Precision Farming Dos, Don’ts, Pitfalls, Exploits, Handcuffs - GIANTS Software (2024)

Precision Farming isn’t an exact science in FS22. That’s the single most important concept to remember. Some issues are poorly executed ideas, some may be related to game engine limitations. I’m not a coder or programmer so I cannot know that answer. But, I can provide a short guide to PF. And remember the purpose of PF is to have the highest Environmental Score. The ES is poorly executed as I’ll explain in the Pitfalls* section. Be patient when using PF. Nitrogen levels are a fluid category. They look bad; they look good; they fluctuate often.

Dos:

—Soil Sample. Most efficient way is to just buy it. The tool (Isaria Scout) is around 12k and you’ll likely stop using it when you have spare money. Pitfalls*
—Plow any new fields and all grass fields you purchase. Plowing after crops like corn, potatoes, sugar beets aren’t actually necessary. I tested a large corn field without plowing and the subsequent corn harvest was a 5% loss in yield.
—Lime all fields. Initial lime applications for new fields use a significant amount of lime. After that, the lime usage is slashed down to 5-10% if you lime after every harvest. This includes grass fields.
—Fertilize every time. There are options. You could use Oilseed Radish, slurry/Digestate, solid manure, or chemical fertilizer. PF doesn’t require two fertilizer applications. Handcuffs***
—Weed every time. Use the Spot And Spray technology. Pitfalls*. Exploits**
—Mulch/roll every time. You get the 5% yield bonus for these two processes and they don’t hurt your score.
—Use Direct Seeders/Planters with seed only. Very important to only have seed tank filled. Pitfalls*.

Don’ts:

—Cultivate. Cultivating isn’t necessary with PF. Using the direct seeder cultivates for you
—Use chemical fertilizer on an unseeded field. Pitfalls*
—use mechanical weeders. Exploits**
—buy crop sensors for all you tractors . This is an unnecessary expense and it’s prevents certain steps from occurring at nighttime. Just buy the active front mounted sensor (Isara Pro Active).
—Put fertilizer in your seeder/planter. Pitfalls*

Pitfalls*:

—Putting fertilizer in your seeder will result in over fertilizing nearly every time and impacting your Environmental Score and yield.
—Using herbicide adversely effects your yield bonus. Exploits**
—Using chemical fertilizers on an unseeded field will cause over fertilizing of the field. Only use these fertilizers with the crop sensors.
—Environmental Score presents with several concerns. Many of these are directly related to the yield bonus calculations from the base game. Because Precision Farming doesn’t completely overwrite the base game mechanics it is in direct conflict with some processes. Weeds are the most notorious items in conflict. If you use a mechanical weeder, your ES takes a hit. If you use herbicide, your yield takes a hit. Plowing is also problematic. Exploits**
—Organic fertilizing cannot be your only source of fertilizer. The only exception might be oats. But this is soil type specific so be careful. If you use two applications of organic fertilizer (slurry or manure) there is a high chance you over fertilize. This is because organic fertilizer doesn’t read the crop. It only fertilizes the soil. Some exceptions are wheat, corn, and canola. You can generally use organic fertilizer before seeding and immediately after seeding, but you will likely need to use chemical fertilizer to top off the nitrogen level once the crop has sprouted. You’ll just use a small amount. I find this the best way to be environmentally friendly. Making Digestate is a profitable business model. Then use free fertilizer and cut down on purchased fertilizer. Win/win.
—grass fields (you’ve planted grass not placed grass) doesn’t need grassland rollers. Using a mulcher is a better option. Mulching gives the yield bonus and resets the growth stage.
—soil sampling with the Isaria Scout can cause issues if you catch an adjacent field you don’t own. This can lead to incomplete soil sampling and impact your ES.
Exploits**:

—Using a mechanical weeder followed by herbicide will grant you maximum yield and Environmental Score.
—using herbicide on grass fields will boost you ES even though grass doesn’t grow weeds. Check your global ES and field ES. If it’s showing a weed hit take your herbicide to the field and turn it on.
—plowing hits can be negated by using a shallow cultivator after plowing. Then use direct drill to seed.

