Scenario editing: Typical crops in June?

[Chad Harrison]

Hi all

I am 100% clueless when it comes to crops, plowing, harvest time, ect. So I have no idea what types of crops would be present in June in Normandy. I have seen quite a few people post somewhat critical feedback to scenario authors that 'XXX crop would never be plowed during YYY'.

Wanting to avoid such an embarsing mistake (*cough*), what would you expect to find in Normandy in June? Sepcifically in V Corps sector (Omaha to Isigny/Bayeux).

If we could keep this in terms of ingame crop types, that would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Chad

[MikeyD]

Earlier somebody was mocking BFC for including so many bare plowed fields and lavender flower crops in Nomandy. I suppose you could claim the plowed field remained unplanted because the Getapo had murdered a dozen families as retribution for a free french shooting.

[Broadsword56]

I hope we'll get a French agriculture grog on here to answer in detail, but for starters...

Look closely at Google Earth in that area, and you'll see wnat appear to be the principal field types in summertime (we don't know the precise month the area was photographed, but it's clearly summer and the trees are all in full leaf).

What I see, in order of prevalence:

* Mostly lots and lots of pasture (all the long and short grass types -- now you know why Isigny is famous for its butter and cream, and Normandy for Camembert cheese).

* Orchards - which would have short grass underneath. To grow apples for the famous Norman Calvados brandy!

* Wheat or hay fields -- that blond color -- I like to use Crop 2 tile for those.

* Row crops - you can see the furrows, so I'd use one of the crop tiles that has mature plants on it, not bare plowed earth.

[Wicky]

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[LongLeftFlank]

It's amazingly hard to come up with period photos of Normandy with crops in them.... And damned if I know whether they're June, July or August.

[GonzoAttacker]

Same climate as Northern California wine country. What does that mean. Grass crops Harvested, Growing, and being planted or already planted because of weather patterns. Clover and weeds not excluded. Clover could be drying in fields, especially alfalfa (is clover like).

Vegetables planted, growing, or being harvested. Could be sprouting or maturing, fruiting, depending on crop.

Wild flowers in season.

Grapes, and apples should be developing fruit in June and July and depending on variety will be harvested Late July through early September. Grapes going into Barrels August through October.

So in my humble opinion as a trained horticulturist and agriculture teacher from this kind of climate all fields and crops provided are perfect. Plowed, Fallow, Crops, in the scenario editor are perfect for this time frame.

[Bimmer]

OK, I was just in Normandy (20-25 June) and, being rather, um, not quite right in the head, I was snapping lots of pictures of otherwise really boring subjects on the chance that they might prove useful in creating more accurate scenarios for CMBN. My girlfriend was most tolerant.

Anyway, here are several photos of crops in the fields. Some are properly framed shots, while others were just blasted out the car window. Most of the fields are pasture occupied by cows or sheep; crops occupy maybe 15% of fields, more as you move east toward Caen, fewer as you move west around Carentan. All the crops are quite low at this point in the growing season. I saw no freshly plowed fields that I can recall.

[Bimmer]

More photos:

[Chad Harrison]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Especially the recent pictures. Gives a real good feel.

So in general:

1. Lots of non-crop fields for livestock - as in, about 4:1 livestock to agriculture

2. Lots of orchards on Conteninten Peninsula

3. Lastly, crops

Sounds about right?

[smbecket]

Can anyone list what crops one through six represent?

[Offshoot]

I'm not sure what you mean by 1 to 6, but most of the crops in the colour photos appear to be either younger or older wheat (or something similar like barley) or young maize (the darker green broad leaf plants). The second to last photo has me stumped though. They sort of look like broadbean plants but I don't think they are - maybe a forrage crop like lucerne (alfalfa)?

The crop in the b/w photo with the panthers is tricky too - chard or turnips? They seem to be a bit too spikey though.

[Rokossovski]

It's amazingly hard to come up with period photos of Normandy with crops in them.... And damned if I know whether they're June, July or August.

The crop growing in these photographs is obvious. Clearly, they're growing Panthers. I would guess the photos were taken in mid-August since the Panthers are almost ripe. (Panthers were normally picked in early September, which is why it was so important for the allies to seize the Norman Panther fields from the Germans before harvest).

