Slurry/Farming Simulator 15
Slurry is one of several types of Fertilizers in Farming Simulator 15.
Slurry can be sprayed on a field in order to increase its Crop yield. It is just as effective at this as any other Fertilizer. It is spread by Slurry Spreaders such as the Marshall ST 1800.
Slurry can be generated in two different ways: It can be generated as a byproduct of Cow husbandry, as long as the Cows are fed on any substance; Or, it can be generated as a byproduct of selling Silage at the Biogas Plant. Slurry accumulates slowly into a special tank near where it was created, and can be taken from that tank by a variety of Slurry-related equipment. Once created, Slurry is absolutely free of charge.
Though essentially free, Slurry is only abundant if you're producing massive quantities of Silage. Otherwise it is somewhat scarce. Due to the relatively-high capacity of the fertilizing machines that use it, as well as some options unique to this fertilizer types, it is certainly one of the better choices for fertilization in the game. It does, however, still require quite a bit of work to use.
Description
Slurry is a mixture of organic material (either cow feces and urine, or shredded plant matter) that has been allowed to ferment in an open-air tank. Bacteria and fungi growing inside this mixture break down the material and generate large quantities of nitrous chemicals that are highly nutritious to plants. Water is added to the mixture to dilute it, and the final result can be used as a potent fertilizer.
Slurry is collected out of the Cow Pasture and the Biogas Plant when certain conditions are met, and is stored in an open-air tank that can be tapped by a variety of vehicles. Those vehicles will take the substance to the fields, to be used as fertilizer.
Slurry is spread out on a field using a Slurry Spreader. This machine is a simple chemical tank, with a nozzle at the rear that can eject the Slurry in all directions. When dragged over a field, it will fertilize the crops and make them grow healthier - and more profitable.
Creating Slurry
The game offers two different methods to create Slurry: either as a byproduct of Cow husbandry, or as a byproduct of Silage production. In both cases, it is generated automatically as part of the normal work in these industries.
Cow Slurry
- Main article: Cows (Farming Simulator 15)
Slurry is automatically created at the Cow Pasture as long as it contains at least one Cow, and as long as the Cows are being fed on any of the possible feed types (Grass, Silage or Total Mixed Ration). The more Cows you have, the more Slurry will be created. Slurry is created constantly, at a rate of about 236 liters per Cow, per day. This rate is not affected by the Cows' current Productivity level, nor by the type of substance they are eating currently.
Since feed type doesn't matter, the easiest way to get Slurry from Cows is to just feed them on Grass. This assumes you can afford the necessary Grass-processing equipment. Production of Silage and Total Mixed Ration is more complicated and time-consuming - and again, Slurry production does not benefit from that.
As long as there is at least 1 liter of any kind of feed in the feeding trough, the Cows will produce Slurry regularly. If all feed levels reach 0, Slurry production will stop immediately.
Slurry accumulates into a tank right outside the Cow Pasture. This tank looks very different depending on what map you are playing. On Westbridge Hills, it is a large black round tank with an open top, where the brown gooey Slurry will be readily visible from above. On Bjornholm, it is an underground tank, showing only a small opening and a red pump right next to it. Either of these tanks can hold 1,000,000 liters of Slurry at any given time, and production will pause if ever there is no more room.
Silage Slurry
- Main article: Silage (Farming Simulator 15)
Slurry is automatically created at the Biogas Plant, when selling Silage for profit. To sell Silage, a Front Loader will empty a bucket of it into one of the Fliegl receptacles, whereupon the Biogas Plant will begin to process it. As part of this process, Slurry will automatically be generated as well.
The amount of Slurry generated this way is about 0.333 liters for every 1 liter of Silage processed. Given the rate of Silage processing, this means that about 8.6 liters of Slurry will be generated every second, until the plant has processed all of the Silage.
Silage is usually created in very large quantities, at least 120,000 liters at a time. This means that after an entire fermentation bunker has been emptied and sold, you'll end up with fairly large quantities of Slurry too. This is even more true if you generate your Silage at the largest possible batches of 900,000, in which case you'll have enough Slurry to fertilize quite a few hectares.
