Straw/Farming Simulator 15
Straw is a type of crop in Farming Simulator 15. It is an optional byproduct created during Wheat and Barley harvesting. Although it can be sold as-is, Straw is more effective when used as bedding for cows, as a component in Total Mixed Ration, or used to create Chaff.
Creating Straw
Every Harvester in the base game that is capable of harvesting Wheat or Barley has an option called "Create Straw Swath". When this option is toggled on, the harvester will leave a trail of Straw behind it as it harvests either of these crops. The Straw Swath option is automatically toggled off whenever harvesting other types of crops.
The Straw Swath is left in a long thin line directly behind the harvester. It can then be picked up by any Loading Wagon that is capable of carrying Straw. Alternatively, the Straw Swath can be packed into either round bales or square bales by the appropriate Baler, and then picked up in this form by a variety of other machines. One bale of Straw contains 4,000 liters.
Creating a Straw Swath does not decrease the amount of Wheat or Barley harvested. There is no known financial benefit to disabling Straw Swath. Also, fertilizing does not increase the amount of straw collected.
A hectare of Wheat yields around 57450 liters of Straw.
A hectare of Barley yields around 57900 liters of Straw.
Selling Straw
In both Bjornholm and Westbridge Hills, there are specific locations where Straw (either in loose or bale form) can be sold. In both cases, this is a brown barn with an open door, that has straw visibly spread out on the ground in front of the door. Drive a Loading Wagon carrying Straw right up to the barn door, or any vehicle carrying Straw bales, to sell your Straw.
Straw sells for $80 per ton. A bale contains 4 tons of Straw, so a single Straw Bale sells for $320.
Note that this is one of the least lucrative methods of gaining money from Straw. It can earn you some money early on, on top of what the crops themselves bring, but the equipment required to process Straw in the first place is expensive, and collecting Straw may be quite a bit of extra work. It is often better to collect Straw only with the intention of using it for Cows (see below).
Bedding
Straw can be used as Bedding for your Cows, by dumping it into the cow shed at the Pasture. Straw is the only material that can fulfill this function. As long as there is any Straw left in the cow shed, the productivity of cows is increased slightly, and the cows will begin to produce Manure.
The amount of Straw in the cow shed decreases over time, at a rate of 75 liters per Cow, per day. Once the Straw level reaches 0, Manure production will stop and productivity will drop slightly as appropriate.
There are two ways to dump Straw into the cow shed:
- Loose Straw loaded into a Loading Wagon can be unloaded directly into the cow shed by driving up to it and using the "Unload" function.
- Straw Bales can be loaded into a Bale Shredder or Mixer Wagon, which can then be driven up to the cow shed to unload. If using a Mixer Wagon, make sure to empty it first, and load only Straw!
Total Mixed Ration
- Main article: Total Mixed Ration (Farming Simulator 15)
Straw is one of the three components used in the creation of Total Mixed Ration, along with Hay and Silage. This is done by mixing the three materials in a Mixer Wagon, such as the Kuhn SPV Confort 12, at the appropriate ratios. TMR can then be dumped into a trough at the cow pasture in order to boost cow productivity by a wide margin - to 100% with Straw Bedding (see above), or 90% without.
The amount of Straw in proper TMR is between 0% and 40%. That means you can make TMR without any Straw. However, Straw is easier and cheaper to produce than the other two components, making it the "filler" in this mixture. Most commonly, one bale of Straw (4000 liters) is mixed together with one bale of Hay (4000 liters) and 4000 liters of Silage, to make 12,000 liters of TMR.
Converting to Chaff
Straw can also be processed into Chaff. A chaff harvester (such as the Krone Big X 1100) equipped with a collector header (Krone EasyFlow 300) can be used to scoop up loose straw on the ground, shredding the straw into chaff. The chaff can then be deposited into a bunker to create lucrative Silage.