How to Harvest Corn

Just like harvesting Sugarbeet and Potato, harvesting Corn involves the need to purchase a different type of tool or machine to complete the harvest. Aside from that, when planting corn you will have to decide if you will harvest the corn or the chaff—as both require different types of machine.

Basically though, the process involved in harvesting and planting Corn revolves around three main parts --- a). Preparation, b). Harvesting, and c). Selling.

A. Preparation

Like in any land that is provided, you will still have to prepare the land by loosening the soil for seeds to be able to be planted on the land. To do this, you will have to use a cultivator, which you can attach to your tractor. (The default cultivator may do but you may choose to upgrade to a cultivator with a wider reach to save time). To start, drive all the way to a corner of the land and then “activate” the cultivator by lowering it to the ground. After that, drive all the way through your land—while moving in a straight line to make sure that every part of the land is covered. You may hire an assistant to finish up in plowing the land with your cultivator or you may choose to do it all by yourself.

After plowing the land, what is left to do is to plant corn seeds into the field. But first, make sure that your sow machine is loaded with enough Corn seeds. To start planting Corn, attach the sow machine to your tractor and then drive to a corner of your field. Activate the sow machine by lowering it to the ground. Then, with the sow machine activated, drive all the way up to your field. You may hire an assistant to finish the task of planting seeds (for a fee) or you may choose to do it yourself.

Note: You may choose to spray fertilizer on the planted corn—with the use of the appropriate fertilizer spreaders. Using fertilizers usually offer twice the amount when stores buy the corn you’ve harvested.

B. Harvesting

When harvesting corn, you may choose to harvest the corn alone or harvest the chaff only. Corn is sold to different shops just like any other crop while the Chaff must be fermented to make silage, which you may sell to the Biogas Plant.

Whatever end-product you shall select, one thing is certain, you must be familiar with the growth stages of the crops. Not knowing the stages of growth in your crops may cause your harvest to spoil, which will be a waste of money.

A crop is ready for harvest once it turns golden brown. One way to check for the color of your crop is to visit the field with your Corn and check the color of the crops. Another way to check for the color of your crop is to open up your map and check the icon of the crop on the field—once it turns golden brown, then it means the Corn is ready for harvest. But once it turns dark brown, it means that your crop has already died out.

1. Harvesting the Corn

When choosing to harvest corn, it generally involves the same process of harvesting other crops. The only thing that changes is the type of header that is combined to the harvester. To harvest corn, you must purchase the Case 3412 12R and the New Holland 980 12FT and then attach it to your harvester.

Note: When purchasing headers, always check the power requirements of each header. If it requires too much power, then you may want to consider purchasing a different harvester—something that is powerful enough to carry your chosen header.

With the chosen header, attach them to your harvester and then activate it by lowering it to the ground. Once that is done, approach a corner of your field and drive along a straight line to begin harvesting. To continue harvesting you may hire an assistant to finish harvesting or you may drive around yourself.

If you are also going to use the combine harvester available from the start, you will have to empty the harvester’s grain tank for it to continue harvesting the corn. To do this, you will have to position a tractor with a tipper attachment right beside the harvester for the harvester to unload and empty all the harvested corn. Not emptying the harvester’s grain tank will force the harvester to stop harvesting.

2. Harvesting Corn Chaff

Harvesting Chaff provides quite a big return but choosing to harvest corn chaff will involve investing quite a huge amount of money in buying the equipment needed to harvest corn chaff.

To harvest corn chaff, you will have to purchase the Krone BigX 1100 which is a corn chopper used to create Chaff from Corn. To completely use the Krone BigX 1100 you will have to attach a header in front and a trailer or tipper at the back since it does not have a grain tank. If purchasing another trailer is out of the budget, you may just drive alongside the Krone BigX 1100 to catch all the harvested chaff.

C. Selling

When selling corn, it is best to check which store offers the best or highest buying price of your crop. To do this you may either check the prices of the stores from your map or check out the Prices tab from your settings menu.

When it comes to selling Corn chaff, you will have to sell them to the Biogas Plant. If you do not want to sell the collected corn chaff you may use it to feed your animals by storing it in your Silo first.

Once you have decided where to sell your harvested Corn, you will now have to drive all the way to the shop or hire an assistant to drive your tractor to the shop.