Cattle And Crops – Fertilizer,Plant,Soil,Silo,WeaTher,BGP V0.6.0

by Benjamin · Sep 20, 2019

Update 0.6.0 introduces a new fertilization system, allowing you to have a large responsibility in your crops’ growth. And with the revised biogas plant you can now generate and sell electricity.

With the revised biogas plant (BGP) we give you the possibility to dump chopped maize into the new silos, to compress it and finally to cover it to activate the fermentation process. After 60 days this process is finished and you can use a front loader and shovel to transfer the silage into the BGP bunker. The BGP then starts to process the silage on its own and after 20 days produces the first methane gas which is converted into electricity and then credited to your account once a month. So in order to guarantee a continuous additional income, you’ll have to make sure the bunker is filled up on a regular basis. In upcoming updates the BGP will be expanded further in its complexity.

The new dynamic silos that can now be found in the Albergtal are fundamentally different from the old ones. If you drive the trailer loads into the silo and dump them, the silo fills up at the position where you unload. You should therefore take care to unload straight and evenly into the silo so that no too steep heaps stack up. At the moment these cannot be pushed flat yet and will be added in one of the next updates. The BGP uses 12×50 meters silos, while the farm and harbor uses 12×25 meters. As with the BGA silos, the silos at the farm can be compacted and covered for fermentation.

There are new interactive 3D-Panels, so that you can operate the BGP and silos. These have been installed at the appropriate locations, which you can easily operate with the activated mouse pointer.

The traders have been revised. We have installed a new slurry trader at the harbor where you can sell your surplus slurry or buy it if necessary. Additionally, the farm cooperative now offers a multitude of granular fertilizers for use with the new Rauch Axis spreader.

The new weather system is now based on accurate hourly data. In preparation for future plant growth, we have implemented a revised weather system that transfers numerous realistic measured weather data to the game for one year. The first step was to make the weather more credible and comprehensible. In the next step the weather will also affect plant growth as mentioned above.

The field menu has been greatly revised: if you now select a field in the menu, you will get various information about the status of the field or the plants. The status on the map is also shown in color. If you click on one of the eye icons, the status of the corresponding parameter will be displayed after a short loading time. If you now exit the menu, you can monitor the status on the minimap, very helpful if you are on the road with the fertilizer spreader. The update takes place every 5 seconds.

The fertilization is an essential component when planting crops, and this update finally implements it in large detail. You’re going to have to make sure that the plants are supplied with enough nutrients. With the revised field menu you can see at a glance if the NPK values are within the green range. The revised growth levels will be divided into 100 BBCH levels. Currently only the NPK values are included in the growth process. The appropriate solid fertilizer is offered for sale at the cooperative in the city, bull slurry is available at the harbor and the farm, fermentation residues (particularly efficient!) at the BGP, and sewage sludge at the sewage treatment plant.

Many values such as NPK concentrations but also prices have been adjusted to real-life values which are based on the current fertilizer guidelines. For example: NPK concentrations in slurry are now real values. 50 fattening bulls consume about 450 tons of maize silage (9 hectares × 50 tons fresh matter per hectare) in one year and produce 360 tons of liquid manure. Almost 360 tons of slurry are also required to fertilize 9 hectares of maize if 4.1 liters of slurry per square meter is spent. This results in NPK nutrients: N = 196 kg/ha, P = 90 kg/ha, K = 221 kg/ha, equivalent to the consumption of maize. Let’s assume that with Stapel liquid manure barrel you can spread 18 tons; that results in 2.2 trips per hectare. Farming is tough work: 9 hectares require about 37 trips. With this size of work, it is worth working with helpers. But to make sure that the whole thing doesn’t degenerate into a difficult math lesson, we have implemented a fertilizer strategy calculator, which you can find at the cooperative as well as at the port slurry trader. The tool helps you to calculate which types and quantities of fertilizer would bring how much nutrients to the field, and what that would cost you. To do this, open the desired field in the field menu, select the reference fruit and check the target NPK quantities (in kg per hectare or lbs per acre!). Now you can combine different fertilizer types and quantities in the calculator so that these target values are reached as close as possible. Multiply the calculated fertilizer quantities by the field size and you will have the total quantities you need. We know that the topic of fertilizing can be overwhelming at first sight. In the near future we will go into this in more detail and give you instructions and/or tips.

The machines have numerous modifications. A separate fertilizer system has been added to the seed drill Hammer CornKing. The slurry barrel Stapel VT18000 now has an adjustable spread rate. In addition to that, we’re introducing the Rauch Axis 30.1 W** granular fertilizer spreader, giving you a work width option from 12 m up to 42 m. All fertilizer machines have received an “empty tank” option that allows you to refill them with a different fertilizer type.