Handcuffs***:
—Oilseed radish gives such a minimal amount of nitrogen it’s hardly worth using. Grass and oats are the best options. Additionally if you used organic fertilizer on the field, oilseed radish provides nothing as it doesn’t appear to stack consistently.
—inability to only use organic fertilizer as I mentioned under Pitfalls*

(Grapes/olives are problematic when it comes to fertilizer and ES. Always fully prep any field to the highest level of ES. Once you’ve placed your grapes/olives the field score is locked in. The only changes you can make is the Soil Sample and possibly weeds once they’ve reached a certain stage. Best way to avoid weeds is to plant grass on the field. Fertilizer is an issue because it conflicts with base game and PF fertilizing mechanics. If you use slurry don’t use a tank with the sensor. The available sprayer tries to use adjustable nitrogen application. You can turn this off but you’ll use far more liquid fertilizer than just leaving it on; and the grapes/olives only react to fertilizer application not amount.)

Hopefully this helps. I’m sure I forgot stuff. If I did, I’ll add the edits in later.

Edit: never fertilize soybeans. They don’t require any nitrogen.

Very good list of items. Some other considerations -

1. Perfect Nitrogen ES score requires both organic and chemical fert. However, you may not have enough animals producing enough organic fert for your fields. In this case, you can disable the auto-fert levels and use the minimal manual fertilization. This will put a very thin coat of oganic fert on, hopefully giving you enough to cover all fields. Then fert to optimal levels after crop sprout with chemical fertilizer.

2. Grass rolling does do one thing - It certainly does not fertilize as it did pre-PF. Also, if you harvest in November, normally grass will stay harvested in December throughout all the winter. However, if you grass roll in November, the same month as harvesting, the growth stage goes to 1/3 immediately and in December it will go to 2/3, Thats a 2 month jump allowing another cut throughout the year (albiet only a half cut). Grass rolling doesn't do anything else all year long (in other months besides Nov-Dec and winter, grass will go from harvested to 2/3 in one month). I do need to try mulching and rolling in November however, as they might interfere with each other. However, I'd most likely prioritize another harvesting contract in November than doing perfect yielding grass steps for the last year's cut.

3. Manual Scanning is indeed cheaper, can be done during the rain or late at night if you don't like to do field work in complete darkness. However, paying for the scanning will eliminate the problem of adjacent field overlap...

4. In regards to ES conflicting with yield, I don't see a problem. The most environmentally friendly method is never usually the method that generates the greatest profit. The 5% yield hit due to not plowing that one field, sure, but you need to compare that to what price increase through your global ES you received. Maybe its worth it, maybe its not. It might be worth plowing corn silage fields, but not potato fields (corn silage will make more gross revenue per hectare than potatoes). That's why no farmer farms the same way, Too many variables specific to that farm

6. Oh, and Direct Drilling a plowed field will eliminate the hit you take from plowing. No need to shallow cultivate. But, sometimes in early game you dont have a direct drill, so most likely shallow cultivating overwrites plowing, and once you have one, direct drilling overwrites shall cultivating.

7. If possible, buy new fields AFTER you sell ALL of your crops for the year. The new fields will murder your ES, however your can have most of them back in order by fall harvest.

dan1109 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:14 am6. Oh, and Direct Drilling a plowed field will eliminate the hit you take from plowing. No need to shallow cultivate. But, sometimes in early game you dont have a direct drill, so most likely shallow cultivating overwrites plowing, and once you have one, direct drilling overwrites shall cultivating.

Very important to note -> Use a direct drill after either a plow or a regular cultivator and it get's rid of nasty hit to your EV score. So don't be afraid to plow. My numbers vary a little from his but if you go with a 5% Yield penalty from not plowing that's 5% less crop you could be selling at whatever your EV score bonus is.
The reason I use a "regular" cultivator rather than a shallow one (on fields that don't need plowing) is twofold. 1. Much larger than a plow and covers a lot more ground quickly. 2. Only generates small weeds which don't give you a yield loss if you use see and spray (TM) technology.
No yield loss, perfect tillage and weed scores.

Have been playing FS since FS 2011 came out and still going strong.
Check out Dairy Air Farms https://www.youtube.com/c/DairyAirFarms

Im happy with around 85 environment score. Weeds off, lime on, rocks on. Lime after every harvest and direct seed with fertiliser, no rolling. quick and easy

However, check this quick someone(im at work for the week) I noticed this the other day, but never checked it on, lets say elm creek. I did see it on a mod map, so im not 100% sure its right..

