Realistic Soil & Fertilizer v2.4
Adds meaningful depth to farming without overwhelming complexity. Every field has its own soil health — nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic matter, and pH — that changes based on what you grow, what you apply, and what the weather does. Ignore your soil and yields will suffer. Manage it well and your farm runs more efficiently.
SOIL NUTRIENTS
Each field independently tracks five values:
– Nitrogen (N) — depletes heavily from most crops, especially corn and canola
– Phosphorus (P) — depletes more slowly, matters most for root crops
– Potassium (K) — lost in large quantities with high-yield harvests; especially heavy for potatoes and sugarbeets
– Organic Matter (OM) — improves long-term fertility; manure and compost build it up; chopped straw also contributes
– pH — affects how well nutrients are absorbed; lime and gypsum adjust it
Crops extract different amounts of each nutrient. Fallow fields slowly recover on their own. Legumes (soybeans, peas, beans) provide a spring nitrogen bonus. Growing the same crop consecutively increases nutrient extraction.
FERTILIZER TYPES
The mod supports all major fertilizer types used in the base game and common mods:
Synthetic:
– Liquid Fertilizer — balanced N/P/K, quick uptake
– Solid Fertilizer — higher phosphorus, standard cost
– Digestate — biogas byproduct, strong nitrogen and potassium
– UAN28 / UAN32 — liquid nitrogen solutions
– Anhydrous Ammonia — highest-concentration nitrogen source
– AMS / Urea — dry and liquid nitrogen options
– Starter Fertilizer — high-phosphorus pop-up fertilizer
– MAP / DAP — phosphorus-heavy dry and liquid options
– Potash — pure potassium source
Organic:
– Manure — slow-release, builds organic matter
– Slurry — liquid organic, high in potassium
– Compost — excellent organic matter boost
– Biosolids — good all-around organic option
– Chicken Manure — concentrated nutrients, builds organic matter
– Pelletized Manure — processed for easier application
pH Management:
– Lime — raises pH significantly
– Liquid Lime — slightly gentler than dry lime
– Gypsum — lowers pH slightly, improves organic matter
Crop Protection:
– Insecticide — reduces pest pressure
– Fungicide — reduces disease pressure
Each type has realistic nutrient profiles with appropriate application rates in metric or imperial units.
SPRAYER RATE CONTROL
Control exactly how much fertilizer you apply per pass:
– Rate Up / Rate Down keybindings let you adjust on the fly while in the cab
– 20 stepped rate multipliers from 0.10x to 2.00x in 0.10 increments
– Over-application risk: exceeding 1.25x risks pH and nitrogen burn; at 1.50x burn is guaranteed
– Auto-Rate mode automatically sets the application rate based on how depleted the field is — heavy deficits get more, healthy soil gets less
– Rate persists per vehicle so you don’t lose your setting when you get out
YIELD PENALTY
Low nutrient levels reduce yield. Fields need N, P, and K at or above the optimal threshold for full output. The further below that threshold, the larger the penalty — up to a hard cap depending on how demanding the crop is.
PEST, WEED & DISEASE PRESSURE
Fields track weed, pest, and disease pressure independently. Cultivation reduces weed and pest pressure. Plowing reduces pest and disease pressure more aggressively. Insecticide and fungicide applications reduce the respective pressures directly.
HUD
A real-time soil panel shows the current field’s nutrient levels at a glance:
– 6 position presets (top right, top left, bottom right, bottom left, center right, or custom)
– Custom position is draggable — put it exactly where you want it
– 4 color themes: Green, Blue, Amber, Mono
– 3 font sizes
– 5 transparency levels
– Compact mode for smaller displays
– Toggle the HUD on/off with a keybinding
– All HUD settings are per-player and don’t affect other players in multiplayer
A full Soil Report is also available via keybinding, showing a detailed breakdown for the current field.
SOIL MAP OVERLAY
A color-coded map overlay is accessible while the in-game map is open. Switch between 9 data layers: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, pH, Organic Matter, Urgency Score, Weed Pressure, Pest Pressure, and Disease Pressure. Each field cell is colored green/yellow/red based on its current status.
