Farm Facts / Farm Optimization / Tractor-Harvester-Field Ratio

[retornius.zornius]

Dear Comrades,
I asked myself about the amount of fields and farms i need for my own independent supply. I tested field with ACTIVATED SEASONS (winter/summer).
A field can only be sowed and harvested ONCE per year, so all numbers regard to a single year.

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1. Sowing can always start at 3rd Mars.
2. The time for sowing depends on the field size and the tractor workspeed (doubled workspeed -> halved sowing time). Only one tractors can work at a field!
3. When sowing is finished, the field starts to grow. Growing time is always exactly 132 days (->0.76% per day).
4. When the crops have grown completly, you are able to harvest. Harvest time also depends on field size and harvester workspeed. Only one harvester can work at a field!
5. Plan the end of harvesting! I suggest October 31th, but you can harvest even longer.
(harvested plants on the field decay when a new day starts and the temperature is below +0°C, by about 3% per degree under 0)
6. Make sure you transport the crops before too many decay.

Dont forget, that your tractors and harvesters first needs to get to the field first which also requieres time depending on travelspeed and distance. The given speed (i.e. 36km/h equivalent to 10m/s) means the the vehicle drives with actually 10 meters per second. An ingame day is about 60s (at normal speed).
=>>> In this example the vehicle drives 600m per ingame day.

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Large field:
- Output: 300.88t
- Sowing time (tractor with workspeed: 24): ~15 days
- Harvesting time (harvester with workspeed: 30): ~40 days

Medium field:
- Output: 98.06t
- Sowing time (one tractor with workspeed: 24): ~5 days
- Harvesting time (harvester with workspeed: 30): ~13,3 days

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This is an example how u can find out, how many tractors, harvesters and field you exactly need:

If you wanna finish harvesting at October 31th (what i recommend), you need to plan. I.e. you have only large fields and only one tractor (workspeed: 24) and one harvester(workspeed: 30):
Start: May 3rd
-> 1 day harvester tractor time: Mars 4th (+1 day)
-> Start of sowing: Mars 4th
-> End of sowing and start of growing: Mars 19th (+15 days)
-> End of growing: July 29th (+132 days)
-> 1 day harvester travel time: July 30th (+1 day)
-> Start of harvesting: July 30th
-> End of harvesting : September 8th (+40 days)

->>> 55 days left until October 31th
The tractor might sowing more large fields after it finishes the first one.
So let's add another large field to our calculation:
-> 1 day harvester tractor time to field 2: Mars 20th (Mars 19th +1 day)
-> Start of sowing: Mars 20th
-> End of sowing and start of growing: April 4th (+15 days)
-> End of growing: August 14th (+132 days)
-> harvester finishes first field at September 8th!!!
-> 1 day harvester travel time: September 9th (+1 day)
-> Start of harvesting: September 9th
-> End of harvesting : October 20th (+40 days)

-> 2 large fields could be supported by this setup: ->>> ~600t crops per year with this setup.

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If you wanna make it exact, I suggest to use an excel sheet ;):D

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For transport I recommend to use distribution offices not to waste the vehicle slots inside your farms.
In the end you will get a ratio ~ 3:1 harvesters to tractors.
Then you'll be able to have 4 or 5 large fields for each tractor.

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Good luck and have fun:D

[MrKrabs]

Thanks for sharing Comrade 😊.

[Onbird]

Interesting calculations. I too have attempted to optimize farming with calculations like that, but I did not have any numbers on time taken per field. So it's 15 days to sow and 40 to harvest for a large field. Those numbers should directly give the optimal ratio of tractors to harvesters. Adding 1 day for driving and refueling should be done for every field, so it'd be 16 days to 41. Giving a ratio of 41/16 = 2.5625. This is how many harvesters one should have per tractor then, to make fields sown and harvested equally fast.

Using the 12 slots in the agro farm, that would either be 3 or 4 tractors and 8 or 9 harvesters.

From my observation though, crops don't start freezing when temperature drops too low, but rather when snow first starts falling. Which usually is in late November. Even then, they aren't completely wiped out, but rather die at something like 3 tons per field per day. So it's not a hard deadline, you only lose slightly from missing it slightly.

Then, if (again only using large fields for simplicity) harvesting starts on July 30th, a single harvester would take 82 days to harvest two fields. After that we'd be at October 20th (if my math is right). That is, however, the first harvesters who get to work on the first fields sown. The subsequent fields sown would start being harvested only later. In the more extreme case of 3 tractors and 9 harvesters, we'd have 6 fields per tractor, so the last would only get sown 5*16 = 80 days later, pushing the harvest way too far back. If we instead have 4 tractors and 8 harvesters, it'd be 4 fields per tractor, and the last field 3*16 = 48 days later. That would put us at December 8th when the last field is finally harvested, so the frost would nibble at the tail end of the harvest.

So it seems like maximum absolute output per farm would be obtained for 4 tractors, 8 harvesters and 16 large fields. At some cost in efficiency as you'd suffer frost losses at the end. If you'd rather have efficiency than max absolute output, maybe exchange two fields or so for mediums. That also extends the harvesting season since mediums get sown faster and thus finish growing earlier than larges, provided that the mediums are among the first set of fields you sow.

