Question about fertilizers

[EJgaming]

In fs17 I used oilseed radish, weeder after first stage and one spread of solid fertilizer. In fs19 I must admit I miss the three stages of fertilizer. So far in fs19 I have planted oilseed radish for the first or second fertilizer stage. For some fields I plant oilseed radish with a sower that also put in solid fertilizer. Other fields I sow oilseed radish without, and sow the crop after with solid fertilizer. With only two stages of fertilizer this is enough.

I've started with pigs, and will later start with cows. Atm I'm harvesting chaff for silage. So now as my pigs produce slurry and manure, and later cows, I get some issues with my routine and how to benefit from the manure and slurry. It will take more time preparing my fields with manure/slurry instead of the solid fertilzier. And the main thing, will it make any difference between solid fertilizer from the shop and slurry or manure? Does it affect the yield?

I've installed the slurry trader mod and the manure trader mod, mostly for sale, but also to ensure I have enough to put on my fields.

The only difference I can see is that manure and slurry is cheaper (produced from animals is free and from the slurry/manure shop is cheap). But other than that?

[Dubbelklik]

As far as the yield goes using solid vs. liquid, it won't matter. Fertilizer is fertilizer, and the bonus you receive doesn't change based on the type of fertilizer.

One trick I learned quite by accident is that if you first use either slurry or digestate on your fields and then immediately afterwards use solid on top you can double fertilize your fields without having to wait for that period of time in between the first and second fertilization to pass. It won't save any time, because you still have to do it twice, but at least you can get it done all at once. Note that this will not work with liquid fertilizer. Only slurry and digestate.

The biggest problems I have with this method are: 1) My cows don't produce enough slurry to spread on my fields every time I need to fertilize, nor do they produce enough to fertilize all my fields; and 2) the BGA is broken for me. I cannot feed the BGA with silage any longer to produce digestate. I don't know why. It just stopped working one day. So I'm stuck doing two applications of solid and waiting to do the second layer.

[EJgaming]

In help section ingame it says oilseed radish gives 30% bonus, in opposite to regular fertilizer (25% each stage), but it also adds/uses a growth stage.

I'm planning to do this for my fields with crop that require plowing after harvest:
1 Harvest
2 slurry spread
3 sow oilseed radish with a sower that also cultivates
4 plow oilseed radish after growth stage 1 (using a subsoiler)
5 plant/sow crop without fertilizer

To save time and a growth stage, maybe I should skip oilseed radish and directly plow after slurry spread. It's only 5% difference in bonus. Just have to finish with a planter/sower that also fertilize.

I hope giants goes back to three fertilize-stages, but maybe its more accurate to reality to only have two stages. Also they should add 30% bonus for slurry/digestate/manure like oilseed radish, and maybe improve the bonus for oilseed radish because it uses a growth stage and extra time and effort.

[asyvan]

I have tested yield on a field with multiple variants including using oilseed radish. It gives exactly same yield as fully fertilized using any other method. I think documtation is wrong or oilseed radish bugged.

[Eische]

In help section ingame it says oilseed radish gives 30% bonus, in opposite to regular fertilizer (25% each stage), but it also adds/uses a growth stage.

The content of the ingame help is just wrong. It is taken over from FS17 where we had 3 fertilizer stages, each giving 30% bonus.

Your plan in setting up the fields looks good. If you like oilseed radish, go ahead and use it.
Otherwise you can just follow this routine to save time/effort:
- spread slurry/digestate/manure
(- plow)
- sow crop using seeder that cultivates and fertilizes.
You will have both fertilizer stages after this.

At the moment this is working. Giants might change something to this, as it does not work if you spread solid fertilizer instead of slurry/digestate/manure.

[EJgaming]

I think I'm going to drop oilseed radish and use slurry instead. Not worth the effort, although I like the process. Have to change my routine around to something like this:

Harvest, (lime, cultivate), slurry, seeder which cultivates and fertilizes in one go
Harvest, (lime, cultivate), slurry, subsoiler, planter which fertilizes in one go

[asyvan]

Personally I think oilseed radish could benefit from a 5% buff. That would be an incentive to make the extra seeding run worth while.

[SJ_Sathanas]

I've never tried oil seed radish but i have assumed it takes longer as you have to wait for a growth cycle?
I don't like Digestate either as you burn through so much of it. Even with the biggest machines the constant back and forth to reload is a PITA.
I like spraying as I can just get a helper set up and leave them to it, save for the odd refill. Quick easy money from contracts too.
I'll be trying out dairy farming in this Pacific Northwest map for the first time and look forward to trying manure spreading.
I'd would be nice to move away from bought-in material for first stage fertilisation, though it will take a while to get enough cows on the go before I can rely on it.

[asyvan]

I've never tried oil seed radish but i have assumed it takes longer as you have to wait for a growth cycle?
I don't like Digestate either as you burn through so much of it. Even with the biggest machines the constant back and forth to reload is a PITA.
I like spraying as I can just get a helper set up and leave them to it, save for the odd refill. Quick easy money from contracts too.
I'll be trying out dairy farming in this Pacific Northwest map for the first time and look forward to trying manure spreading.
I'd would be nice to move away from bought-in material for first stage fertilisation, though it will take a while to get enough cows on the go before I can rely on it.

Slurry and digestate becomes real easy and fully automatic with Courseplay. If you are on PC.

[SJ_Sathanas]

Slurry and digestate becomes real easy and fully automatic with Courseplay. If you are on PC.

No I'm on Xbox but I'm not into automating the game anyway.

[asyvan]

Slurry and digestate becomes real easy and fully automatic with Courseplay. If you are on PC.

No I'm on Xbox but I'm not into automating the game anyway.

I like spraying as I can just get a helper set up and leave them to it

[Noraf]

Two or three slurry containers strategically placed around the field, fill them up, and you have less of an logistic run while spreading, though a bit longer to set up.
On smaller maps, I tend to do almost everything myself, on large maps I run a bigger operation, and use CP to some jobs. Spreading jobs I do myself. Having strategically placed fill points places around the field helps. For solid fertilizer and lime, I usually go for a truck with overloading capability. (I'm on PC, so have a nice big tender to use for solids) For weed spraying a tanker setup, and for slurry the slurry containers, two or three depending on field size.
For manure I use the fliegl overloading station, and run trucks hauling it to the field, and loading it up on the spreader with the fliegl.

[norfolk farmer]

I agree when you say you miss the 3 stage fertilisation from 17, I wish it was still that way. I guess it was altered for the addition of lime but that could have just been added to how it was.

[OlavEmil]

In fs17 I used oilseed radish, weeder after first stage and one spread of solid fertilizer. In fs19 I must admit I miss the three stages of fertilizer.

Umm... You can litterally do exactly the same now to maximize yield. The only difference is that the weeder will actually remove weeds, not "fertilize" the soil.

Sounds like a change that fits your playstyle perfectly.

[EJgaming]

Yea, i guess its time to enable weeds at some point.
Atm I'm doing slurry and that is a lot of driving for filling up the tank. Have to buy a number of those slurry tanks, so i can fill one tank, while another tank is spreading.

Have anyone researched the economy of buying slurry vs solid fertilizer? I realized that slurry may be cheap per 1000 liter, but you spend a lot of it on one field.