This is the post I wanted to make on Farming simulator 22 I have recently played. I wanted to show you how much work it really takes to grow crops on the field and to get as much yield to maximize profits. The farming simulator accurately portrays how all this happens in real life as well. It's not as easy as planting the crops, wait until it grows and then harvest. There are many more steps for a successful harvest.
In this post, I captured all the steps in-game and I'm going to talk about each step. I don't know how familiar you are with farming or have any idea how it works but if you are even a bit interested in how a component of your beer you drink is actually grown then follow along.
I could have chosen any plant to grow but I chose barley. Every plant requires a different kind of action, equipment and so on.
Step 1- Mulching
I recently bought this huge field and now I try to pay back the loan I took for it. Previously sunflowers grew on this field and I harvested and sold them. Now the first step is to mulch the field. The leftover stems and stuff that has been left behind from the last harvest. Since the stuff is mulched it also acts a bit like a natural fertilizer, slightly boosting the next yield.
I recently bought this larger mulcher. The last one was too small, it would have taken forever in this field.
The month is October.
Step 2 - Cultivating
After every harvest, you need to cultivate the field to turn over the top layer of the soil. Cultivating breaks up the compressed soil surface allowing for much easier penetration of air, nutrients and water deep into the soil where plant roots grow.
While cultivating needs to be done after every harvest, there is also plowing. Plowing turns over the soil much deeper but the process is also much slower. Fortunately, this only needs to be done after every 4 or 5 harvests.
Doing this also in October.
Step 3- Stone Removal
The last field owner hasn't maintained the field so it's full of rocks. Rocks also emerge after plowing the field. This is bad because rocks damage the equipment you use on the field, which means repairing the machinery more often thus resulting in fewer profits so I need to remove the rocks.
Step 4 - Spreading Lime
I didn't have to do it at this moment because this needs to be done after 3 harvests and my field was fine. Lime raises the soil ph level, meaning the acidic level will decrease. Plants can't get the nutrients necessary in too acidic soil.
Step 5 - Seeding Barley + First fertilization stage
The time has come to plant Barley seeds. This needs to be done in September or October. For me, it was late October already so I needed to do it fast.
I have a seeder that also adds fertilizer at the same time when planting so it saves me a bit of time doing it separately. Though the field needs to be fertilized 2 times, this is the first stage.
Step 6 - Rolling
After planting I need to roll the field. This creates a better seedbed and prevents the seeds from washing out of the soil. Also, if you have small stones on the field, it presses them back into the soil.
Step 7 - Remove Weeds
Now it's Late November and my plants have started growing already but so are the weeds. Weeds need to be removed because these will compete with barley and prevent their growth and also block sunlight. For small weeds, you can use a weeder but I had a medium growth of weeds already so I need to use machinery called a hoe.
If weeds are large then liquid weed removal is needed but it also comes with a yield penalty for barley so I try to avoid it.
One more cool shot.
Step 8 - Fertilization 2-nd stage
The field needs to be Fertilized for the second time. I am doing this shortly after weeding. For this, I am using a solid fertilizer spreader. This one has a 46meter spread so it goes pretty fast.
Now it's a waiting game because there is nothing to do until the crop grows to the final harvesting stage.
It's next year now and in April the crop looks like this.
Barley in May, taking shape.
Step 9 - Harvesting
It's June and a long-awaited time is here, it's time to harvest barley because it's ready. The weather needs to be good because you cant harvest in rain or when the crop is wet or too moist. You also need to harvest it in July at the latest or the crop will be withered. It has happened to me, sucks.
This time however we can harvest it. I hired an extra worker to drive my combine and I am in a tractor collecting the harvest and carrying it to the silo.
Step 10 - Collecting Straw
After the field is harvested, there are leftover straw lines. Combine can also spread it on the field but I can also collect it and sell it for profit too. Not every crop leaves straw but barley does. I am collecting it with a forage harvester trailer and carrying it to the silo to sell it when the price is the highest.
I sold the barley sometime in December when the price was highest. In total, I made about 90k dollars of this harvest with barley and straw combined.
After harvesting and collecting straw, the field is in a state it was in step 1 and now it's all over again. This is how much work growing barley or really and crops takes. Farming is not easy and playing this game is fun. Trying to manage somehow, buy better equipment, more farmland and most importantly not go bankrupt while doing this.