PDA SCREEN
A dedicated page in the in-game PDA with two tabs:
– Farm Overview — full field list showing N/P/K/pH/OM and status for every tracked field, plus farm-wide averages
– Treatment Plan — lists fields that need attention with a breakdown of what they need and why
SETTINGS
Open the settings panel with Shift+O. In multiplayer, gameplay settings are admin-controlled. HUD/display settings are always per-player.
Toggleable systems:
– Fertility system (enable/disable the whole mod)
– Nutrient cycles
– Fertilizer costs
– Seasonal effects (nitrogen behavior changes by season)
– Rain effects (rain causes nutrient leaching)
– Plowing bonus (plowing improves soil health)
– Auto-Rate Control
– Notifications (low nutrient warnings)
Difficulty levels:
– Simple — reduced depletion, lower costs, more forgiving
– Realistic — balanced, standard rates (default)
– Hardcore — rapid depletion, higher costs, no room for neglect
Units: Switch between metric (kg/ha) and imperial (lb/ac) per player.
PRECISION FARMING COMPATIBILITY
If the official Precision Farming DLC is active, this mod automatically enters read-only mode. It does not interfere with PF soil data — it just observes. No conflicts.
MULTIPLAYER
Fully supported. The server controls gameplay settings. Each player controls their own HUD preferences. Field soil data is synced to all clients. New players joining mid-session receive a full state sync automatically.
CONSOLE COMMANDS
Type soilfertility in the developer console (tilde key) to see all commands. Key ones:
soilfertility — show all available commands
SoilEnable / SoilDisable — toggle the mod
SoilSetDifficulty 1/2/3 — set difficulty
SoilFieldInfo — show soil data for a specific field
SoilShowSettings — display current settings
SoilResetSettings — reset everything to defaults
SoilSaveData — force save soil data to disk
SoilDebug — toggle debug logging
COMPATIBILITY
– Works with all maps
– Works with all vehicles and sprayers
– Compatible with crop rotation mods
– No known conflicts with other mods
– Save game compatible — existing saves load normally
INSTALLATION
Extract the zip into your mods folder. Open the settings panel with Shift+O to configure. No additional steps required.
New: Custom Sprayer Vehicles
– Added John Deere R700i (28 m boom) and R975i (36 m boom) with full per-nozzle section control (SFNozzleEffects)
New: Work Trail Overlays
– Tillage operations (plowing, cultivating) now leave a visible work trail on the HUD and minimap — same system as spray trails
Sprayer / Variable Rate Fixes
– Fixed: Variable rate + auto rate no longer double-reduces nutrient gain — applying at 50% now correctly delivers 50%, not near-zero
– Fixed: Spray visual effects no longer fire when the boom is folded or the vehicle is fully stopped
– Fixed: Transition-based visual suppression prevents effect overlap when switching spray types mid-field
– Fixed: Field edge/boundary sections (boom tip midpoint off-field) now always receive full nutrient credit
Soil Monitor / HUD Fixes
– Fixed: HUD always shows field averages — local cell values no longer temporarily overwrite the average during spraying
– Fixed: Ghost bar (projected nutrient gain preview) now correctly applies the Replenishment Rate difficulty multiplier
– Fixed: High/low tick marks on soil bars now render at the correct position
Harvest Fix
– Fixed: Yield modifier no longer drops progressively during a multi-pass harvest — it is now frozen at the first harvest call and held stable for the full crop cycle
Map / Overview Fixes
– Fixed: Map cell tooltip bars now show numeric values (N/P/K as %, pH as decimal, OM as %) — previously just unlabeled bars
– Fixed: Phosphorus fair/good threshold in the farm overview panel now matches all other soil displays (was stale at 45, corrected to 40)
– Fixed: Minimap soil overlay anchoring corrected — no more flicker or drift on large maps (#547)
Pricing
– Rebalanced purchase prices across all 20 custom fertilizer types to better reflect real-world cost ratios
Required:
– Density Layer Installer
