Growing corn | Agriculture Farming Simulator 2013 Guide

Basics

Corn is another type of grain we can grow in Farming Simulator 2013, but given that it requires a specialized type of equipment, it demands much more attention.

Preparing soil for the cultivation of corn is identical to any other type of grain - which is detailed in the Cultivation - Grains section. The first difference comes to light while sowing: it's only possible with the AMAZONE EDX 6000 sowing machine, which costs as much as 58000$. Given its large size, attach it to one of your most powerful tractors. Next, chose proper seeds (AMAZONE EDX 6000 is used for seeding both corn and sugar beet), fill the container and seed the field. If the presence of the marker irritates you, you can lift it by tapping Z two times.

Seeding corn with AMAZONE EDX 6000.

The next step is to fertilize the field. Same as with wheat or barley, it's enough to do one cruise with the sprayer or manure spreader or use the manure from your animals. Regardless of the choice, after the fertilization we can speed up time and wait for our corn to ripe.

Corn fields at night. The plants are still small.

When the corn is ripe, we can use it in two ways: collect corncobs and sell them at a selling station or process them into animal fodder. To harvest it, use the Deutz 7545 RTS combine harvester (315000$ worth) with a special corn header (46000$). Again, we can hire a worker to control the combine so that we could drive a tractor side by side and unload the cargo into a trailer. NOTE! The current version of the game has a bug which makes the worker automatically fold the corn header. To prevent it, after selecting the combine press H (hire a worker) and then immediately after X (extend the header). The collected corn can be stored in a silo and sold when the price is high enough.

Same as with grains, we can unload the crops directly into a trailer.

The second way in which we can make use of corn is to process it into animal fodder. To that end, use either a chaff cutter Pottinger Mex 6 or the huge field forage harvester Krone Big X 1000 with a corn header Krone Easy Collect 1053. With the former, attach it to a tractor and then steer the trailer in such a way so that you could attach a second trailer - a tipper which will collect the corn silage. If you want to use Krone Big X 1000, though, simply follow the instructions outlined in the tutorial. When the machine is ready, drive it over the field and begin the harvest. Store the collected materials in the open silos located at the biogas plant or near the cow pasture. You can find more information on this topic in the further parts of the guide, in the Animals - Cows, Manure section.

Growing corn

Planting corn can be done with the same planter as sugar beets.

In order to begin growing corn you need a planter - buy the same one as for the sugar beet, i.e. the AMAZONE EDX 6000 for 58 000 $. Remember to fill it up - at the same place as the sower. Afterwards plant the seeds - you can hire a worker to do that for you. Don't forget about spraying.

You need special headers to harvest corn.

The next step is buying a combine. Unfortunately here you're in for an enormous expense. The cheapest corn set costs 311 000 $ - the Deutz 6095 HTS combine is 265 000 $ and the corn header and additional 46 000 $.

Harvesting using them (7,2 m wide) is a pleasure.

The header (just like the normal harvester for this combine) is 7,2 m wide, so harvesting won't take too much time (remember that this combine can also be used for other grains after buying a suitable harvester).

• Investment (optimum option): around 513 960 $ (58 000 $ for the planter and 479 990 $ for the combine; sprayer not included);
• Return on investment: a dozen or more days;
• Conclusion: growing corn to sell it isn't very profitable, it's better to use it as forage for your cows.