Mid-game - comparison of projects

paul_c
Posts: 414
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:13 pm

Mid-game - comparison of projects

Post by paul_c »

So, you've done a year or maybe two of arable farming, you can harvest cereals and drive a tractor in a straight line. You may even own some land; and definitely own a tractor now. What do you do more than keep driving a combine? I did a comparison of various "projects" you might branch out to in a mid-game scenario.

Assumptions
- maintenance, fuel cost of equipment not factored in
- all assume the following are already owned: tractor with loader, trailer(s) (for final product transport to sell point; and grain transport; wood costings include log trailer)
- prices/markets assumed to be stable in future years
- all need extra "floating capital" (or a loan facility) to buy-harvest-sell from a land purchase, eg harvesting barley or woodland for trees

......................................................................profit....... ...profit........payback.....work req
..................cap cost.....yearly cost...yearly income....(1st year.).....(5th year)...(yrs)..........(hrs/yr)
Chickens........194k.........0...............58k...............-136k.............97k...........3.3............4
Silaging 1.......440k.........0...............259k..............-180k.............856k..........1.7...........24
Silaging 2.......0.............192k...........259k...............67k..............335k...........0.............24
Silaging 3 ......108k.........0...............259k...............150k......... ...1187k.........0.4...........32
Furniture 1.....82k..........1k..............25k................-58k..............38k...........3.4...........1
Furniture 2.....262k.........3k..............99k...............-166k.............216k..........2.7...........1
Woodchips1.....24k.........38k.............53k...............-8k................52k...........1.6...........24
Woodchips2....214k.........0...............158k..............-55k...............578k.........1.3...........24

Silaging 1 - buy nice equipment
Silaging 2 - lease nice equipment
Silaging 3 - buy cheap/slow equipment
Woodchips1 - buy some kit, lease chipper
Woodchips2 - buy chipper

All my calculations are done on a huge spreadsheet, obviously its been omitted but if you're interested in the actual equipment and basis for the above, then please ask. Also, this is based on Erlengrat "hard" economy, and I took the prices for products etc from my own game. All require a bit more 'floating capital' to buy-sell land (you may not choose to do this - its a bit of a 'cheat') and most require some land of your own to build on, or in the case of wood chipping, dump the woodchips temporarily on.

PS Sorry about the dots in the table, if I copy & paste with tabs, the forum won't display it properly.