How is it after the first day

george.earlslight
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Re: Some tips on Seasons crop rotation - Possible spoilers

Post by george.earlslight »

fenixguy wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 2:24 pm Now we just need a good GEO that supports cotton
I guess Estancia would be the first
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aklein
Posts: 848
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Re: Some tips on Seasons crop rotation - Possible spoilers

Post by aklein »

Some food for thought related to starting a map.

On Ravenport on New Farmer all of your starting fields are the equivalent to a blank slate. All of them show up as Fallow for the past two cycles. No mater what you put in the fields the first time around you will get a bonus for them being Fallow the previous years. This does not hold true with purchasing an AI field or what you might experience with respect to your starting fields on other maps.

When you purchase a field or start a map that had crops in the fields prior to you taking ownership you have two choices. One choice is to ignore what the other farmer did to the field and just start your desired rotation but be aware that your not starting from a blank slate your starting with a field that was already in some sort of rotation itself so there may be yield loss until you have at least one fallow year and you wont have a total blank slate until two consecutive fallow years.

The second choice is to be aware of what was indeed in the field for the last two cycles and if possible see where that might put the field within your own desired rotation and slot your planting of that field to best match the perceived rotation the field was already in. This would provide a better yield on the field but might be less convenient. Of course paying attention to the last two crops on a field may also then somewhat drive your purchasing decision for land. In being aware of which plot of land is in what stage of a given rotation and buying the plot that would bet fit your needs based on its existing rotation schedule.

Then of course you could just totally ignore rotation and plant crops how you want. But do be aware that even though your ignoring the rotation concept the mod is not and will provide yield gains or losses based on the rotation formula.
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aklein
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Re: Seasons, soil temperature, and germination

Post by aklein »

As Guil pointed out in Seasons 19 there are more factors to base planting on.

First, what is the ground temp. How likely is the ground temp to get to the minimum threshold during the planting schedule. Germination will not occur until the ground temp is at least the minimum and it is still within the planting schedule, that is what is the same as compared to seasons 17. But in Seasons for 19 we also have the chance that if the seed is in the ground for to long it may rot and thus have failed germination or the ground moisture may to be to low (below 12%) and some of the field may not germinate due to drought conditions. This depends on the drought resistance of the particular crop you are putting in the ground. The final aspect is what is the likenesses of a late frost or early frost if planting in late autumn. Unlike 17 just because you planted the field when the temps where right and the calendar said it was a good time to plant it does not assure you success.

For example on a map I am playing now I could plant Wheat, Oats and Canolia once the ground temps get to 41F but the fields moisture is 10% which is drought conditions. The weather forecast shows rain likely within the next day and a half. This will for sure raise the ground moisture to a level that would more likely assure a better germination chance for the fields. As such I am waiting to put the crops in the ground until the conditions are more optimal. Of course if the planting was up against the end of the planting seasons one might not have that luxury.

In summary if you push the planting to less than optimal conditions do not be surprised to see some portion of the field fail to germinate or move from an early stage of growth to harvested to represent failed crop. Depending on how much it was pushed it could be a small % of the field or a large % but crop failure is very much a possibility at anytime.
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aklein
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Re: Seasons and LS-modcompany mods

Post by aklein »

As an update I tossed in the animal screen extension last night. worked great. I could buy 40 cows very easy and it showed 40/125 to that mod is a great way to see how many animals you have in any given pen.
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theMavric
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Re: Seasons, soil temperature, and germination

Post by theMavric »

aklein wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 2:53 pm
Great info! Thanks!
Missouri-born, Tennessee-raised, Texas-lost
bossmanslim
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Re: Some tips on Seasons crop rotation - Possible spoilers

Post by bossmanslim »

My thoughts on this after playing with the rotation planner.
  • Soybeans seem virtually impossible to get about 90% yield unless you leave land fallow. Even then the minimum I saw was 90%, meaning fallow to soybeans would need to yield 180% to justify loss of one years crop. It looks like soybeans are a support crop more than anything as you can put them in, take a 10% yield hit and then get 20% bonus on the following two crops.
  • Leaving land fallow is a waste of resources because in order to get the land to break even it would need to 2x the minimum yield of the crop. As i didn't look a root crops, this may be the only area that it works.
  • The UI is a little weird, but basically it should be labeled prior to previous crop, previous crop, current crop, next crop, etc. Once you understand this it is much easier to understand that you have to enter the field history and are basically working on the 3rd and subsequent entries as to what you need to plant. It also is a loop, so entries into 4,5 and 6 affect item 1. I watched many a streamer struggle with this and it is very hard to explain via chat.
Rotations I like:
  • Grass, Grass, Cereal (wheat, barley, oat) - good for supporting livestock. I think the yield works out to 120%, 108%, 120% assuming it is looped. Grass can be replaced by cotton in geo that supports it for those who want to farm it.
  • Soybean, Canola, Cereal (wheat, barley, oat) - everything can be planted using a seeder and the yield is 90%, 120%, 120%. You give up 10% soybean yield for plus 40% yield on the other two crops
  • Soybean, Sunflower, Corn - same as above only for those who don't mind tillage and are farming with planters.
bossmanslim
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Re: Seasons & Irrigation

