Background FS22 Story
Please read Test From Zero PMC Undefined Farms 20km Homepage for details.
2022-12-28 Fertilizing Contracts
2022-12-28T11:59:00Z New farming day has started, last night pushed right into zombi mode, now just woke up, did computer chores, haven't eaten days first meal yet but fired up PMC Gaming and todays plan is to, well just farm more in Start From Zero aka test from zero savegame 
This savegame now has 15hrs 48min on it, quite nice for the first day heh.
Checked PMC Farming FS22 Equipment and Vehicle Prices page for base equipment and vehicle prices, what kind of stuff with what prices is available if we were to start farming our own land now.
Was looking at the medium list, it has plow, cultivator and corn header that I don't need, hmm but it would still be much more money than I currently have. The tractor and seeder is something I can buy, but then I wouldnt have money for harvester anymore, hmm hmm. Well doing contracts of course fixes that but yeah hmm.
Guess I could start this day off with a little bit of contracts, just to break the ice so to speak 
2022-12-28T12:13:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F292 and F466.
Then refilled Kubota DSX-W Geospread. First field F292 is quite ways off, but funnily I cannot even find the F466 blinking anywhere on the mapview heh.
Recorded autodrive network waypoint loop around F292, almost complete, realized that why bother doing the "way back" waypoints yet because I will be driving it soon enough.
2022-12-28T12:35:00Z Started contract fertilizing F292, manually GPS.
Here we go again, GPS driving, I love it heh. Hmm maybe I should have started this with courseplay and go eat days first meal, but nah I wanna drive with GPS
Better contracts show fertilizer usage for this one 10.1k liters, interesting to see if that is accurate. Yesterday I experienced that big F594 which was completely inaccurate info, wonder how this goes now, hopefully doesn't have to go refill because its quite long way back to the dealership.
Thinking about Start From Zero savegame progression, once you own the land and vehicles, then its only matter of doing some fertilizing or other lucrative (are there other kind?) contracts to gain money before you buy your actual farmland field work equipment. For example I would have a kind of big step from this Kubota M6-141 + DSX-W Geospread to Rubicon 9000, not to mention two rubicons, thats over million in assets. My thinking lately was to get as quick as possible to basic seeder + combine so you would start to harvest your own soybeans field(s) for that big money.
But one might argue that having lets say two rubicon 9000s in your vehicle fleet and just hammering away fertilizing and spraying contracts is best way to get big money that you don't need to harvest soybeans, but hmm dunno. The ultimate goal is to buy farmland and harvest all fields, so it would be working towards that goal harvesting your own soybeans.
I'm not sure how much money small seeder + combine vehicles would made from a small field of soybeans, meaning how long would it take to work the field and how many liters the crop would yield then. Obviously the bigger the field the more money you make and after one harvest depending on the field size of course, you should be able to upgrade at least one of your equipment if not both, it really depends on the size of the field. A very small field lets say 5ha or so, doesn't yield that much, so it might take two years or more of soybeans harvest work to gain some wealth.
But I am hoping this Test From Zero savegame would shed some light on that, new data and experiences to share with everyone
2022-12-28T12:49:00Z Now I realized why F466 was not flashing in mapview... I did not accept the contract heh, did it now
F466 is a big field next to one farm yard in eastern sector, kind of opposite side where F292 is.
Going back to that Start From Zero progression, one way would be to do fertilizing contracts and gradually buy each of the best equipment, first you would buy the best seeder, lets say kinze blue drive 4905 or maybe bourgault big air drill and cart, then you would buy tractor to pull that seeder, after that you'd buy combine and header, then last a semi-truck and grain trailer (or just grain trailer for the tractor).
Maybe its just me but that kind of going straight away to the best equipment is kind of hmm spoiler or what would you call it, you don't get the experience the agony and fun of working with small equipment first, to get to appreciate them before you jump to the big boy stuff, I always loved that in FS17 Cornbelt Start From Scratch savegame.