[retornius.zornius]

Originally posted by Konrad von Richtmark:

Interesting calculations. I too have attempted to optimize farming with calculations like that, but I did not have any numbers on time taken per field. So it's 15 days to sow and 40 to harvest for a large field. Those numbers should directly give the optimal ratio of tractors to harvesters. Adding 1 day for driving and refueling should be done for every field, so it'd be 16 days to 41. Giving a ratio of 41/16 = 2.5625. This is how many harvesters one should have per tractor then, to make fields sown and harvested equally fast.

Using the 12 slots in the agro farm, that would either be 3 or 4 tractors and 8 or 9 harvesters.

From my observation though, crops don't start freezing when temperature drops too low, but rather when snow first starts falling. Which usually is in late November. Even then, they aren't completely wiped out, but rather die at something like 3 tons per field per day. So it's not a hard deadline, you only lose slightly from missing it slightly.

Then, if (again only using large fields for simplicity) harvesting starts on July 30th, a single harvester would take 82 days to harvest two fields. After that we'd be at October 20th (if my math is right). That is, however, the first harvesters who get to work on the first fields sown. The subsequent fields sown would start being harvested only later. In the more extreme case of 3 tractors and 9 harvesters, we'd have 6 fields per tractor, so the last would only get sown 5*16 = 80 days later, pushing the harvest way too far back. If we instead have 4 tractors and 8 harvesters, it'd be 4 fields per tractor, and the last field 3*16 = 48 days later. That would put us at December 8th when the last field is finally harvested, so the frost would nibble at the tail end of the harvest.

So it seems like maximum absolute output per farm would be obtained for 4 tractors, 8 harvesters and 16 large fields. At some cost in efficiency as you'd suffer frost losses at the end. If you'd rather have efficiency than max absolute output, maybe exchange two fields or so for mediums. That also extends the harvesting season since mediums get sown faster and thus finish growing earlier than larges, provided that the mediums are among the first set of fields you sow.

Thats right. I forgot to mention, that crops decay over time. Your strategy sounds very valid to me :)

[melkij]

I have same observations: 4 tractors and 8 harvesters per farm.
One thing I found - with modern vehicles it's possible to add 8 medium fields, but in specific order (disable autosearch): first 4 big fields, 4 medium fields, 12 big field, 4 medium field.

With only 16 large fields, we have a noticeable time periods while 4 harvesters are working hard, but the other 4 harvesters have no fields ready and stay home. One period at the beginning of the harvest, one at the end. During this period we have enoght time to harvest medium field (and refuel). So, we utilize harvesters idle time. Traсtors are able to seed these additional fields in time.

With 4* zt7245 + 8* dom85 and this schedule I was able to collect 5590t crops from ~5600 calculated max. Few tons seems lost, possible I needed a bit more trucks than 10x kmz 5410 (2 small DO). Not sure about the exact date when all these crops were collected.

The tractor can sow 5 big fields. But with limited vehicle count in farm 4 tractors and 8 harvesters (16 big fields and even +8 medium fields) looks better than 3 tractors (15 big fields) and 9 harversters.

[retornius.zornius]

I did some "research" again. As already mentioned by Konrad von Richtmark, crops have a decay process over time based on temperature.

When a new day starts and temperature is below +0°C a part of the already harvests crops decay. So only the temperature at the tick between the days is important. The amount of decaying crops depends on temperature aswell (about 3% per degree). I.e. you have 100t of harvested crops on the field waiting for transport and the temperature is -5°C when the next day starts -> 15% (15t) decay immediately.

I assume next thing we need is a meteorologist inside the game ;D

In my test the first "day tick" below 0°C was November 6th (-1°C). Just a few harvested crops decayed. But at November 13th I got -6°C and -10°C at November 16th. After these two days only about 50% remained. The first snow appeared at November 23th, but doesn't seems to have any impact.

I just did a short look at the unharvested fields. In that savegame the plants kinda "shrink" by mid November. I assume that you will get less when this happens, but I havent checked that.

In the end: it depends on the weather.
I will continue planning with October 31th to get the same amount each year. But you can plan with November as well, but you will have some losses depending on the weather:)

Good luck:)

[(BB) Potjeh]

Why is everyone always using DO for farm trucks? Has anyone actually done thorough testing to prove it's more efficient? I just feel like with tractors and harvesters being so slow it might be more effective to use more agrofarms instead of DOs and assign less fields per farm, so you can have all the farm's fields closer to the farm and it's gas station which should cut driving time significantly.

[ZILonaut]

I think i read somewhere that you have to start harvesting the field before 31. October.
Then you can harvest (with loss due to temperature) until end of November.

[bballjo]

Originally posted by Potjeh:

Why is everyone always using DO for farm trucks? Has anyone actually done thorough testing to prove it's more efficient? I just feel like with tractors and harvesters being so slow it might be more effective to use more agrofarms instead of DOs and assign less fields per farm, so you can have all the farm's fields closer to the farm and it's gas station which should cut driving time significantly.