Buy a field that has crops on it, then walk into the field to see its yield potensial. Probably around 68%. Then buy the soil map. Check yield again, im pretty sure its gone up. Atleast on the high yield soil types. But as said, not sure. Point is, always buy soil map even if it has crop on it.

dan1109 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:09 amVery good list of items. Some other considerations -

1. Perfect Nitrogen ES score requires both organic and chemical fert. However, you may not have enough animals producing enough organic fert for your fields. In this case, you can disable the auto-fert levels and use the minimal manual fertilization. This will put a very thin coat of oganic fert on, hopefully giving you enough to cover all fields. Then fert to optimal levels after crop sprout with chemical fertilizer.

2. Grass rolling does do one thing - It certainly does not fertilize as it did pre-PF. Also, if you harvest in November, normally grass will stay harvested in December throughout all the winter. However, if you grass roll in November, the same month as harvesting, the growth stage goes to 1/3 immediately and in December it will go to 2/3, Thats a 2 month jump allowing another cut throughout the year (albiet only a half cut). Grass rolling doesn't do anything else all year long (in other months besides Nov-Dec and winter, grass will go from harvested to 2/3 in one month). I do need to try mulching and rolling in November however, as they might interfere with each other. However, I'd most likely prioritize another harvesting contract in November than doing perfect yielding grass steps for the last year's cut.

3. Manual Scanning is indeed cheaper, can be done during the rain or late at night if you don't like to do field work in complete darkness. However, paying for the scanning will eliminate the problem of adjacent field overlap...

4. In regards to ES conflicting with yield, I don't see a problem. The most environmentally friendly method is never usually the method that generates the greatest profit. The 5% yield hit due to not plowing that one field, sure, but you need to compare that to what price increase through your global ES you received. Maybe its worth it, maybe its not. It might be worth plowing corn silage fields, but not potato fields (corn silage will make more gross revenue per hectare than potatoes). That's why no farmer farms the same way, Too many variables specific to that farm

That’s why I use Digestate. The plowing was only a test to see if you must plow after crops requiring plowing. The 5% loss on that field was significant as it cost me 20k liters of corn. Using the mulcher does the exact thing as rolling with a grass roller.

deerefarm wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:58 am

dan1109 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:14 am6. Oh, and Direct Drilling a plowed field will eliminate the hit you take from plowing. No need to shallow cultivate. But, sometimes in early game you dont have a direct drill, so most likely shallow cultivating overwrites plowing, and once you have one, direct drilling overwrites shall cultivating.

Very important to note -> Use a direct drill after either a plow or a regular cultivator and it get's rid of nasty hit to your EV score. So don't be afraid to plow. My numbers vary a little from his but if you go with a 5% Yield penalty from not plowing that's 5% less crop you could be selling at whatever your EV score bonus is.
The reason I use a "regular" cultivator rather than a shallow one (on fields that don't need plowing) is twofold. 1. Much larger than a plow and covers a lot more ground quickly. 2. Only generates small weeds which don't give you a yield loss if you use see and spray (TM) technology.
No yield loss, perfect tillage and weed scores.

I’ve always taken a hit when using Spot and Spray regardless of cultivator. I actually sent this issue to Giants.

LittleWatt wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:26 am
I’ve always taken a hit when using Spot and Spray regardless of cultivator. I actually sent this issue to Giants.

I did too and got the response from the Marius, "working as intended". If you watch any informational videos on Spot Spraying not farmer ever waits till the weeds are waist high and take the yield penalty. They spray as soon as the weeds can be detected by the cameras and on John Deere's video that's only a couple of cm's tall. And "see and spray ultimate's" even more accurate so even less yield loss.

Personally I think the problem is weed growth rates and cultivation is set by the base game which would mean Giant's would have to alter the base game settings to make weed work properly in PF, and that's not something they're willing to do atm.

Have been playing FS since FS 2011 came out and still going strong.
Check out Dairy Air Farms https://www.youtube.com/c/DairyAirFarms

LittleWatt wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2022 7:11 pm....
—Mulch/roll every time. You get the 5% yield bonus for these two processes and they don’t hurt your score.
—Use Direct Seeders/Planters with seed only. Very important to only have seed tank filled. Pitfalls*.

Don’ts:

—Cultivate. Cultivating isn’t necessary with PF. Using the direct seeder cultivates for you
........

