Findings About Grass Growth Stages

makrom
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Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by makrom »

I just did some experimenting regarding grass growth mechanics and cycles, the following is what I concluded (I underlined what I consider the most interesting findings). Please feel very free to point out any mistakes I made.


Disclaimer
  • Only applies to "field grass" (created by cultivating a field and then planting grass).
  • Seasonal growth enabled, 1 day per month (default setting).
  • FS 1.5 and Precision Farming 1.0.1.0.

Growth stages
  • In general, grass growth is advancing 1 stage per month.
  • After harvesting, grass neither requires cultivating nor seeding to regrow.
  • When harvested, it is at what I will call stage 0, shown as "harvested".
  • At stage 1 it is "growing".
  • At stage 2 it is "ready to harvest" and has a deep green color (longer than stage 1 but similar color).
  • At stage 3 it is still "ready to harvest" and yields 50% extra. The only way to see the difference is by looking at the grass, it is denser than at stage 2 and has a yellow/bright green color.
  • When grass rolling at any stage (not soil rolling), it will be set to stage 0.5, also shown as "growing" (the same applies for cultivating/seeding grass)
  • Stage 0.5 will advance to stage 1, just like stage 0.
  • Exceptions when it does not grow 1 stage per month:
    - There is no growth at all from December to January and from January to February.
    - From February to March, growth can only advance from stage 1 to stage 2 (so neither from 0 or 0.5 to 1 nor from 2 to 3).
    - From November to December, the only possible growth is from stage 0.5 to stage 1, and grass at stage 3 will get downgraded to stage 2.


Strategies/cycles
  • The maximum total yield per year is 10 months worth of growth, requiring 4 harvests: 2 harvests at stage 2 and 2 harvests at stage 3 (alternatively 5 harvests at stage 2, but requires more work, fertilizer and lime for no benefit).
  • You can harvest at any month as long as the grass is in the corresponding stage. But in order to get 10 months of growth one harvest has to be in November, and that month it has to be rolled to stage 0.5 after harvesting.
  • You can combine 2 full cycles (stage 3 harvest) of grass with 1 cycle of oat. The only way is planting oat in April, harvest it and seed grass in August, harvest and roll in November, harvest grass and seed oat next April. This is far more profitable than any other cereal crop, plus you should be able to use synergies with your foraging/baling hardware for straw. It will require more seeds and work than having dedicated fields for grass and cereals, but you will get a lot more money out of your land compared to just growing cereals.
  • Alternatively you can harvest 3 times at stage 3. Downside is you only get 90% of the yield. Upside is you require less work, fertilizer, lime and you can harvest in October with no need to roll to set it to stage 0.5 (if you harvest in November you will still need to roll as you will miss 2 growth stage advances if you don't).
  • If you don't apply lime after every harvest, yield only goes down by a small amount (seems to be around 1% per skipped cycle, cumulating). But since the amount of lime required for reapplying increases linearly with every harvest, you don't spend more lime if you reapply more frequently, it just requires more work. This should apply to any crop, not just grass.

Further research
  • Can grass be mulched (most likely not)
  • Does grass benefit from mulching when switching from a mulchable crop to grass (likely yes)
  • Does soil rolling increase yield (probably yes, but can only be done right after it was seeded)
  • Does grass rolling have an effect now (other than putting it to stage 0.5 in November. Nitrate levels still seem unaffected, just like in PF 1.0)
Rasping rabbit
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Re: Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by Rasping rabbit »

makrom wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 10:21 pm The only way to see the difference is by looking at the grass, it is denser than at stage 2 and has a yellow/bright green color.
I’m fairly sure that if you look at the growth stage on the main map it will show different colours/shades depending on the growth.
makrom
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Joined: Sat May 07, 2022 2:14 pm

Re: Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by makrom »

Rasping rabbit wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 10:40 pm
makrom wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 10:21 pm The only way to see the difference is by looking at the grass, it is denser than at stage 2 and has a yellow/bright green color.
I’m fairly sure that if you look at the growth stage on the main map it will show different colours/shades depending on the growth.
I was thinking about that, but unless I'm mistaken (which is quite possible, mind you) this is not the case. There is no differentiation between the 2 "ready to harvest" stages, likely because grass is the only crop which has this distinction. But perhaps I'm looking at the wrong map?
Rasping rabbit
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Re: Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by Rasping rabbit »

makrom wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 10:57 pm
Rasping rabbit wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 10:40 pm
makrom wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 10:21 pm The only way to see the difference is by looking at the grass, it is denser than at stage 2 and has a yellow/bright green color.
I’m fairly sure that if you look at the growth stage on the main map it will show different colours/shades depending on the growth.
I was thinking about that, but unless I'm mistaken (which is quite possible, mind you) this is not the case. There is no differentiation between the 2 "ready to harvest" stages, likely because grass is the only crop which has this distinction. But perhaps I'm looking at the wrong map?
I can’t be sure about the yellow stages of ready to harvest. In previous versions there were different shades of yellow. Also the field info in fs19 said that the grass was ‘ready to harvest’ even when the map had the grass in the dark green stage, so one stage before it was ‘harvestable’ on the map screen. As you say, I could be wrong and it could be different on fs22.
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this_is_gav
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Re: Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by this_is_gav »

In FS22 base-game grass definitely shows as harvestable (yellow) at the earliest point which it can be cut, not the best time for it to be cut. To judge grass it's probably best to cut a little of the meadow grass around the the field (if there is any) at the same time as the field itself and wait until it flowers again - then it will mean the grass in the field is at a state suitable for mowing again.
makrom
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Re: Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by makrom »

this_is_gav wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 11:30 pm In FS22 base-game grass definitely shows as harvestable (yellow) at the earliest point which it can be cut, not the best time for it to be cut. To judge grass it's probably best to cut a little of the meadow grass around the the field (if there is any) at the same time as the field itself and wait until it flowers again - then it will mean the grass in the field is at a state suitable for mowing again.
Yes, though it also looks like that at the later harvestable stage. Just for reference, this is what it looks like for me in both cases:
Image

As for using the flowers in meadow grass as reference, this should probably work well, but I wonder if it also works for getting to the first growth stage in December when being rolled in November.
However, once you know what to look for, the difference should be fairly obvious. This is the early (low yield) harvestable stage (called stage 2 in my initial post):
Image

Whereas this is the later (maximum yield) stage, which I referred to as stage 3:
Image
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johndc_92
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Re: Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by johndc_92 »

I could be wrong here but I think waiting for the later stage of ready to harvest might make the season's overall yield less compared to harvesting it early in the first stage of ready to harvest. You probably have to wait for another 1-2 months to see it fully grow to its final stage.

I havent tested it yet but that could be the case and you guys can correct me if Im wrong. Its strange how I havent seen a lot of people or tutorials talk about it.
NDDan
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Re: Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by NDDan »

To get it to grow again after a November cut, you can use a weeder instead of a grass roller, thus saving a lot of time.
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NDDan
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Re: Findings About Grass Growth Stages

Post by NDDan »

And, yes, grass can be mulched. And, if I remember correctly, this might also accomplish the growth reset needed after a November cut.
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