Unfortunately, even Silage Slurry may not be abundant enough to regularly fill your Spreaders, if you own many fields and have to fertilize all of them all of the time.
Usage
Slurry is one of a variety of chemicals that can be used to increase crop yields.
To do so, you must first purchase the required equipment: a Slurry Spreader. In addition, if you intend to use small Spreaders and/or work on large fields, consider also purchasing a Slurry Tanker and Slurry Field Tank (more on this below).
There are three different Slurry Spreaders in the game, differing from one another primarily in capacity and working width, though there are a few other more minor differences. The specific Slurry Spreader you choose will mostly affect how much extra work you'll need to do to put the Slurry to good use.
Once a Slurry Spreader is purchased and attached to a tractor, it must be filled with Slurry at one of the stationary tanks where it had accumulated (see above). This can be done easily by driving up to the tank and refilling the Spreader.
The full Spreader is then towed to the field. This can be done either before or after the field has been cultivated and/or sown. Activating the spreader, whether or not you are already on the field, will begin draining Slurry from the tank, so act quickly.
Field Tanks and Tankers
One of the unique advantages of Slurry over other fertilizers is the available equipment for creating mobile refilling points for your Spreaders. The idea is to cut down the distance a Spreader needs to travel in order to get refilled.
When Slurry fertilization is taking place on a field that's distant from the Biogas Plant or Cow Pasture, you can drive a Slurry Field Tank to the vicinity of the field and park it in some open space, out of the way. Then, get a Slurry Tanker, fill it with Slurry at the Biogas Plant or Cow Pasture, and drive it to the field. Dump the Slurry into the Field Tank. Slurry Spreaders can now refill from the Field Tank.
Though this method still requires you to transport Slurry from the accumulation tanks to the field tank, the Tanker available for this job is quite large, and can do so fairly rapidly. The Spreaders will then have to travel only a short distance to get refilled, and thus can complete their job much faster even when working larger fields.
This helps mitigate the small capacity of Slurry Spreaders compared to Fertilizer Spreaders. Coupled with the fact that Slurry itself is free, it may make Slurry a reasonable alternative to Solid Fertilizer, even though it isn't quite as effective.
Hired Workers
As with all other fertilizers, Hired Workers can continue working on a field even if the Slurry Spreader they're using has run out of Slurry. Instead of going back to a refilling point, or stopping the work altogether, the Hired Worker will automatically purchase Slurry as he works.
The difference between Slurry and chemical fertilizers in terms of cost is very small. When applying either slurry or chemical fertilizer with a hired worker the cost is around $365 and $400 per hectare respectively - slurry is approximately 8% more expensive. The higher cost of slurry is due to the narrow working width of the spreader which results in a longer time period to fertilize a field which increases the hired worker cost.
Effectiveness and Economy
All four available types of fertilizer are equally effective at increasing crop yields. The only difference between them are their availability, cost, and spreading time.
Slurry is one of the cheapest options, since the fertilizer itself costs no money - it is simply a byproduct of raising Cows and selling Silage, both of which are actually money-making ventures in their own right. Slurry-Spreading equipment is not very cheap, but isn't very expensive either. Of course, this requires you to first invest in either Cow husbandry or Silage production, neither of which are very cheap activities. You must also wait a while for Slurry itself to accumulate to sufficient quantities. Therefore, instead of paying money for the substance itself, you will be paying money for the infrastructure to produce it. Once that infrastructure is in place, however, Slurry is effectively free.
The equipment used to spread Slurry on a field is not very effective in itself, at least compared to Solid Fertilizer equipment. The largest Slurry Spreader can only cover a little over one hectare before it needs to be refilled. If you have the money to invest, you can mitigate this problem somewhat by using Field Tanks and Tankers, but that still requires ferrying large quantities of Slurry from its accumulation points to the field.
In summation, Slurry is a fairly effective fertilizer if you can get it in large quantities, which should occur on its own by the later stages of the game. It is certainly one of the more interesting types of fertilizer, due to the process of using Field Tanks. However, in a straight-up comparison of the costs and effort involved, it still loses out to both the Solid Fertilizer and the chemical fertilizer, for a variety of reasons.