Question for IRL farmers.

[Xamurai]

Question for IRL farmers. (specially small ones)

Do you guys do the same crops over and over. or do you guys rotate crops depending on the market, Soil nutrients, ...?

[Sistermatic™]

We used to do all wheat, although sometimes barley (can't do much more with dryland farming) but we'd fallow for usually 1 or sometimes 2 years. Sometimes drought forced your hand to fallow in any case, or we'd get no rain, poor growth and leave crop in for stock feed.

Rarely was price a factor as grain was pooled and sold via brokerage. All we could hope was someone else had a drought, like the US for example to lift our prices.

[Mysticalmaid]

In the U.K. we were taught about crop rotation as part of history lessons in the late 80's/early 90's. It's possible our farmers do use it. We have a smaller landmass than some countries so we need to look after what we've got to get more out of it.

[VanZan_75]

From what I recall of farming in my youth ( many moons ago ) , crops were rotated to prevent diseases / pests + help soil condition .
Usually Wheat , then Barley, then Potatoes. Potatoes could only be planted every third or fourth season in the same field , any more often than that would result in more diseases/ pests . Turnips ( Swedes ) were also in the rotation + grass .
No Oilseed Rape ( Canola ) grown on the farms I worked . It's rotation ( from what I recall , could be wrong) , was Wheat , Wheat, then Oilseed Rape ( Canola ) . Oilseed Rape ( Canola ) , also helps condition the soil .
Oilseed Rape ( Canola ) was recommended to be planted once every three seasons in the same soil / field , this is to prevent diseases etc ( Clubroot etc ) .
Basically, it's not recommended to plant the same crops continuously in the same field/ soil . Farmers incorporate " brake crops " in rotations ( Canola , potatoes , Beans , grass , corn silage ) thus helping to break the cycle of diseases / pests .
Also , continuously planting the same crop type , in a field season after season , also results in less yields .

( P.s My current rotation in Fs25 is Oats then Soyabeans . Others are Wheat , Barley then Canola , or , Corn then Soyabeans 👍) .

[Lord Nighthawk]

The answer is pretty simple, crop rotation is a knowledge since ages now and - if possible - should still be done. But we have 2024 meanwhile and fertilizing industry is capable to compensate nearly every soil condition so......it´s possible to do things over and over again if you want or need to.

[metalhed]

wheat, corn, soybeans around here, rotate them every year - some oats (not much) and move the alfalfa around as it gets less productive...

[kubanskiloewe]

definately we do crop rotation and i miss this mod so much....
I had big hopes GIANTS would bring this as a standard feature, at least for switching ON/OFF !!

[Limmin]

The field across the street from me is either corn or soybeans, but once in the 8 years I've been watching, it was left to weeds (fallow, I suppose).