In past year I have grown tired of just doing contracts it feels like I am doing very little of my own farmland field work, so that is also one reason I'm so interested of moving quicker from 0 budget to owning your own land for soybeans harvesting. With fs22 being so piece of crap it doesn't even have crop rotation so you don't have to do fallow, canola and corn for example, so its all soybeans spamming to get progress done quicker.
The dealership sales have claas lexion 8900 -54% off and versatile 4wd -60% off. I could buy... hmm actually both of them, just barely. Now that would go a long way to our own farm equipment list, tractor to pull seeder and combine to harvesting, hmm hmm.
2022-12-28T13:09:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F292, collected reward 85.5k. Budget now 510k, whoah I could now buy my first rubicon 9000 too
Anyways, now its time for a lunch break while I'm contemplating my next move...
2022-12-28T13:36:00Z Feeding time is over, back to fertilizing contracts. Then continued driving Kubota M6 towards the dealership while recording new autodrive network waypoints.
2022-12-28T13:47:00Z Kubota M6-141 arrived to the dealership, nice autodrive network increment got done. Purchased 2 * 8 big bags of solid fertilizer for 14.5k.
Refilled Kubota DSX-W Geospread, then sent M6-141 towards F466.
2022-12-28T14:11:00Z Driven to F466 while recording autodrive network waypoints and target points. Now its time to fertilize again
F466 shape is irregular, its... err its... dunno what it is, its not just a box tilted to some degree amount, its... all the edges are different lengths and heading heh, dunno how to do GPS AB line for this one, guess there is no right answer for it, so I'm simply going to do it for the whole W-NW edge which is the longest.
2022-12-28T14:18:00Z Started contract fertilizing F466, manually GPS.
So here we go, this is decent size but very irregular shape field, will be interesting to work it for sure.
2022-12-28T14:41:00Z Quick save game and restroom break while save is running heh.
2022-12-28T15:05:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F466, collected reward 96k. Budget now 577k.
Drove Kubota M6-141 back towards the dealership while recording new autodrive network waypoints.
2022-12-28T15:24:00Z Another savegame and restroom break.
Back at the dealership refilled Kubota DSX-W Geospread. Purchased 8 big bags of solid fertilizer for 14.5k and finished refilling. Budget was now 562.5k and it was decision time what to do next. Hmm Hmm. Well I could buy one rubicon 9000 with GPS... this would eventually lead into needing semi-truck with UTTS-32000 tanker trailer for liquid transport heh. Or I could buy small/medium size tractor like fendt 700 and bredal k165 with extensions for that endurance fertilizing hmm hmm.
Why the hell is it always so hard to make decisions 
Clearly the long term big money making purchase would be rubicon 9000, it would give huge boost to our fertilizing capability and would enable us to spray herbicide as well. And this terrain is 20km so having this Kubota M6-141 with dsx-w is "cute" but not a long term big money option for sure.
- sprayer 9k liters 48.5m 25km/h hardi rubicon 9000 with guidancesteering 504k
Purchased the above, then 5 liquid fertilizer tanks, budget now 42.5k.
2022-12-28T15:40:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F13 and F17.
Sent rubicon to F13 and Kubota M6-141 to F17. So guess we are doing few more fertilizing contracts for that big money
2022-12-28T15:44:00Z Started contract fertilizing F13, courseplay, ETA 1hrs 14min.
2022-12-28T15:50:00Z Started contract fertilizing F17, manually GPS. Now we are making some money
2022-12-28T16:01:00Z Rubicon ran out of liquid fertilizer, oh my it goes through that juice like its nothing 
Drove rubicon manually to the dealership, purchased 4 liquid fertilizer tanks and refilled this beast. Oh man it will take several refills to fertilize whole F13
2022-12-28T16:06:00Z Rubicon back in F13, spraying fertilizer...
When I started this courseplay course I made the mistake of starting from first waypoint which is the headland, it should have been started from the inner rows because this field definition does not cover the whole headland and contract would surely be finished before needing to even start headland. Oh well lesson learned for the future.
