Starting Strategy

[cowboypenner]

I'm starting over yet again. After 5-6 attempts at building a successful farming operation with limited success I thought I'd come here to ask for some input. What strategy do you use when you're starting a new game? Several questions came to mind as I was harvesting the wheat from the field that you start with on the 'Normal' setting.

1)Should I buy a forage wagon right at the start of the game to collect the straw to sell to generate some revenue or should I hold on to my cash for some future purchase? ie. new fields

2)Should I focus on increasing the yield of the field you start with in the game by purchasing bigger/better equipment or should I hold off purchasing new equipment and spend my money on new fields?

3)How soon do you buy livestock?

4)Should I sell off my initial inventory to raise capital or should I hold on to it for a Great Demand period?

I'm not looking for you to tell me what do to do, I'm just curious to know what you did. I don't have any mods nor do I plan to use any. I'm using the Westbridge map on 'Normal' with 'fast growth'.

Thanks, Keith aka CowboyPenner

[paddy.joe]

Hey Keith, I started on bjornholm by selling off a hurlimann and a deutz tractor because I figured I wouldn't need four tractors. This gave me enough to invest in a loading wagon and a mower so I could do mowing missions and collect grass and straw to sell. So I did that while waiting for my crops to grow then turned my fields around as quick as possible. I tried to hold onto my initial stores and wait for great demands to try to capitalise on them but I needed some extra working capital so I sold some of it (wheat I think). Then I bought a fertiliser sower to increase crop yield. Then as soon as I could I bought the same 190 and the vaderstad 6m drill (sold my other tractors to help finance it). Then from there I just bought more fields and worked those before selling the sampio combine and buying a bigger one. Have 40 hours of gametime now and I still haven't bothered with livestock but thats just because I wanted to establish myself first but I made my first million the other day so I guess theres no time like the present!

Hope this helps some, paddy.

[dancness]

That's good info paddyjoe. I'm playing on hard mode and I found that investing in a couple solar panels (under placeable objects) early game can help offset the money drain from hiring workers and buying seed/fertilizer/fuel.

Also I would recommend solar panels over paying back your loan. At the max $200k loan you are paying $842 interest per day. Meanwhile the solar panel is making you $2280 per day. It's a no-brainier.

[cowboypenner]

Thanks Paddy.

I did sell my two Hurlimann tractors because I didn't see a need for them (too small and not compatible with a front end loader)and I put that $40,000 in the bank. I'd like to get the smaller Ford tractor with the front end loader so I can do missions or when the time comes load manure into a spreader and silage into the trough at the cow shed. I don't have enough money without borrowing for the Ford/front end loader just yet.

I forgot to add in my initial post that I prefer to hire workers over doin' the driving myself for the simple reason they're better drivers therefore less waste and more efficient which will affect my bottom line.

[Keifer]

silage is one of the best ways to make money if you can afford the frontloader + attachments (68K ?) .. 25 scoops of silage into the hopper and you'll have recouped that investment (on normal - rough math) .. and when you only have one or two fields, you have more downtime to do the mowing and silage operations

re: livestock

if you are mowing\foraging GRASS .. pull your forage wagon in close to the cow feeding trough until you get the "unload" indicator .. do the same with foraged STRAW .. dump several scoops of silage (the game will tell you when it's full on all of these) .. and then, when you want to buy cows, you'll be all set for 80-85% production ... just from doing the things you will probably already be doing .. no tedder\baling\feed-mixer required

[chaskuchar1]

I started my 4th hard game when I did the 1.2 update. this time I sold one of the hurlimann tractors, bought the fertilizer spreader and bought farm 23 because it was so close. the hurlimann tractor was good enough to run the plow and combine 24 and 29. and I bought 25 and 30 as soon as possible after a great demand for canola. I have had good luck raising canola on the great demands. the hurlimann has enough power to pull the 21000 tipper wagon and I am still using it for running around the fields. I have 65 hours now in the new game. I've got the t6 new Holland, fortis same and case combine. better than the other games I did, at least so far. chas

