1 Variable crop yields - Yields should be dependent upon a number of factors including how much sun and rain they've had and how well maintained the field has been (see 2).
2 Field maintenance - Each field should have a mineral balance level which will impact the types of crop which will grow well there as well as impacting the yields that you get from a harvest. This balance should then fluctuate depending on the types of fertilizer you use and how often you actually plough the land, rotate the crops and even leave a field fallow for a period.
3 Grain driers - Harvested grains should have a moisture content level which impacts the amount you get for selling it. Sale prices should be done in levels such as 5-7.5% = x/ton, 7.5-10% y/ton and so on. The moisture levels should also be dependent upon when you harvested (night-time is of course more damp) and how the weather has affected your crops. This then means you can choose to pay for your grain to go through a drying cycle to try to get a better price once sold.
4 Vehicle maintenance - Farm vehicles are notorious for breaking down just when you need them most and rely heavily on regular maintenance. I'd like to see some type of randomised breakdown mechanism placed on each vehicle based on how well maintained they are. You could then include a vehicle repair aspect where you need to call out an engineer to fix the problem. This would of course have a cost attached and the farm should be able to choose to either have an ongoing maintenance plan with the dealer or pay a higher price for adhoc repairs when needed.
5 Contracts - This is a big missing element for me. These days farms are contracting out so much of their work and I feel there are a few things which could be included really easily such as:
a) Taking a contract to work (plough, cultivate, sow, spray or harvest) a field that you don't own. These should be time limited.
b) Taking a contract to supply a certain amount of goods by a specific time. This could be a specific crop or even better, for bales of hay, straw or silage. Bales are currently so under utilised in my opinion and believe this could be an element of its own (see 6). If supplying grain, as suggested in point 3 above, moisture levels should able to a factor for success.
c) Contracts should be offered based on your reputation. If you continually fail to deliver on your agreements, people will stop offering you work but if you keep making good on your contracts, you'll be offered bigger and better contracts.
d) Contract benefits should not just be for money but could also mean you get an extra field or piece of equipment for free.
6 Selling of bales - Currently selling bales is a matter of simply dropping them off at a sale point whenever you want however it would be better to have these sold on a contract basis to customers on an upfront agreement basis with penalties for under delivering. For example, you take a contract to supply 100 bales of wheat straw but your harvest only yields 90 bales. This would then mean you'd pay a penalty and it would lower your reputation meaning you might not be able to get the next big contract. The way to complete these contracts should also be different too. Instead of just dropping off bales somewhere, I'd like to see a lorry turn up at your farm (or the field where the bales are kept) that then needs to be loaded. Again, this should all be under time constraints meaning it puts pressure on you getting all your jobs done quickly and efficiently if you're to succeed.
Lastly I'd like to say that things like my crop yield suggestion could be tailored into the difficulty selection meaning that only by selecting either "Hard" or maybe even "As real as it gets!" will actually enable things like these. That way people who just want to play the game and not be too bothered by the extra complexities can do so.
Any feedback or suggestions on how to improve these ideas would also be great