This fertilizer hungry rubicon 9000 is why I like long endurance bredal k165s with extensions so much.
2022-12-28T16:19:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F17, collected reward 55.3k. Wanted to take dsx-w to help rubicon but its kind of tricky because width is different, also I don't think the plants even show where rubicon previously fertilized so getting dsx-w started might have been difficult. Sent it to the dealership, for now.
2022-12-28T16:23:00Z Rubicon empty again, refill time
Purchased 5 liquid fertilizer tanks. Drove rubicon 9000 manually to the dealership and refilled it.
2022-12-28T16:27:00Z Rubicon back to fertilizing.
Kubota M6-141 + DSX-W Geospread refilled, its good to go. Checked F13 where rubicon is working, cant see where its already fertilized so yeah lets forget that kubota helping hand. This is why its very important that your spreader / sprayer fleet is compatible implement widths.
2022-12-28T16:37:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F321. Rubicon is spending still a lot of time working on F13 so decided to take a small field for kubota dsx-w to work on in the mean time.
The old school thinking is to take ALL fertilizing contracts and then do which ever is the nearest, but nah don't feel like spamming right now.
2022-12-28T16:45:00Z Was recording new autodrive network waypoints that didn't even notice, rubicon is empty again heh. Okay the usual 5 tank refill routine, you know the drill
2022-12-28T16:50:00Z And rubicon is again fertilizing.
2022-12-28T16:52:00Z Started contract fertilizing F321, manually GPS.
Hmm thinking of next purchase, hmm I'm leaning towards selling this cute little kubota dsx-w and getting that long endurance bredal k165. This would not fix our incompatible fertilizing fleet though, so either I keep using kubota until I can buy another rubicon or well hmm dunno, I just really don't like these guys to have incompatible width so they cannot work on the same contract.
2022-12-28T17:01:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F321, collected reward 18.9k. Send Kubota M6-141 back to the dealership.
2022-12-28T17:06:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F13, collected reward 209k. Sent rubicon to the dealership.
Purchased 4 liquid fertilizer pallets, refilled rubicon 9000. Purchased 2 solid fertilizer pallets and refilled kubota dsx-w. Then quick savegame again as there has been some good autodrive network edits. Budget now 264.6k.
Sep 1st in-game 1728hrs its starting to get late, time accelerating to morning daylight, lets see if that brings us new contracts or ideas etc.
Sep 2nd in-game 0709hrs rise and shine PMC Undefined Farms 20km, lets make some money.
2022-12-28T17:20:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F523. This is a huge 100ha field in the far east. Sent both rubicon and kubota dsx-w over there using autodrive as by miracle I had target waypoint by that field.
Plan is now to use rubicon with courseplay and me driving kubota manually with GPS from rear end of the courseplay course. Its going to be a crap show, but hey lets give it a try at least. After this contract I should be able to buy at least bredal k165 long endurance package.
I am a little bit scared because this is the last huge fertilizing contract, or well contract period. Hmm it might be that all the big contracts have been done for this season now. There could be more coming over time when field stages change, dunno, but might be wishful thinking time accelerating and waiting those to appear, it could be that have to time accelerate all the way to next year. There is still plenty of those small 10-15k max 20k paying fertilizing contracts, plus the hundreds of useless 5k ones heh (1888 field definitions fix).
Did bunch of autodrive network waypoint fixes, then saved game just in case because next is to generate courseplay course for our contract field. Courseplay generated field work course OK. Beautiful thing with this big contract is that its seeded / planted field, so I can clearly see where to drive with Kubota DSX-W Geospread
2022-12-28T17:40:00Z Started contract fertilizing F523, courseplay, ETA 1hrs 3min.
2022-12-28T17:43:00Z Started helping with Kubota M6-141 + DSX-W Geospread driving manually with GPS from the rear end of the courseplay course. Lets hope this works ...