[morriswalters]

If you are playing on Westbridge sell three tractors and borrow more money and buy the smallest front loader and a spreader. Then do missions until you go blind and pay off your loan which you were forced to take for useless equipment. Missions will reduce your daily carrying costs and it is cheaper than solar panels. Use the spreader you should have been given instead of the three tractors as the counterweight for the loader. Then farm. Save your crops for the great demand runs, missions are nerfed, unless they are small. A ten ton mission on wheat gives you 2000 dollars plus the price for the wheat, the bonus is trivial. That will get you out of debt with crops in storage. Then more debt and silage. My two cents.

edit

on an 80 ton canola mission 580+/- a ton, 9000 mission 4729 bonus.

[cowboypenner]

Thanks for the great ideas!

Currently I'm focusing on missions with the little N/H frontend loader and using spreader for balance.

I have the 2 Deutz tractors working field 16 getting ready to plant Canola. Once I have harvested the Canola I'll switch to a different crop, maybe Barley and use a forage wagon to collect the straw and dump it into the cow feeders for future use. If I have enough I'll invest in a mower as well and start mowin' grass and dumping it into the cow feeder and silage bunkers at the biogas plant.

[OneAmongOthers]

Logging is the way to go. Sell everything. Buy a wheel loader,chain saw, dolly and a timber runner trailers. Oh and download the Uploader mod for the wheel loader (it costs 23,000 in game). It makes it A LOT easier to load the timber runner with. One or two loads (you can stack about 28 logs on the timber runner trailer if you stack them right) will pay of your loan. A few more can get you the implement that plants tree saplings and a tractor powerful enough to run it. Logging is imho the way to go early on to get the money you need to get into actual farming. True logging gives you the best returns, but it also requires the most commitment. Nothing can be controlled by AI workers. Also the scorpion king requires a second person to load the logs to have the best returns. Heck you really need a third person driving the truck so they can ferry the loads. Farming for the most part gets the most hand holding. AI workers, crop that doesn't need to be handled manually (for the most part), and a vast variety of implements to use for it.

[Case1370]

The way I go about it is I treat it just like I do IRL on my farm. I don't get carried away buying new equipment, I sell of some of the tractors to get some cash to buy a fertilizer spreader, along with buying livestock. I only play on hard, that way crop prices are more inline with real life, as that's really th eonly difference between difficulty settings, crops yield still the same, so it just takes longer and you have to work harder to build up your farm. Im not one to play a little bit then switch maps all the time like I see on youtube, so Im in no hurry to do everything at once. I try to play as if there are seasons in the game, and during my down time after harvest I will cut wood, and right after planting I do hay and then I do hay once again right after harvest, to get 2 cuttings of hay in 1 season. IRL where I live we get 3 cuttings of hay, but cant really do that in FS with crops growth so fast even on slow setting which is where I have my crop growth set.

Best way to build up your farm along with if your wanting some realism too, is to do missions and cut wood while your crops are growing. Also when you 1st start up and are wanting to keep cost down. doing the work yourself is the best way rather than hire workers to do it for you, since using workers cost quite a bit of money. Personally I prefer to do things myself as much as possible and only hire after I get built up, and even then I keep it minimal on hiring workers, but that's me and its the way I want to play, but after you get built up using workers to help out is the efficient way to go about htings.

[FarmerJeff]

Workers also cost more in the Hard setting, as I understand it, maybe double the cost compared to Normal setting? I also enjoy doing as much of the work myself as I can, to the point of running between equipment instead of tabbing. In FS13 I eventually had to start hiring workers, it just becomes too much as you buy more fields. When you say Hay, did you mean Grass?