Very informative and helpful overall. Only observation I would add is that if I dont cultivate after mulching I immediately get medium weeds after seeding with a direct drill. This means my only mechanical weeder option is the hoe with only a single tool choice. If I shallow cultivate, I put the weed stage back and can then use a basic weeder which comes much wider.

Also trying to use basic AI with weeders is problematic in PF as they dont like the clumps. Courseplay obviously sorts that out on PC.

Steel_Horse wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:54 am

LittleWatt wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2022 7:11 pm....
—Mulch/roll every time. You get the 5% yield bonus for these two processes and they don’t hurt your score.
—Use Direct Seeders/Planters with seed only. Very important to only have seed tank filled. Pitfalls*.

Don’ts:

—Cultivate. Cultivating isn’t necessary with PF. Using the direct seeder cultivates for you
........

Very informative and helpful overall. Only observation I would add is that if I dont cultivate after mulching I immediately get medium weeds after seeding with a direct drill. This means my only mechanical weeder option is the hoe with only a single tool choice. If I shallow cultivate, I put the weed stage back and can then use a basic weeder which comes much wider.

Also trying to use basic AI with weeders is problematic in PF as they dont like the clumps. Courseplay obviously sorts that out on PC.

I’ve been doing a little experimenting with a shallow cultivator. Immediately after harvesting I run the mulcher. Then I lime. If you do nothing from this point forward you get weed growth on crops that grow weeds unless you’ve plowed or it’s a crop that doesn’t grow weeds Instead of letting them grow, I used a shallow cultivator on the field. The weeds go away, the crop type goes away, and so far I haven’t taken any tillage hits. Now I can apply slurry in the winter as something to pass the time. I don’t like skipping entire days unless it’s snowed enough to cover the ground. The AI definitely struggles with sprayers. I don’t use mechanical weeders as PF says not to or take an ES hit.

At this point it’s just an experiment.

LittleWatt wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:26 am

deerefarm wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:58 am

dan1109 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:14 am6. Oh, and Direct Drilling a plowed field will eliminate the hit you take from plowing. No need to shallow cultivate. But, sometimes in early game you dont have a direct drill, so most likely shallow cultivating overwrites plowing, and once you have one, direct drilling overwrites shall cultivating.

Very important to note -> Use a direct drill after either a plow or a regular cultivator and it get's rid of nasty hit to your EV score. So don't be afraid to plow. My numbers vary a little from his but if you go with a 5% Yield penalty from not plowing that's 5% less crop you could be selling at whatever your EV score bonus is.
The reason I use a "regular" cultivator rather than a shallow one (on fields that don't need plowing) is twofold. 1. Much larger than a plow and covers a lot more ground quickly. 2. Only generates small weeds which don't give you a yield loss if you use see and spray (TM) technology.
No yield loss, perfect tillage and weed scores.

I’ve always taken a hit when using Spot and Spray regardless of cultivator. I actually sent this issue to Giants.

I'll bet the farm they say as design intended. IRL, there is no way to get rid of all weeds with zero impact, either in cost, environment, time, etc. As in the game...you need to make a choice. Get more Environmental bonus and take a a yield hit, or get the highest yield and not have the highest environmental bonus. All of the "workarounds" are not free...they take time, fuel, helper costs if you are doing large scale, and add engines hours. Nothing free about that. The main question is which is more profitable? Higher yield? Higher EV? Or using costly work arounds that give both? Like many decisions in the game, it's quite trivial in the end, can be a different situation from field to field and at best will be a few % difference in the bottom line.

You know I’ve kicked that value around a lot. In my test, I planted oats. In the field I used the sprayer, I lost from 6-9% of the yield depending on soil type. As an example: I harvested 30k liters minus 9% for 27,300L at an average of 1000.00. So that’s 27.300.00 money. Add a max of 15% bonus check adds another 4,100.00 money. If I used the hoe, I get the full 30,000L at 1000.00 for 30k money. But things get very complicated from here as using a mechanical weeder only gives me 20 points to ES not 30. Of course these numbers don’t look terrible but the issue comes in at your overall ES. If it’s over 90 then you’ll still get 10% bonus check for another 3,000.00 money. This gives me more profit unless the AI does the work, which will erase the extra. But what happens when your overall ES is 80 or 70? Then it appears to be better to spray.

In my video to Giants I made it abundantly clear we shouldn’t be punished in yield for being environmentally conscious. We shouldn’t be taking hits because the base game mechanics are in direct conflict with Precision Farming.