Post by bossmanslim »

Can you turn off the water requirement portion of seasons? No drain tile and no irrigation makes it a bit too random for me; especially once other Geos roll out.
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reallogger
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Re: Seasons - Fallow Fields

Post by reallogger »

Strictly speaking it is the harvesting that is the trigger.
kintino
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Re: Some tips on Seasons crop rotation - Possible spoilers

Post by kintino »

Very valuable tips, I'm noting in notebook for consultation. :lol: :lol: :lol:

curious to know how it will work crop rotation with sugar cane, is usually replanted sugar cane every 4 or 5 crops depending on the quality of the land, at least it works like this in Brazil
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Beastbubba
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Re: season-contract equipment has zero durability

Post by Beastbubba »

1. The condition of the harvester/header have no effect on yeild. Just the speed of the vechicle.

2. Unless for some weird reason seasons is affecting them, contract vehicles do not lose any durability. Since seasons made changes to durability and repaint, it's possible but I havent tested yet.

3. From my exp, the condition of contract equipment has not affected it's speed. They have all worked at full work speed.
PC gamer.
abright12
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Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:16 pm

Re: Seasons and animals

Post by abright12 »

At what point do cows begin producing milk? I let them fall to around ~57% efficiency when setting them up and I'm not getting a drop. Have hay in there now so I should be seeing the efficiency come back up to 75 but it's rising quite slowly. I'm currently in late spring.
OlavEmil
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Re: Seasons - Testing snow ingame?

Post by OlavEmil »

Has anyone successfully added snowmask to a map themselves? I gave it a try today, following the instructions in the manual, and was able to paint the seasons info layer in the editor, but when using the rmAddSnow command, I get snow everywhere, including where I have painted the seasons info layer / snowmask.
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aklein
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Re: Seasons and animals

Post by aklein »

This is going to take some experimentation as there are many factors that go into the consumption of food with seasons. In 17 it was a simple calculation each cow consumed X amount of food in Spring and Y amount in Summer, Z amount in Autumn and Q amount in Winter so it was simple math to calculate out. Mix the graze functionality into it then it gets a little more complex as grass growth is governed by the geo either base game or addon. There will likely be GEOS that provide shorter or longer grass growing cycles. There can be geos where grass grows quicker than others and for the graze functionality if your just counting on grass to feed cattle then knowing when grass starts and stops growing and how quickly it can grow will be a factor as well as the overall consumption needs.

Being added to the variability is the different breeds which could consume at different rates as a base starting point but also will consume different amounts of food over their lifespan based on weight. A bigger animal will likely consume more per day than a smaller one. A cow who is pregnant will likely consume more than a cow that it not carrying a calf. All of this goes into variability that will make it hard to say exactly what is the max number of cows you can have in either size in game cattle area to be able to live off of grass alone from late spring to early winter. Cattle will need to be supplemented from mid winter to mid spring for the base geo as that is a time that grass growth is knocked back to a stage that it can not be cut/consumed. Each geo can have different grass schedules so some geos may require longer supplemental feedings over others.

Add the potential for different cow enclosures that are larger and would then have the potential to have more grass in them and all the in game amounts go out the window. So as you can see Seasons takes the certainty out of the game and adds risk and uncertainty. Seasons is what makes the game come alive IMO.
Jballak9197
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Re: season-contract equipment has zero durability

Post by Jballak9197 »

Not every farmer has new equipment. I'd say it's just more of the realism added to the challenge of the game.
Hebrews 6:7. Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.
Jimbob0704
Posts: 309
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2019 10:55 pm

Re: Seasons and animals

Post by Jimbob0704 »

Yeah its all exiting stuff, really can't wait for this, so you PC players! Get bug finding so I can get this asap !
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