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link from
https://www.reddit.com/r/farmingsimulator/comments/9zlszg/fs_19_yield_profit_analysis/
FS 19 Yield & Profit Analysis (self.farmingsimulator)
submitted 4 days ago * by Javaris_Jamar_Lamar
There have been some posts since FS 19 dropped this week about the game economy and slow progression. Well, to answer that question, I have been compiling data about yields and costs for each crop in FS 19 over the past couple days. I planted and harvested each crop under controlled conditions while tracking prices to find the most profitable crops. This was for my own future planning as well as giving me an excuse to cheat in a whole bunch of money and play with all the different equipment :)
The Process:
• Each crop was planted and harvested in field 19 on Felsbrunn (3.94 acres)
• Difficulty was set to Normal ("Farm Manager" mode)
• Each day I watched the prices carefully and recorded the highest price for each crop that day; prices used to calculate income are simply the highest recorded price
• Lime, Periodic Plowing, and Weeds were all turned on; all were addressed as necessary
• Each crop was fertilized twice (by sower, spreader, or sprayer)
• Note was taken each time a field was fertilized, limed, or sprayed so that I know the usage numbers are repeatable
• Care was taken so that the entire field was sown and fertilized with no missed spots; no crops were destroyed, and every single plant was harvested
• Default equipment was used for all operations
• No mods or scripts that affect crops, prices, etc. were used
Consumables
Here is a table of the lime, fertilizer, and herbicide prices and usage.
• Lime: I took note of how much I used each time I spread lime to be sure that this usage number is correct. Anyone who has used lime so far knows that a metric shitload is necessary for even the smallest fields. However, at $493 per acre, this is only $165 per harvest per acre (similar to fertilizer). This is well worth the investment.
• Fertilizer: As seen in the table, a spreader is the least expensive fertilization method, though the sprayer and sower are not far off. Using a sowing machine that fertilizes is a no-brainer since it reduces the number of passes over the field that need to be taken, but it is not necessarily cheaper.
• Herbicide: Surprisingly affordable and very much worth it. Note that you can only spray herbicide during the growth stages; once a crop is ready for harvest, you cannot kill any present weeds.
Profit Analysis Results
Here is the final table of results after calculations.
Profits were calculated as:
Profit = Sale income - Seed expense - (Sower fertilizer + spreader fertilizer expense) - Herbicide expense
Some notes on the results:
• Grains (wheat, barley, oat, canola, sunflower, soybean, corn): As with the previous games, these are fairly close in terms of profit, with wheat and barley somewhat lower. Of course, this deficiency is overcome with the sale of straw, which essentially doubles the income of a harvest (Wheat, barley, and oat all produced the same amount of straw). Oat profit is relatively low; I am guessing this is because it is to be used as horse feed instead of a cash crop. Note that you can get straw from oats as well. For early stages of the game, I recommend selling canola and soybean because the low yields mean fewer trips to/from the sell points for the same income.
• Root crops (potato, sugar beet): Again following the trend from previous games, profit per acre for root crops is around double that of the grains. However, the investment for harvest equipment is very significant and yields are super high, which means bigger tippers and more driving. Working width for the root crop equipment also tends to be very narrow, so the time investment is greater as well.
• Cotton: For all the hype Giants built around cotton, the profit is disappointing. This is by far the least profitable crop. Considering the only cotton harvester in the game costs $485,000, you would need to harvest 238 acres just to break even. The only upside is that yields are very low so it would not take very long to sell a large crop.
• Sugarcane: This is a close second for most profitable crop. Although growth times are long, you can use shoots from previous harvests to plant, and it grows back without replanting. However, the working widths for these machines are miniscule and it is a slow process. The harvester (which costs $349,000) has no internal storage, so you have to drive alongside the whole time, like a forage harvester. I only did the 3.94 acres and wanted to blow my brains out after about half an acre. Plus, the yields are insanely high which means a lot of driving when it comes time to sell. But, if you have the time on your hands, sugarcane is seriously profitable.
• Poplar: I included poplar for completeness, against my better judgment. I tried this crop once when FS 17 came out and quickly concluded that it is not worth the time. The poplar planter has a working width of 1.0m and a blazing speed of 4 mph, and the forage harvester header is only 2.0m wide. I ended up speeding up the process by editing a big planter and corn forage harvester header for poplar to preserve my sanity. Like sugarcane, lots of pallets are necessary to plant it, and yields are incredible, but woodchips prices are among the lowest. It is up to you whether it is worth your time.