[Farmer_Bob]

I have around 7000 - 8000 hours of play in FS13 (but not so many in FS15) and I have found that by selling everything that you don't need initially and by making do with the minimum strength of tractor possible I can save on running costs. After all you can only drive one thing at a time. Expanding your fields will always increase profits.
When it comes to storing crops for a great demand or selling them straight away, I prefer to play as I imagine a real farmer would work and sell things after each harvest and not risk my crops going off/rotting (I know this won't happen in the game but it's all about how realistic you want to be).
Hiring workers is just not an option when you first start but I do make use of a mod called courseplay. Because you don't pay for the drivers I like to think of it as I am getting my family members to help out during the busy periods.
Animals I tend to leave until I have stored enough hay and straw to cover a few days and made a batch of silage. Chickens are the easiest/cheapest animals to keep as you don't need to feed them at all. Sheep come next as they only require grass and cows are the most involved and most expensive animals to keep but the profits from them reflect this and keeping cows will give you the biggest return.

I don't know if you are aware of the benefits of fertilizing your fields but doing this doubles your harvest so a spreader is an essential piece of start up equipment on my farms.

I think everything else is down to choice, personally I don't enjoy the forestry side of the game so I just don't bother with it but others seem to be saying it's a good way of making money.

Hope this helps and let us know if you come up with any new ideas.

Bob.

[Case1370]

Workers also cost more in the Hard setting, as I understand it, maybe double the cost compared to Normal setting? I also enjoy doing as much of the work myself as I can, to the point of running between equipment instead of tabbing. In FS13 I eventually had to start hiring workers, it just becomes too much as you buy more fields. When you say Hay, did you mean Grass?

Yeah, when I say Hay, I mean grass in this game. Your right that hard setting the hired help also cost more than it does on lower settings, and missions don't pay as well either.

[Case1370]

I have around 7000 - 8000 hours of play in FS13 (but not so many in FS15) and I have found that by selling everything that you don't need initially and by making do with the minimum strength of tractor possible I can save on running costs. After all you can only drive one thing at a time. Expanding your fields will always increase profits.
When it comes to storing crops for a great demand or selling them straight away, I prefer to play as I imagine a real farmer would work and sell things after each harvest and not risk my crops going off/rotting (I know this won't happen in the game but it's all about how realistic you want to be).
Hiring workers is just not an option when you first start but I do make use of a mod called courseplay. Because you don't pay for the drivers I like to think of it as I am getting my family members to help out during the busy periods.
Animals I tend to leave until I have stored enough hay and straw to cover a few days and made a batch of silage. Chickens are the easiest/cheapest animals to keep as you don't need to feed them at all. Sheep come next as they only require grass and cows are the most involved and most expensive animals to keep but the profits from them reflect this and keeping cows will give you the biggest return.

I don't know if you are aware of the benefits of fertilizing your fields but doing this doubles your harvest so a spreader is an essential piece of start up equipment on my farms.

I think everything else is down to choice, personally I don't enjoy the forestry side of the game so I just don't bother with it but others seem to be saying it's a good way of making money.

Hope this helps and let us know if you come up with any new ideas.

Bob.

We will hold grain close till the summer months, but always sell before the next harvest IRL. The majority of grain is sold on contracts thruout the year, that way we try to get the very best price possible, to cover our cost and hopefully makes a little bit of money too. Crop prices tend to be at their lowest during and right after harvest, so not much is sold during those times, unless contracted ahead of time, for delivery at that time.

Im like you I don't get a lot of enjoyment out of the forestry side of things in this game, I do like the ability to cut down any tree I want, but I don't get heavily into it. Now if the woods could be leveled off and buidings tore down where you could make fields out of it, then I would definitely be more into it, but as it is right now, its not something I dive deep into. If there is a space where if I clear off some trees to where I can make a small hay field out of then I cut those down, that way I don't need to take up much farm ground to have hay to feed the livestock.

[chaskuchar1]

my 90 acres with pivot and well are planted to alfalfa last year so won't be changing for a few years. my younger brother, 17 years younger than i am, is farming it. it's right next to his farm. on game time i can't cut down trees but bought farn 28 and planted it to trees so i can do some wood chipping. i find this game very interesting... chas