Farms are really just tractor/harvester storage...and the reasoning with DOs is just that they take up tractor/harvester space, so putting them here makes life a little easier, additionally they can store the grain in any storage, not just the one connected to the farm, which helps farm setups.

Then efficiency...I found 2 covered hulls can keep up with 1 harvester per field, 1 can do it, but you loose more due to frost later in the year...which means if we're speaking vanilla, the farm has 12spots. Personally I like the 1:1 ratio for harvester: tractor, because unoptimized it yields more than the other ratios, and there is a lot of room for optimization, like fuel station placement. This means 6 harvester, so 12 covered hulls per farm should do what you need. There are probably more factors you can add here, but the above gives me enough to make a decision.

[Onbird]

Originally posted by retornius.zornius:

I did some "research" again. As already mentioned by Konrad von Richtmark, crops have a decay process over time based on temperature.

When a new day starts and temperature is below +0°C a part of the already harvests crops decay. So only the temperature at the tick between the days is important. The amount of decaying crops depends on temperature aswell (about 3% per degree). I.e. you have 100t of harvested crops on the field waiting for transport and the temperature is -5°C when the next day starts -> 15% (15t) decay immediately.

I assume next thing we need is a meteorologist inside the game ;D

In my test the first "day tick" below 0°C was November 6th (-1°C). Just a few harvested crops decayed. But at November 13th I got -6°C and -10°C at November 16th. After these two days only about 50% remained. The first snow appeared at November 23th, but doesn't seems to have any impact.

I just did a short look at the unharvested fields. In that savegame the plants kinda "shrink" by mid November. I assume that you will get less when this happens, but I havent checked that.

In the end: it depends on the weather.
I will continue planning with October 31th to get the same amount each year. But you can plan with November as well, but you will have some losses depending on the weather:)

Good luck:)

Thanks. I'll take your word for it. I did not watch my fields closely enough, I just paid attention to freezing losses after snowfall. October 31st is probably a good date to plan around. I will recalculate later when I have more time.

I'm actually currently playing a self-imposed challenge not to have any natural resource production other than farming, wood and gravel. With a farm-heavy economy, I pay awful amounts for importing fuel, so every bit of efficiency counts.

[polcorp]

Very interesting. I am currently in a game where my challenge is to import only grain (inexpensive resource). It is while waiting for the next update :)
In my previous games, for having tested the farms without DO and with DO, the harvest goes much better with DO.
I had done a stupid test: bus stops in the fields transporting workers there. This speeds up the sowing time and the harvest time.
But big drawback: it requires a lot of workers ... which are much more useful elsewhere, especially at the beginning and in the middle of the game.

[lacek]

I tried retornius.zornius´s setup (thanks for that - really helpful!) for one complete season.

With workshop items (1 farm: 24 slots - 6 tractors + 18 harvesters, 2 x DO: 32 slots with covered trucks 10t each, grain storage 44000t connected to a rail cargo station) and a vanilla fuel stop and 30 big fields - provided the setup ist dense/compact enough to shorten travel times - it manages to get all 30 fields done in time with basically no loss in crops (as covered trucks always already wait to pick up harvested crops from the fields) and secure a 9030t of crops for one year.
With currently 40000 inhabitants I need ~26000t of crops per year (hence ~3 times this setup) to gain total self sufficiency (2 und 3 now under construction) ...
So for any future growth in population, the 4th & 5th farmin setup should be in place

[ZILonaut]

I tried the 1:2,5 setup and it runs perfect.
The 21-spot vehicle depot from the "Collective Farm Set" is equiped with 6 tractors and 15 harvesters. They do 6 large fields and a lot of medium fields due to my map.
2 DO with 40 10t trucks.
And the silo is not next to the farm, but next to the food factory.

[Onbird]

So basically, to get to the key point of the OP, a harvester can harvest two fields and be done by October 20th, if it gets to start at the earliest date when a big field can have finished growing.

So if we have 4 tractors and 8 harvesters in a farm, the first batch of 4 harvesters manage to do 8 big fields in total, starting with the 4 that first got sown. The second "set" of harvesters would begin work 15 days later, since then another set of 4 fields would get ready for harvest by then. Meaning that the other set of harvesters would finish their second fields that much later, which means November 4th.

No idea why I came up with different results before. I must have made some logical error that I am currently too tired to spot.

If not using workshop items (which I don't), 4 tractors and 8 harvesters and 16 big fields should be good.

You could even add 4 medium fields into the mix, since the first batch of harvesters would have time for them too between October 20th and November 4th.

[MG83]

you are late comrade . many tests are done on this particular field . check posts before you try to invent :>

[bballjo]

Originally posted by MG83:

you are late comrade . many tests are done on this particular field . check posts before you try to invent :>

It is unnecessary to minimize someone's work. Steam doesn't make it easy to find former post's, and regardless of your personal convictions about this topic, and this discussion in general, think about maybe not saying anything if you don't have anything valuable to add.