Marwell by SimpleFarmer - New Farmer Series

[SimpleFarmer]

Year 3

Annual Report

	Well folks, another year in the books. We made a half-million dollars, but it wasn’t easy. We did a lot of experimenting this year, which I’ve talked about in a special episode. And the good thing that came out of it was we reached a sowing platform for the ages. To top it all off, the platform is modular, so besides having a completely cool sound to it (modular stuff is cool), we didn’t have to buy it all in one year. We bought the first drill and tractor in Year 3 with plans to buy the other set next Spring. We sold the new calves. We were running low on cash for fertilizer (I can’t wait to go completely fertilizer free) and the bank won’t loan us money because apparently Schmave the Schmuck actually works there (didn’t know that) but we assume loans are off the table. Other than all that, the wheels went ‘round down here in Marwell. The harvest took a good minute, especially with the 21,000 liter trailer. Selling the crops takes forever, especially when they need sold clear across the map. We were pinching every penny, but we will look into this growing bottleneck as soon as we get our modular drill platform put together.

Income Statement

	Quite the profitable year here, that third field really increased the annual yield. We have a pretty small hayfield so we leased smaller equipment for it. Most of our depreciation is from the newly purchased equipment.

Balance Sheet

	Talk about healthy. We’ve increased out farm value by just over 400,000. It’d take a nuke to sink us now. My father called me SimpleFailure, I’d like to see his face now. Haven’t seen him since he left for the store all those years back. Wonder what he’s shopping for.

Analysis

	That profit margin tho. I think this game should be played on hard, I might change it next year, rumor has it that the recent Schmovid-19 Virus is triggering an economic downturn. Or I could just keep getting richer – sounds fine to me. And my wife. Hot wife: “You keep up all this hard work, we’ll be on the cover of the London Glam soon, hun.” *winks playfully* “now get back out there and make mamma proud.” SimpleFarmer: “You’re not my mom.”

[Dairydeere]

It seems like there is activity in the high levels over on Marwell. Not surprising at all...

[Swedish_Contractor]

Eagerly awaiting new update here...

[SimpleFarmer]

Eagerly awaiting new update here...

haha sorry, been playing on No Man's Land lately. But when I grow weary with the battle against the wild I will return to the comforts of the Manor

[SimpleFarmer]

Annual Report – Year 4

	Year 4 is just being wrapped up here in Marwell, the Winter has set in and we are waiting for the Springtime thaw to happen. At the beginning of the year we finished buying the rest of our planting setup and got all the fields planted by mid Spring. We rented slurry and manure spreading equipment to spread on the fields, and made and sold silage bales in early summer. With 50 cows, we are starting to fall behind on feed. It became apparent toward the end of the year that we will either need a bigger hayfield or we should sell some of the older cows, which are approaching 5 years old. The harvest went as planned, there was no drama with the weather this year, which is rare on a 3-day seasons game. We used the 21,000 liter trailer to cart all the grain to the silo, but I wasn’t about to take it all to the sellpoint again. We leased an older truck and trailer to make less trips. We are about to buy a truck and trailer, but I haven’t quite decided which one. Also, I am still debating whether we even need to buy one. We only used the setup we rented for 0.6 hours. I’m not really sure we need to pay over 150,000 for something we will only use a half hour per year. Milk production is getting really good, we are probably going to see even more next year as the year 3 cows begin to produce. Money is starting to be no problem here in Marwell.

Income Statement

	With a net income of just over 400,000, we are well on our way to financial freedom. We incurred a lot of depreciation because we bought that seed drill and Claas 920 early in the year and sowed both the spring crops and cover crops in the fall. In addition, we bought the slurry and manure spreaders in the fall. I tried a bunch of different ones off of mudhub, and all the slurry tankers were just too huge for me. In the end we went with the Strautman PS 3401 for manure (the largest stock spreader) and the Kotte Garant slurry spreader (15m 20,000l mod). They were very expensive. I am not quite sure what better options would have been, but it is so time consuming to keep going back to the farm to refill that I wanted to buy pretty big spreaders to make it worthwhile. I suppose the amount of time we save by not having to plow and fertilize might be compensated here, but with how expensive these two were, it is probably pretty close. Lastly, notice the gain on livestock as our livestock is now really starting to add to our farm value.

Balance Sheet

	After making the Manor payment, we’ve increased our farm value by about 285,000. This isn’t as good as the prior year due to the lower net income.

Analysis

	Our profitability ratios are a little worse than last years, but we added a lot to our assets this year so that would explain it. Our profitability isn’t as good as last year either, but even still, it is really high. I don’t think there is a single company in the world that sees 61% of its sales pass through to net income. Except for EA and Apple. And they are bad news. I wonder if my customers think similarly of me. Well, not my problem - maybe they should figure out how to change the difficulty then.

Reference to Parallel Series on No Man's Land

	Because of how profitable this game is, I think I will start blogging my series on No Man’s Land for a contrast. I think I will also go season by season, because here there are so many hours between reports, it takes a lot of game time before I can post again. On the desolate wilderness of No Man’s Land, you will find a completely different and gray world, where I am battling to survive on hard difficulty. Rain drips through the roof into my flavorless oatmeal, and the tractors creak all night with age. Most mornings I spend covered in oil and grease trying to get them to start. The animals stare blankly, wondering which is older: the farm or the dust in my eyes. *music intensifies beyond belief*

[FSarndrone]

"Dramatic"

[SimpleFarmer]

"Dramatic"

almost too dramatic, people are choking on their popcorn out here.