The AI helpers have received many changes and bugfixes. The complete strategy for the unloading combines has been revised. We also fixed some bugs which caused crashes. In addition, the road network has been adjusted, e.g. we have changed almost everything at the harbor to one-way roads. The AI does not have its final state yet and we are still working on it.

Community: What makes us very happy and motivated is seeing how active the community is. The multitude of ingenious mods, the exchange and feedback in the forum and the commitment of all volunteers! Many thanks to all modders, moderators, testers and of course to the whole community!

NEW
Field crops grow using NPK fertilizer values per square metre
NEW
Weather is based on hourly data from the German weather service Region Münster/Osnabrück for the year 2016.
NEW
Field menu with new live field data
NEW
BGP with control station, bunker, pumping station and introduction mission
NEW
New silos in the BGP and farm with cover function
NEW
Rauch Axis 30.1 W fertilizer spreader with adjustable spread rate
NEW
Mission points and tanks have new translations
NEW
New silo tarpaulins
NEW
Digital display at the bunker
NEW
New console command listInfoForTaskIds which gives you a CSV file with an overview of all mission points in the played level and with details for translations and missions
NEW
Stapel liquid manure barrel has adjustable spread rate
NEW
The console command addFillToTank now also accepts InfoForTaskIds so you can fill silo tanks directly via console
NEW
There are one-way streets at the port and sewage treatment plant so that AI drivers work better
NEW
Traders at the port are divided into several to have more precise points of contact for the purchase & sale of assets.
NEW
Gameplay option to also display the special minimap field data in the 3D world
NEW
Helpers distribute their load evenly when unloading into the silo (in the future there will still be options to dump in the main area or at the pre-discharge area)
NEW
Hammer CornKing fertilizer system added
NEW
There is a new liquid fertilizer ammonium nitrate-urea solution (AHL 28) for the Dammann spreader which can be purchased at the port.
NEW
Dammann fertilizer mission converted to AHL28 liquid fertilizer
NEW
Rye, wheat, barley and field grass have new optimal growth times. Partly 100 days faster than before
NEW
Rye, wheat, barley and field grass have new NPK consumption curves and yields have been adjusted for each BBCH level.
NEW
Numerous new granular fertilizer types at the cooperative
NEW
New slurry dealer at the port
NEW
Fertilizer strategy calculator at the cooperative (left-hand side, next to the ramp) and at the port at the left slurry trader
BUG FIX
Filltypes determine the MatterAttributes like NPK or water concentration for traders
BUG FIX
Filltypes at the slurry pump stations have been adjusted
BUG FIX
AI tasks should be able to be recreated and work again
BUG FIX
Vehicle “Init” scripts are executed again when loading a savegame (affects support feet, wheel chocks and other small things such as the Joskin Delta-Cap support foot)
BUG FIX
MissionCommand “setGround” now takes NPK values in kg / hectare and water data are now in litres
BUG FIX
MissionCondition “ground” fixed
BUG FIX
BGP digestate now has correct NPK values
BUG FIX
Activated autopilot can be deactivated again after save game loading
BUG FIX
Hourly weather data
BUG FIX
Translations further adjusted
BUG FIX
AI Helpers should work in all missions again so that you can complete the missions
BUG FIX
The voxel mesh in Hawe SLW is only faded out after 800 metres.
BUG FIX
The objects which are divided in the ring detail system are correctly illuminated again
The mentioned areas are still under development, will be extended and optimized together with your feedback.

CHANGE
In the slurry mission, you now have to fill up the bull slurry at the farm instead of the sewage treatment plant.
CHANGE
Silos at the farm and at the harbor have been replaced by the new ones
CHANGE
Console command “addFillToTank” now also accepts InfoForTaskIds so you can fill silo tanks directly via the console
CHANGE
Console command “takeFillFromTank” now works the same way with InfoForTaskIds
CHANGE
Dammann fertilizer mission changed to AHL28 liquid fertilizer
CHANGE
Change of slurry types at the farm, BGP and sewage treatment plant to distinct types with different NPK values
CHANGE
The previous fruit varieties such as wheat have been renamed summer wheat as we will soon be making a distinction between summer and winter varieties.
NOTE
Temperature, sunshine hours and water consumption are not yet used as growth factors in this version.
NOTE
The silo display does not yet indicate compaction via the heat map.
NOTE
The silos at the port are for sale only and do not fill up visually. This is intentional.
NOTE
The scales at the BGP have no functionality yet.
NOTE
As the Hammer CornKing now offers its own fertilizing tank, you need to check the parking position at the seed/fertilizer traders. At first the fertilizer tank is shown and seed types are shown as “incompatible”. In order to fill the seed units you have to drive ahead until the window appears for a second time. At this point you’ll be able to buy and fill the usual maize, grain or grass seed types. We’re going to improve such “double matches” in the future by adding a vehicle selection in the trading window..
NOTE
You have to create a completely new profile and are not allowed to use old save games. Otherwise it cannot be guaranteed that all changes will work properly!