• Corn Silage: Once again, as in FS 15 and 17, corn silage is the big money-maker, by far the most profitable crop per acre. Initial investment is not terribly high, as the Pottinger MEX 5 is only $38k. Larger forage harvesters are expensive, but it would not take long to pay one off with this crop. Yields are high, but no doubt some folks here will come up with impressive conveyor belt systems to get it from the bunkers to the hopper with minimal manual input.
• Haylage (grass silage): Grass yields per acre are less than half the yield of corn chaff, which makes this less profitable than corn silage. However, you can mow whatever grass is on your land, so you do not need to use up a field to do this on the side. Note that, as detailed below, silage bales have the same profit per acre as haylage.
NB: Despite fast-forwarding for several days, the growth stage for grass in the field did not exceed the "yellow" harvest stage; IIRC, in FS 17 grass yields were higher in the "orange" harvest stages. If this is a bug, grass could have higher yields than I found and therefore haylage would be more profitable. See Edit 2 below.
• Straw/Hay/Bales: Straw is definitely worth collecting, since you get it as a free byproduct from wheat/barley/oat; it basically doubles the income for that harvest. Unlike previous games, bales do not have fixed prices at the barn. All bales (straw, hay, grass, silage) sell at the same price per 1000L as the grass, hay, straw, or silage price listed in the game menu. [Note: Hay, for some reason, is not listed in the game menu, but it seems to be close to the grass price.] Unless you need bales for livestock, you will make the same amount of money just using a loading wagon and selling these in bulk. This also means that silage bales are not the money-maker they were in FS 17; profit per acre is the same as making silage in bunkers from grass (haylage). The upside to silage bales is that they ferment instantly, so if you have a really good silage price you can produce some silage in a hurry.
TL;DR (Conclusion):
Trends from previous games continue; grains are similar in profit, and root crops are twice as profitable as grains. Corn silage is king once again. Grass silage is still good, but low grass yields mean that it isn't as strong as it used to be. Sugarcane and poplar are profitable if you have way too much time on your hands and don't mind losing your sanity. Cotton is a total waste of time, no matter how good the harvester looks.
Things I did not consider:
• Manure or Slurry fertilizer
• Livestock profit analysis would be interesting to see, particularly the viability of horses
• Equipment and fuel expenses are not included in this profit analysis due to the wide variety of equipment used
• Time investment is a significant factor in choosing what crops to work with. It would be very interesting to see numbers like acres per hour for the different crops. Anyone got a stopwatch?
Personal Notes:
• The amount of straw you get from wheat/barley/oat is, frankly, ridiculous. I am not a farmer, so I do not know what yield is realistic, but I doubt it is an order of magnitude higher than the actual crop. Edit: From the comments, it seems that this amount of straw is plausible.
• Lime and weeds are a great addition to the game. It is nice to have a reason to buy a sprayer or a spreader, and it breaks up the sow/fertilize/harvest cycle a bit more.
• Cotton has a lot of potential to be a fun new feature, but it needs to be more worthwhile. The harvester is beautiful and the mechanics are good, but it seriously needs a profit buff to be worth the time. No doubt someone will write a script to amend this before too long.
• I love the new American equipment. All the John Deere equipment is fabulous, the Kinze and Elmer's grain carts are fantastic, as are the new grain trailers and trucks. I am not sure why they went with a Deere corn header with 22" row spacing when the rows in the game are 30", but at least it looks great.
• The Hardi Rubicon 9000 is a sweet machine. 48.5m span and 15mph working speed? Not too bad.
• In the past, I have generally stayed away from corn silage because the crazy profit feels like cheating, especially when I don't do livestock. For my personal play style, I stick with grain farming. My cousins farm 2500 acres of corn and soybeans in Iowa, so I am more interested in 60-foot planters and big tractors than sugarcane and horses. I did this analysis to determine how this play style stacks up next to the other features of FS 19, and it turns out it is pretty much as it was in FS 17. I tried the other crops and features, and I can now run my big combines and grain carts and not feel like I am missing out on anything.
If you're still with me, thanks for reading! Let me know if you have questions or comments.
Edit: Here is a link to the Excel sheet.
Edit 2: /u/HeavensRejected has uncovered the yields from the game's .xml files in this comment. All but two agree almost exactly with my results. The two outliers are poplar and grass. My value for poplar yield is triple the values in the .xml files, most likely due to using a modded seeder instead of the little planter. For grass, the value in the .xml files is 50% higher, likely because the grass did not reach the later harvest stages.
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发表于 2018-11-27 21:33:49
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