Do you need to plow with Precision Farming?
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 12:48 pm
Well, yes and no, and maybe.
I ran a small test on field 7 on the Southern Cross Station map. Whenever I buy a new field, I always plow them unless I plowed them under contract and bought them immediately after. Anyway…
I bought the field. Plowed it up and did all the field prep for corn—lime, fert, roll, weed. Of all the prep work for yield, plowing is the only task your score doesn’t improve. Now the Environmental Score is separate from yield bonus. And this test was all about yield bonus.
The game says you must plow the field after corn, potatoes, sugar beets, and sugarcane. (Sugarcane being strange as the plowing technically only needs done after every third harvest if periodic plowing is turned on, but it will immediately go to “needs plowed” status as soon as you drop a harvester on the field.)
With Precision Farming you get conflicting ideas within the game itself. If you plow your field, you won’t get weeds. If you use PF it says plowing is bad because it brings weed seeds to the surface, burns fuel, blah, blah, blah. Kind of an odd juxtaposition. Anyway…
I’ve been doing a bit of research, and found in the US, farmers are going away from plowing altogether. And even give reasons to not plow. Like this article: https://necornstalk.com/why-most-farmer ... ir-fields/
So, I thought why not try it out. Break the rules of the game and not plow after corn harvest. My results after this cycle: bought field, plowed, prepped, planted grass. Harvested grass, prepped, planted corn. Harvested corn, prepped without plowing, planted grass. Harvested grass, prepped field, planted corn. All aspects of field prep were done exactly the same way except plowing after corn harvest.
I DO have Periodic Plowing turned ON (this might matter).
Results after first corn harvest: 410,000 liters of corn.
Second corn harvest without plowing: 390,000 liters of corn.
I rounded both harvests down. That’s 20,000 liters difference but only a 5% reduction in yield.
I found that 5% intriguing as it’s exactly 1/3 of the 15% yield bonus for plowing. With Periodic Plowing turned on, you need to plow after three harvests. So would this mean a second corn harvest under the “needs plowing” state reduce the yield and additional 5%? Or is it completely unrelated and I’m chasing ghosts?
So, do you need to plow with Precision Farming? Honestly, I have no idea. I should have been penalized for not plowing by 15%, but wasn’t. But was the 5% I did get penalized for only related to periodic plowing and you lose 5% for each harvest until you reach the 15%? I don’t know.
With a huge field like the one I used in this test does 5% matter? Does it matter more than a smaller field? A smaller field will yield less crop so the penalty will be even less significant.
For now, I’m simply not going to plow any fields unless they are new purchases.
I ran a small test on field 7 on the Southern Cross Station map. Whenever I buy a new field, I always plow them unless I plowed them under contract and bought them immediately after. Anyway…
I bought the field. Plowed it up and did all the field prep for corn—lime, fert, roll, weed. Of all the prep work for yield, plowing is the only task your score doesn’t improve. Now the Environmental Score is separate from yield bonus. And this test was all about yield bonus.
The game says you must plow the field after corn, potatoes, sugar beets, and sugarcane. (Sugarcane being strange as the plowing technically only needs done after every third harvest if periodic plowing is turned on, but it will immediately go to “needs plowed” status as soon as you drop a harvester on the field.)
With Precision Farming you get conflicting ideas within the game itself. If you plow your field, you won’t get weeds. If you use PF it says plowing is bad because it brings weed seeds to the surface, burns fuel, blah, blah, blah. Kind of an odd juxtaposition. Anyway…
I’ve been doing a bit of research, and found in the US, farmers are going away from plowing altogether. And even give reasons to not plow. Like this article: https://necornstalk.com/why-most-farmer ... ir-fields/
So, I thought why not try it out. Break the rules of the game and not plow after corn harvest. My results after this cycle: bought field, plowed, prepped, planted grass. Harvested grass, prepped, planted corn. Harvested corn, prepped without plowing, planted grass. Harvested grass, prepped field, planted corn. All aspects of field prep were done exactly the same way except plowing after corn harvest.
I DO have Periodic Plowing turned ON (this might matter).
Results after first corn harvest: 410,000 liters of corn.
Second corn harvest without plowing: 390,000 liters of corn.
I rounded both harvests down. That’s 20,000 liters difference but only a 5% reduction in yield.
I found that 5% intriguing as it’s exactly 1/3 of the 15% yield bonus for plowing. With Periodic Plowing turned on, you need to plow after three harvests. So would this mean a second corn harvest under the “needs plowing” state reduce the yield and additional 5%? Or is it completely unrelated and I’m chasing ghosts?
So, do you need to plow with Precision Farming? Honestly, I have no idea. I should have been penalized for not plowing by 15%, but wasn’t. But was the 5% I did get penalized for only related to periodic plowing and you lose 5% for each harvest until you reach the 15%? I don’t know.
With a huge field like the one I used in this test does 5% matter? Does it matter more than a smaller field? A smaller field will yield less crop so the penalty will be even less significant.
For now, I’m simply not going to plow any fields unless they are new purchases.