Was looking at the field location in mapview, when rubicon runs out of fertilizer it will face devastating round trip to the dealership for a refill. Hmm I really cannot have him driving back and forth all that way as there probably will be two to maybe even four refills. I do have 264k budget to buy some sort of autoloading trailer which I could use to haul the fertilizer pallets, hmm hmm. Long term solution would be mack 6x4 semi-truck and UTTS-32000 liquid tanker trailer and placeable where to buy liquid fertilizer directly. Hmm hmm.
Hmm wonder if PMC Undefined Farms 20km v0.2.2 has the maps_fillTypes.xml edits for usages or whatever that file was called, feels like it is not because rubicon just pisses liquid fertilizer out on the field, liters tick at crazy speed.
2022-12-28T17:57:00Z Rubicon is empty, sigh. Did not manage to decide how to handle this better so used autodrive to send rubicon back to the dealership for a refill. This is crazy long round trip
Autodrive ETA said 11min, oh wow and that crap is ONE WAY, aargh
Purchased 4 liquid fertilizer tanks then refilled rubicon.
2022-12-28T18:20:00Z Rubicon returned to F523 and is back spraying fertilizer. Funny thing is that our puny little helper Kubota M6-141 + DSX-W Geospread fertilized pretty much identical amount as rubicon before it ran out of liquid.
Lesson learned: two kubota dsx-w's are faster aka "better" than a single rubicon 9000. Rubicon's achilles heel is the 9k liter liquid tank capacity, which is awfully low. Rubicon is awesome if you can supply liquid to it at the side of the field, but like this with refill point 10km away... it simply sucks
Best big boy fertilizing solution is 2 rubicons and semi-truck UTTS-32000 liquid tanker trailer to refill them. Best long endurance fertilizing is 2 or maybe even 4 tractors pulling bredal k165's with extensions.
In my experience all the refill crap is just an unnecessary hassle, if you have the chance to reduce this hassle then all the better, long endurance always over fast or wide or something. You waste so much time fiddling with the stupid refills and if the distance to refill point is a long one, well there you go situation becomes unbearable.
2022-12-28T18:25:00Z Kubota reached rubicon's fertilized row, now vehicles are in head on collision course, they are playing chicken with farm machinery
2022-12-28T18:28:00Z Vehicles met in the center of the field, contract is now 95% complete, only thing left to do is the headland. But this is excellent point to save game and go take a lunch break
2022-12-28T18:53:00Z Feeding time is over, lets finish this big fertilizing contract.
Used kubota dsx-w to spread on headland northern edge with custom width, there was only about 300 liters left so had to be cautious to stretch it out as long as possible, make good use for every liter. Once dsx-w was dry, I sent the tractor back to the dealership, she is done here.
Next did the same thing with rubicon 9000, used boom width thing and started to work on headland edges.
2022-12-28T19:02:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F523, collected reward 193.2k. Budget now 445k.
Sent rubicon back to the dealership. Checked contracts and now there are no more over 100k ones available, even the 10-30k range ones are very few, seems like fertilizing frenzy is winding down a bit.
The dealership sales still have the mentioned vehicles, its kind of tempting to buy them but it would be an investment opportunity instead of something that would help us right now, in fact if I were to buy them then I would HAVE to do more contracts because we have no money or vehicles to do soybeans harvest.
I did NOT buy these but did calculations:
- tractor 246hp 50km/h fendt 700 vario with 724 engine upgrade 209.5k - seeder 240hp 8m 18km/h vaderstad rapid a 800s 159.5k - harvester 9.3k liters 30km/h new holland ch7.70 267.5k - header 8.5m 10km/h new holland varifeed 28ft 48k - trailer 12.6k liters claas carat 140 td 17.5k === 702k
So our current 445k budget is not getting even near that. Geez how expensive decent stuff is heh. If I want to get our own fields soybeans harvest going on I absolutely need those five items, well guess I could try to pull seeder with Kubota M6-141 but I doubt it pulls that 8m one or if it does then snail pace.
One option would be to just continue doing fertilizing contracts, but I really don't want to, been doing those for one and a half days straight now. Especially as the very lucrative ones have already been done.
