two new buildings available in the shop which have a RTK antenna on top. This Antenna provides a better GPS single for the helpers. As long as one of the new buildings is placed on the map, the accuracy of the helper is increased and they work up to 11% faster than before."
TheGazbeard wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:10 am ... For all the other crops - seed first, fertilise after.
....
The game recommends applying slurry or manure before preparing the field for the next sowing, you can see this in the help window under nitrogen value where it states

"The Nitrogen level can be increased by applying either fertilizer or manure.

Slurry or manure will increase the nitrogen level by a fixed value depending on the soil type. It is recommended to do this before preparing the field for the next sowing.

Mineral and liquid fertilizer adjusts the nitrogen level automatically to the crop requirements, if the crop is already planted. This should be done within the first growth states, after sowing the crop."

I've always took this as you apply slurry or manure first before planting then do liquid or mineral fertilizer after planting if necessary.
Do you not have to use slurry or manure? If not why does it recommended to do so and what benefit does it give?
Playing FS22 on PS4.

Thanks to all the modders for the wonderful mods they bring to consoles :hi:
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TheGazbeard
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Re: Precision Farming Help with Spreading/Spraying

Post by TheGazbeard »

@Lonewolf5841 - how many hours have you got in game? I notice you joined the forums a week ago, but that's no indicator of how long you've been playing.

All the quotes you made from the in-game help may be accurately quoted, but they are all guilty of error by omission too (that's Giants' fault, not yours).

E.g. they state that slurry and manure raise nitrogen by a fixed amount. That is absolutely not true. The player controls the application rate of slurry/digestate from the sprayer and could take a field from say 10kgN2/Ha to 200kgN2/Ha (prepping for wheat) in one pass over the ground as opposed to the standard increase of +40kgN2/Ha if left on automatic application.

Be careful quoting in-game help - not only does it say very little (and usually only 5% of what it needs to say), it has also been passed through translation engines several times. Do you trust auto spell checker on your phone to be accurate? It's also a reason there are so many youtube channels devoted to Farm Sim help, tips, and tricks.
My FarmSim farms on YouTube - Gazbeard
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LoneWolf5841
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Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:17 pm

Re: Precision Farming Help with Spreading/Spraying

Post by LoneWolf5841 »

TheGazbeard wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 4:33 pm @Lonewolf5841 - how many hours have you got in game? I notice you joined the forums a week ago, but that's no indicator of how long you've been playing.
I'm on console so can't see how many hours I have exactly in game but it's well over 500+ hours and I'm technically not new to the fourms I had an account previously but lost access due to forgetting the password and for some reason clicking the forgot password button wouldn't send me an email to change it. So I just created a new account.
TheGazbeard wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 4:33 pm All the quotes you made from the in-game help may be accurately quoted, but they are all guilty of error by omission too (that's Giants' fault, not yours).
Maybe that's true for some things but I know for a fact it isn't with the RTK station as I've took survey samples without it just fine and from my experiments it only speeds up the ai workers and reduce how much material they use when you have it, basically just as the mod states it does.
TheGazbeard wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 4:33 pm E.g. they state that slurry and manure raise nitrogen by a fixed amount. That is absolutely not true. The player controls the application rate of slurry/digestate from the sprayer and could take a field from say 10kgN2/Ha to 200kgN2/Ha (prepping for wheat) in one pass over the ground as opposed to the standard increase of +40kgN2/Ha if left on automatic application.
I've been applying slurry before sowing as the game suggests (excluding when I plant Soybeans since it doesn't need nitrogen) and it only adds a fixed rate depending on the soil of course I am using auto, turning auto off seems pointless on anything but nitrogen hungry crops because then you risk overfertilising.
TheGazbeard wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 4:33 pm Be careful quoting in-game help - not only does it say very little (and usually only 5% of what it needs to say), it has also been passed through translation engines several times. Do you trust auto spell checker on your phone to be accurate? It's also a reason there are so many youtube channels devoted to Farm Sim help, tips, and tricks.
Yes it doesn't tell you everything but that's on purpose precision farming isn't just about the soil it's about analytical data it doesn't show you everything because you're supposed to analyze the fields and data and determine yourself if you need to adjust how much fertilizer your using or what crops to plant next as crop rotation is important. If you plant something that adds nitrogen (like Soybeans) too many times in one field then your nitrogen levels could get to the max on that field meaning you'll need to plant something that wants as much nitrogen as possible, if you plant something that wants little nitrogen then you risk overfertlization.
As for watching videos I actually did and most I've seen says to apply slurry or manure first (depending on the crop you plan to plant) then after plant and apply your liquid or solid fertilizer to get all values to perfect for that crop. And that's what I've been doing and I've been getting perfect nitrogen levels each time.

I usually apply slurry, only, if the nitrogen levels are below 50kg/ha and again it depends on the crop I plan on planting i.e I won't apply slurry if I'm going to plant Soybeans. The whole point of using slurry or manure before planting is to save on fertilizer costs as slurry and manure is a lot cheaper than mineral/liquid fertilizer. If you're loaded with cash or using something like the government subsidy mod then you can completely omit the slurry/manure step and only use liquid or mineral fertilizer as those will get the values to perfect everytime anyway.
Playing FS22 on PS4.

Thanks to all the modders for the wonderful mods they bring to consoles :hi:
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