Growing plants - preparation, harvest and selling

The field buying screen informs you about the price and the area.

First of all, you need to buy a field. Remember that, at the beginning of the game, you have: 3 fields on Bjornholm map, 2 fields on Westbridge Hills map and 1 field on Sosnovka map. Buy a new field only if you have sufficiently many machines (better than the ones that you started the game with). On Bjornholm, you have three fields, but one is somewhat farther away. It is best to buy a field that is close to your farm, and then the more distant ones. The situation is a bit different, when you are not going to sell your crops and you produce it only for the animals you own. In such a situation, it may be a better idea to buy a plot close to your raising grounds. To buy a field, you need to get there - in the very center, you find an icon that allows you to make the purchase. Before you do, you receive information on the size and the price of the field.

With a wide cultivator, the work will go faster.

The field that you buy may be ready for sowing or may require cultivating first (you will know it by the soil - look for signs of earlier harvest). Take a tractor with a cultivator attached to it and place it on the edge of the field. Newer cultivators that have wider range, have to be spread [X] and lowered first. The implement is then ready for work. You do the cultivation yourself (use cruise control) or get a worker to do it [H].

A sowing machine has to be refilled frequently.

After the cultivation, the field is ready for sowing. For this task, you will need a sowing machine of course. First, fill up the machine. You can do it near the seed bags located on your farm, or near a garden center. After doing so, go to the field that you've just cultivated. More expensive sowing machines will have wider range of sowing, so you have to set them up first. Don't forget to select the plant that you want to sow [O]. Next, start the sowing machine [B] and lower it [V]. It is now ready to work. Just like in the case of cultivation, you can do this task yourself or give it to your worker. Of course, these two machines can work on one field at the same time.

Spraying and fertilizing are task that you have to do yourself, but it is a fast and easy work and of course increases the crop amount.

After sowing, it is time for fertilizing. You will need a sprayer or a fertilizer spreader. First, you have to fill the machine up. Just like in the case of sowing machine, you can do it either on your farm or near a garden center. When you're ready, go to the field. Place the machine in the proper position (not on the edge of the field, as the sprayer has wider range). Try to cover as much area as you can. Set up the sprayer, lower it and start the machine. You have to do this task yourself, because there's no option of giving it to a worker. When you finish, switch the tool off to not waste the load, turn around and drive through the field once again, switching on the sprayer when near the other side. Thanks to the wide range, spraying large fields won't take you much time. Remember that you can attach a special tank to the front of the tractor, which increases the capacity of the sprayer, enabling it to work longer without refilling.

Removing leaves is a time-consuming task and it cannot be given to your workers.

If you've sown the seeds, you now have to wait for them to grow. As for sugar beets and potatoes, before you harvest them, you will have to remove leaves first. You can check if the moment is right using your PDA [I] - the field, which needs this task to be performed will turn light blue on the map. To complete this work, you will need leaves and harvests the crop at the same time). You cannot leave these task to your worker. Only after buying a self-propelled harvester, such option will appear (it costs 479 000$).

Harvesting at the beginning of the game is very slow.

At the very end, it is time for harvesting the crop. As for the grain, you don't have to remove leaves, so after the field has been sprayed, you just have to wait for the plants to grow. To harvest the grain, you need a harvester and a header of an appropriate model. Just like during other tasks, you first have to start the machine and then begin to harvest. This task can be given to a worker, allowing you to drive a tractor with a trailer at the same time, next to the harvester, which will prevent it from overloading too quickly (it is important especially at the beginning of the game, when the machine has a rather small container). When the container is full, the worker will stop his task, so check on the harvester from time to time.

A short break for unloading the container.

Unload the crop from the container onto the trailer. You can do it constantly by driving the tractor next to the harvester all the time. You can also wait until the harvester is full and perform the unloading to the trailer yourself [O]. Now, you have two options (if you don't need the crop for feeding the animals) - you can either store the crop or go to a place where you can sell it. No matter of which option you choose, try to always have a full trailer.

Unloading the crop in a store.

Either in a store or in your warehouse, you unload the crop the same way, by driving to the proper place and pressing the key responsible for unloading [O]. When selling, pay attention to the prices - the differences are sometimes very large and can be felt even with a small amount of product. When the price doesn't satisfy you, don't hesitate and keep the product for a while - you will sell it when the price gets higher or some store announces increased demand, which will earn you more money. This way you end the long process of cultivating land.

In short

Darker soil means that the place was sprayer/fertilized and will bring bigger crop.

- Remember about the order of doing the tasks on the field. First, you need a cultivator to work on it (the exception here are fields that you purchase ready for sowing). Next, you use a sowing machine and when it completes the task - you use a sprayer or a fertilizer spreader. In the case of sugar beets and potatoes, before harvesting, you have to remove the leaves and in the case of grain - just wait for the crop.

- Your workers may sometimes get blocked on some tree or a trailer left too close to the field. Check on them from time to time.

- It is best to start your work along the longer edge of the field - this way you will be turning around less frequently.

- Two or three machines can work on the same field at the same time. However, remember about keeping distance and the differences in the working speed.

- If you perform some task yourself, try to always drive in a straight line and not leave too many empty spaces.

- Some tasks can be made quicker when having the right tool, like for example a sowing machine that doesn't need the land to be cultivated first or a self-propelled harvester that removes leaves and harvests sugar beets/potatoes at the same time.

- If you have two tanks in your sprayer, you can refill the both. Simply change the tool [G] and start the refilling again.

- When you get a worker to sow the field, seeds won't be taken out from the bags - they are included in the costs of hiring the worker.

Farming Simulator 15

October 30, 2014

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