Then did another calculation with the cheapo stuff:
- tractor 175hp 50km/h new holland t6.175 series with guidancesteering 142k - seeder 165hp 3m 12km/h amazone kg 3001 + centaya 3000 42k - harvester 4.9k liters 20km/h rostselmash nova 330 with guidancesteering 90k - header 5m 10km/h rostselmash power stream 500 25k - trailer 8k liters welger dk 115 13k === 312k
But that setup is so frigging stupid to buy in 20km terrain with huge fields, I would spend way too much time tinkering with those little girlie men vehicles to get a solid soybeans harvest done. If I were to just do fertilizing / spraying and maybe even harvest contracts without buying nothing, it would take not much time to get enough money for that 702k calculation list. I think this cheapo 312k list would be extremely stupid decision.
Life is hard, why cant I have good vehicles just by snapping my fingers 
Next I calculated all the remaining fertilizing and spraying contract rewards, note that this sum is not calculating the used product which of course reduces it quite a lot, but anyways, total rewards would be 370.8k.
Hmm hmm.
2022-12-28T20:00:00Z I still could not decide what to do so I'm going to punish myself for being such indecisive WUSSY and I'm taking ALL the fertilizing and spraying contracts on the board now. Lets see once those are done how much money we have and what mood I am in 
2022-12-28T20:04:00Z Accepted contract fertilizing F77, F38, F81, F19, F64, F73, F68, F11, F49, F60, F53, F45, F592, F39, F75, F42
Whoah
Purchased 2 * 8 big bags of solid fertilizer for 14.5k. Refilled kubota dsx-w and sent it to F592 W. Purchased 5 liquid fertilizer tanks and refilled rubicon.
2022-12-28T20:13:00Z Started contract fertilizing F592, manually GPS.
2022-12-28T20:17:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F592, collected reward 9.8k. Oh my almost ten grand
2022-12-28T20:19:00Z Started contract fertilizing F11, manually GPS.
2022-12-28T20:26:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F11, collected reward 20.4k.
2022-12-28T20:30:00Z Started contract fertilizing F19, manually GPS.
2022-12-28T20:40:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F19, collected reward 38.3k. Sent rubicon to the dealership and I went to restroom
Looks like most if not all remaining contracts are in NW corner where those field definitions fixed fields are, makes sense because I only took lucrative large-ish contracts and ignored all the 3-5k ones. But now it means have to drive all the way up there and well then back again when doing refills.
Purchased 4 liquid fertilizer tanks and refilled rubicon.
2022-12-28T21:04:00Z Rubicon reached N-NW after recording autodrive network waypoints there, then sent Kubota M6-141 after it.
2022-12-28T21:08:00Z Started contract fertilizing F73, manually GPS.
2022-12-28T21:14:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F73, collected reward 21.5k.
2022-12-28T21:19:00Z Started contract fertilizing F77, courseplay, ETA 30min.
2022-12-28T21:33:00Z Started contract fertilizing F75, manually GPS.
Hmm I think somewhere around this time rubicon ran out of fertilizer, didn't even notice (because I didn't look courseplay notification panel haha).
2022-12-28T21:36:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F75, collected reward 6.8k. Big bucks.
Purchased iconik liquid fertilizer station placeable for 7.5k, put it on farm yard F0079. This is the N-NW sector. There is no point running back and forth to the dealership for refills, large scale farming is about having stuff in the boonies
2022-12-28T21:44:00Z Refilled rubicon with liquid fertilier for 10.8k from placeable (above).
2022-12-28T21:46:00Z Rubicon continued fertilizing contract F77.
2022-12-28T21:57:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F77, collected reward 78.6k.
Then quick savegame again before generating medium size courseplay course.
2022-12-28T22:01:00Z Started contract fertilizing F81, courseplay, ETA 37min.
Been spending way too much time recording autodrive network waypoints, that needs to stop now, I'm only going to record essential major routes like when traveling to or from a new location like this N-NW corner section now.
Refilled rubicon, all topped up. Off to the next field.
