Welcome to 1982, somewhere in England..

[Phila]

Actually the Cotswolds, for which the Northern Coast map is just right (other than Er... having a coast!) in scale and landscape. I drove tractors and farmed sheep in my youth here and wanted to recreate/role play that , though with objective of owning the whole map. So Marty, if only Delorean made a tractor powered by lightning , let’s go...

Early summer and out with the MF675 to start hay making and the reliable old yard run about the MF135 on rake duty. The farm’s ‘big’ beast is a MF699 that just breaks 100 hp...

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Refueling at the old tank

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Those new fangled round balers are too expensive for me.... The baler is one of the many SIPMA balers which I made red as a fake MF , the other choice is the IH . The stacks are hand stacked, as you did if you if don't have a accumulator 'flat 8' sled.. Modders pls note! . The trailer is an autoloader for small bales only, it is a bit big really hard to manoeuvre in the small yard, a smaller single axle version would be good.

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[Phila]

Harvest - the cool kids are looking at Claas Dominators but I'm a MF boy...



I have a plain flat floor barn grain store (with a tip point in the far corner) , I need to reverse in and it is tight with the old shed (on right) in the way . That will have to go when I can afford it and get a nice new drive over grain pit. But for now , no big trailers.



I have no need for straw but this is pre chopper days so I sell the straw off in field to a straw merchant - he has a new round baler (I've since found a Claas Rollant which is more period) and I use the 'Store Delivery' mod to have the contractor arrive direct in the field. The contactor had an Ford 4000 but upgraded to TW10 as needed more grunt, and uses an ex-builders JCB as loader, which is exactly the set up our local straw man had for a while.

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[Phila]

Harvest over - I get a contractor in to do some deep subsoiling using the contractor's fave, a County. I then disc behind him to level the ridges.


It being the early 80's everything gets ploughed. (This is the exact set up I learnt on when x years old, x possibly being lower than strictly legal...) then disc'd down or tines run through it, no crumblers, rollers, compactors.



Then a coulter drill (this is a SZT drill painted red to make it close to a MF30 drill - modders, a missing classic). Filled by small bags of pallets and then 'Cambridge' rolls to push down the top and preserve moisture. And of course the good old MF135 as the tender.



And then a classic Vicon pendulum spreader

[Phila]

I'm growing a sheep business so winter is feeding, feeding and feeding, with bags of 'sheep pellets' on top of the hay.





Meanwhile winter is the time to sell grain. As I said before the yard is tight so like many yards we can't get an artic in there so the grain dealer sends a 8 wheeler Scania.

[Phila]

Anyway .. on verge of being able to afford more fields and buy more sheep so will have to ponder bigger kit, knock down that old building (with the editor) and see if I can fit in a 'new' grain shed or silo set up. I'll post more as this continues, any suggestions on suitable kit and building mods welcome.

[Spunky_Dogg]

I've always admired British farmers. It seems like such a challenging landscape to work the land. I'm enjoying this and will be following.

[Phila]

I’ve brought more land and getting it all ploughed is getting hard. So I brought a second plough and the MF675 and went in for a turbo tweak to pull it - still struggles on hills but I now have two ploughs.


I used the ‘lands’ function on CP to have 1 way ploughs work correctly ie in broad beds.

Then the ploughed field gets a disc run over them or on light land some tines though it , or a ‘scuffle’ as was know around my way.

[Phila]

Starting to get too much compaction so invested in some duals when drilling. In reality at this time there was a lot of use of ‘terra tyres’ the big float tyres but fell out of use as much harder to take on and off for towed travel etc.

[Patton_M47]

hey thx for using my 135 and 4000! FYI windows key plus g allows you to take screen shots

[Phila]

Thanks for the hint Patton

MF 135 was first tractor I was really let loose on. Still needs a bit of work re driver hands on the steering wheel? I say that mind in awe of modders who just make this game what it is and I have zero ability! Also for perfection there is the drawbar vs MF's T bar hitch thing (remember those?) Just cool to have my old ride back..

EDIT = still useful , bringing in last load of beans as other tractors busy - making it grunt a bit....

