Precision Farming massive fertilizer use?

[Leezer]

Been playing about with PF for a few days now, but noticed something odd. Fertilizer use is far greater than it was without PF.
I tend to use direct drill anyway, the Pottinger or Kuhn Espro, with both seed and solid fertilizer tanks. Seed always used to run out first, but not with PF. So I decided to do a couple tests. Same field, same equipment, just PF on or off.
New save on HB, Field 48. Deutz-Fahr 7 with a Kuhn Espro 6000, planting grass seed
With no Precision Farming, fertilizer use was 567l.
With PF, fertilizer use was 3243l.
Yes, 5 x higher.

What is going on? The extra fertilizer cost would wipe out any gains from an environmental sale bonus. Anyone else seen anything similar, or am I doing something radically wrong?

[Holyvision]

You are liming and getting Nitrogen/PH to good levels first right? What are you seeding, different soil types take different amounts of seed depending on the crop -- you can turn on the automatic seeding variable rate to do this auto but if you manual do it and leave it on high-level seeding then yes you'll drink through it. Especially if you are letting the seeder to ALL the fertilizing for you, you're going to drink the fert too; by the time you seed the field should be at least 75% of the way (give or take) to what the crop needs already.

With PF, you'll first do lime, then likely slurry/manure/digestate/etc, then you'll go back and do liquid/solid fert to finish/perfect it. That's not counting the steps in the middle.

I recommend you watch Farmer Cop's YouTube on PF (and everything else) he has like 6 videos already for PF that explain every step, seeding and all.

[Leezer]

It's not a problem with seed - just fertilizer. I think automatic seeding variable does not apply to grass anyway.
Yes, normally I would mulch, lime, then direct drill with solid fertilizer, then roll.

For the base game, this is enough for initial planting of grass, which then just needs to be rolled after mowing.
In the test field, both the base game and PF were 'happy' after just one direct drill pass: just one used 5x more fertilizer.

If the usage were slightly higher due to increased realism, that would be fine - but 5 x suggests something odd, perhaps relating only to grass.

(I used grass for the test because I do a lot of grasswork on a new map to build capital - plus you start in august, and it's that or canola).

But thanks for your response, I will go back and have another look at those vids.

[coleislazy]

was this the first time you ever applied fertilizer to the field after using PF? the nitrogen levels will go down with each harvest, but a new field may start off very low already and require a lot of fertilizer in the first application to get it back up to the normal post-harvest range. subsequent applications should not require as much.

[Leezer]

Ye, thanks cole, I think that's it.

[lclark]

I noticed that prior to buying PF, all my fields were 50% fert ready to plant or 100% fert and growing. Adding PF set all the fields nitrogen to near 0%, so all that firt was gone, so the first use of PF will seem to be the worst. I've never used lime until PF so we'll see how that goes.

[Holyvision]

Originally posted by Leezer:

Ye, thanks cole, I think that's it.

Literally what I said lol. Glad you figured it out.

[Cell]

Grass + PF... Something is not right here but I have to keep digging/observing/testing. Grass might just be more demanding with PF. Lack of nitrogen does not seem to have a high impact on grass. Deciding not to fert grass fields could impact overall scoring though. I will look for some YT videos now that a couple days have passed I guess.