2022-12-28T22:15:00Z Started contract fertilizing F68, manually GPS.
2022-12-28T22:21:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F68, collected reward 21.4k.
Drove rubicon to farm yard F79 and refilled it.
2022-12-28T22:29:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F81, collected reward 57.2k.
Sold liquid fertilizer station placeable from err farm yard F79, we don't need it at the moment, I don't want to leave leftovers behind which just drain our money with daily maintenance fees.
Sent Kubota M6-141 to F64 W using autodrive.
2022-12-28T22:54:00Z Started contract fertilizing F60, manually GPS.
2022-12-28T22:59:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F60, collected reward 17.7k.
2022-12-28T23:07:00Z Started contract fertilizing F64, courseplay, ETA 20min.
Purchased solid fertilizer refill station and diesel refuel station by farm yard F0198. But the iconik diesel refuel station did not work so I sold it and bought the... well other one. Then refilled Kubota M6-141, it was getting low on fuel.
2022-12-28T23:27:00Z Started contract fertilizing F45, manually GPS.
Kubota M6-141 + DSX-W Geospread reached F64... and instead of "just stopping", something odd happened, autodrive or courseplay not sure which, continued the courseplay field work fertilizing course automatically, I did not have to drive the tractor to the field and start from the "last position" field work course, wow that was cool!
2022-12-28T23:35:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F45, collected reward 12.9k.
2022-12-28T23:36:00Z Started contract fertilizing F42, manually GPS.
2022-12-28T23:38:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F64, collected reward 30.1k.
2022-12-28T23:39:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F42, collected reward 5k.
Saved game and took a lunch break...
2022-12-29T00:10:00Z Feeding time is over, alright lets finish these fertilizing (and one spraying) contracts.
Recorded a bit more autodrive network waypoints on my way to the next field, then saved game just in case before generating next courseplay course.
2022-12-29T00:20:00Z Started contract fertilizing F38, courseplay, ETA 22min.
Kubota M6-141 + DSX-W Geospread on its way to the next field refilled some fertilizer from farm yard F0198 placeable.
2022-12-29T00:27:00Z Rubicon is dry, going to refill it to the hum whatever farm yard.
Purchased liquid fertilizer buying station to farm yard F0198, refilled rubicon.
2022-12-29T00:38:00Z Started contract fertilizing F49, manually GPS.
2022-12-29T00:46:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F49, collected reward 17.8k.
2022-12-29T00:48:00Z Rubicon is again continuing fertilizing, back in the field.
2022-12-29T00:51:00Z Started contract fertilizing F39, manually GPS.
2022-12-29T00:55:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F39, collected reward 8k.
2022-12-29T00:58:00Z Finished contract fertilizing F38, collected reward 52.9k.
Okay now I need to take a short break before finishing off the last spraying contract...
2022-12-29T01:16:00Z Back, vehicles are now heading to farm yard F0198.
Purchased herbicide refill buy station to farm yard F0198.
2022-12-29T01:23:00Z Started contract spraying herbicide F53, manually GPS.
2022-12-29T01:29:00Z Finished contract spraying herbicide F53, collected reward 14.9k.
All contracts complete, budget now 715.3k, nice!
Sold the placeable buying stations, was trying to send vehicles back to the dealership but realized that oh right there is no autodrive network waypoint route yet, OK lets get it done next while we travel back to the home base
2022-12-29T01:48:00Z Autodrive network waypoint recording complete, both vehicles are driving to the dealership now.
2022-12-29T02:15:00Z Started to get tired, eyes were a bit sore even though I still have over two hours of today left, hmph.
Just realized I have harvest ready sorghum in F22, dunno if it would make much money but it would be kind of free money. Not that I have any grain bin silo to store them heh. Oh right forgot about that one, all these Start From Zero equipment planning and I never considered farm bin silo
2022-12-29T02:31:00Z Yeah I'm in full zombi mode even though supposedly not tired yet, gotta call it a night. Saved game and shutdown fs22, nites.
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