[Phila]

My sheep enterprise grows. I brought in 100 Suffolks and 50 Dorsets, a by keeping the female offspring I'm now now at just about 200 breeding ewes (right hand paddock aka The Orchard Field) and aiming for 250. Males get moved when a few months old into the new paddock (left - open paddock mod)) that is part of an existing grass field and sold off a year later at peak price time. (Modders - possible to make an 'invisble' livestock transport, holds 100-200 sheep, had a figure with a stick and dog at the back and moves at 3mph... make my sheep handling sooo much easier over short distances )


Had to add some new fencing - netting or 'pig wire' as known to some, the sheep farmers friend. (Modders - my dream livestock add on: make me buy a fence post 'bumper' wire and posts and then let me using those allow me to mark out 'fence off' a paddock out an exiting grass field or even a radish aka turnip field and place sheep in there to graze...)


Finally made the switch to round bales - see stack in yard , their is tarpaulin to cover the top, fear not, with a Claas of the era. I'm now baling my own straw but the contractor loads and shifts it , I may go back to a contractor as I grow and if not enough tractor time around.

[FSarndrone]

(Modders - possible to make an 'invisble' livestock transport, holds 100-200 sheep, had a figure with a stick and dog at the back and moves at 3mph... make my sheep handling sooo much easier over short distances )

I had that idea too!

[Phila]

No sadly I have not won the lottery, I'm doing what lots of farmers do: 'trial' something nice and shiny and then buy something they can afford....
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As I get more land and much of it has steepish slopes , I'm pondering a bigger beast, 4WD, as my main ground work tractor of 180ish HP with a big reversible plough (which will need a stable lump on a slope) and bigger cultvator . But which? As my dealer so far has been a MF franchise, for this 'timeline' a MF 3545 or 2775 would do it (no mod of any bigger 1980s MF btw) as would that lovely JD4640 but too expensive. The NH/Fiat crawler is great on hills but metal tracks and slow, so would need low loader as well, can't pull a trailer and faff for more distant contracts I would hope to get. A County is good on hills but again pricy and I don't do blue , and the same problems apply to the Ford TW on the right. But the FiatAgri 190-80... not fashionable , no local dealer etc but 180 HP at bargain price. Hmm , anyway a decision for after next harvest!

My other possible project is to knock down the unused shed behind them to make access to the grain store (rear left) easier or even use the plot and tool park area for a new drive through dryer/grain store....

Happy Xmas (or holiday of your choice!) all and here's to better 2021...

[Phila]

The sheep business is growing and in preparation I have divided The Wood Bank field into four paddocks using the very good 'open field' paddock mod. https://farming-simulator.com/mod.php?l ... tle=fs2019. As close as I've found to being able to convert a grass field into a livestock field.

Still needed quite a lot of sculpting/flattening to make it work, but kept an interested slope up to the wood. Then lots and lots of fencing ! Felt as long as real thing, then moving the sheep was an effort. I have 350 breeding ewes and currently 70 odd lambs fattening. Want to get up to 1000 ewes, 250 per paddock. The fat lambs occupy home farm paddock.

Now working on how to mod that herd idea...

[Phila]

Meanwhile... as noted before my grain shed set up a pain but I can't afford a shiny new grain store. And my current set up also 'looks' wrong, a tip point in the corner of the flat floor barn but no visible piles of grain. So like many farms, they put up dividers in machinery/cow sheds and stored grain there, often with over head elevators fitted or using 'grain dozer' on a loader to push up tipped grain into big piles.

My first go was fully physical - wooden walls, an unload auger that removes the need to reverse and a second auger into the bays. But clumsy.
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My final version was my first serious go at using Giants Editor - I took https://farming-simulator.com/mod.php?l ... _id=143730 , removed the tall floodlights, resized it all to sit inside the existing barn, with the filler pipe moved. So now works as a flat floor grain shed filled and emptied by tipping and elevators/blowers, and heaps of grain should appear. The concrete barrier in middle is cosmetic to divide heaps of different grains. I tried to use the heap / four bin version but could only get 2 heap/bin to work. The heap mod only takes one grain type per bin, so a third or fourth type of crop will get dumped on another shed, which I may also convert.

Oh and my little MF135 will be the power source for the augers

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