[GonzoAttacker]

the color pictures have wheat and barley. Sugar beets and or potatoes. and some form of legumes. corn planted for grain.

[JonS]

I have seen quite a few people post somewhat critical feedback to scenario authors that 'XXX crop would never be plowed during YYY'.

You know, some brainless clods wrote off Saving Private Ryan because the chinstraps on the helmets were "wrong" for June 1944. Dicks.

Anyway, in the CMBN editor crops 1 thru 6 are approximately two sets of three crops, with the ploughing running either N-S (1 & 2) or E-W (3, 5, and 6). 4 has such heavy wheat cover that it's a bit hard to tell. It's N-S I think, but it's so indeterminate that it doesn't matter much where you use it.

As for which crops should be used ... just look at any Google maps photo, or the 1947 aerial shots. They are all fine to use, because there is such a wide variety of crops being grown, which mature at different times. Personally, I use 'em all, as well as Long Yellow, Weeds, eXtra Tall, Tall Grass, etc. I don't particularly care what each is 'supposed' to be, I just think the variety makes maps visually appealing.

The only rule I try to follow is to have the plough lines run along hillsides rather than up and down them. Having them run up and down causes problems when it rains since the lines turn into intsty creeks, accelerating erosion. Er, in the Real World that is. It has no practical effect in CMBN. But I think it looks better that way, and tell myself it's to minimise erosion

[Bertram]

Of course both the time frame and the kind of crops grown have changed a bit since 1944.

Maize wasn't really grown that much in Europe, except in the mediteirranian, till after WW2. In fact cold adapted variants only cropped up here (in the Netherlands) in the sixties and in northen Netherlands from the eighties. I think you would not see any in Normandy in the timeframe of CMBN. (Also because of the maize in Northern Europe is mostly used for fodder, animals then were still hay fed).

Wheat was mostly grown in northern France, which was one of the main grain producing area's fo western Europe till WW2 (the harder American grain then took over for food producing purposes). All grain then was much higher - not as high as in the middle ages (when a men on a horse could hide in it - like the high maize variants now), but almost shoulder high (I remember grain being waist high in the early eighties, I am still surprised each time that the new variants are only knee high). Due to the height the grain was much more prone to be blown down by storms or rain (and then rot), so the coastal region wasn't very good for larger grain fields.

Mainly grass lands for hay making seems correct for the timeframe. Don't forget this was the time they were just switching from horse drawn to motorized. Farmers were still mainly using horses, especially in regions like Normandy. I have seen figures putting 50-70% of the fields in Europe to haylands in the late 19th, early 20th century, just to provide hay for the horses needed to provide transport for the ever growing commerce.

[Chad Harrison]

As for which crops should be used ... just look at any Google maps photo, or the 1947 aerial shots.

What aerial shots are these? Is there a link?

Thanks

Chad

[Chad Harrison]

Can anyone list what crops one through six represent?

Just to clarify the question, I think he means what crops 1 through 6 INGAME are.

[De Savage]

Don't forget this was the time they were just switching from horse drawn to motorized. Farmers were still mainly using horses, especially in regions like Normandy.

Good points!

Horses pulled plow, so there wasn't many tractors. Animals and farmers could slip to fields from small gaps in bocage. There was no need for larger gaps (for vehicles). If you look fields now, they have driveways for tractors. I'm pretty sure these driveways were more uncommon in the 1940's.

One thing that is missing from CMBN is small dirt trails. I'm talking about very narrow 1-2m wide path that was used mostly by animals and persons (on foot). In my own maps I try to add some "dirt ground" to simulate paths.

[dieseltaylor]

Basse-Normandie is predominantly agricultural in character, with cattle breeding the most important sector (although in decline from the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s). The bocage is a patchwork of small fields with high hedges, typical of western areas. Haute-Normandie contains a higher concentration of industry. Normandy is a significant cider-producing region, and also produces calvados, a distilled cider or apple brandy. Other activities of economic importance are dairy produce, flax (60% of production in France), horse breeding (including two French national stud farms), fishing, seafood, and tourism. The region contains three French nuclear power stations.

So flax and potatoes seem to be the crops missing from the list so far. I did think the penultimate colour photo was peas.