Is doing contracts pointless?

[Lord_Beelzebub]

I’m farming on map Felsbrunn and accepted a Contract to sow cotton in a field, reward money is a little over $3,000. I have to lease the equipment because I don’t own any of it yet which will reduce the money I get by about $900. On top of that I find out I also have to buy the seed to go into the sower. The field is rather large so it will take 2-3 palettes of seed costing $900 each subtracting up to a possible $2,100 from my funds.

Doing the math, I’ll break even doing this Contract, I won’t even make any money!! So what’s the point of even doing Contracts?

I appreciate the realism of having to lease equipment and buy the seed myself, but the reward for completing the Contract isn’t enough. I wouldn’t doubt if most missions are the same.

Are there no brain storming sessions at Giants to fully think these ideas through or what? Come on!

[WolfeUK]

Dont do that one then, theres plenty more, i had one for 27k to sow a field of corn

Guess some farmers are tight, but seriously, i dont know if you get a rep/xp with them they pay you better

[Alexandro]

You get a refund for seeds, or at least it happens when you lease an implement and you fill it at the shop. When I used my fertilizer spreader I got nothing.

[lefe1]

I allway get paid back the seed or fert I bought. but make sure you unload any seed or fert before you complete the contract because you can use whats left over or keep it for the next contract. that's how I been doing it and if it a big field 3,000 sounds way to low should be more than that all of mine for big fields been anywhere from $9,000 to $20,000+

[Lord_Beelzebub]

I canceled the Contract and it didn’t cost me any money, whew. I thought I would be screwed eating the cost of already choosing to lease the equipment.

Where are you unloading the seed at to use for later, just dumping it on the ground?

[holliday50]

You get a refund for seeds, or at least it happens when you lease an implement and you fill it at the shop. When I used my fertilizer spreader I got nothing.

You only get reimbursed for the seeds/fertilizer that remains inside the implement when you complete the contract. I learned this the hard way. I accepted what I thought was a lucrative potato sowing contract that paid $75k. I spent $40k out of my own pocket for the seed to complete the job, which took 3 hours to finish. I hardly had any seed remaining in the sower, so wasn't reimbursed much at all. So, I ended up clearing $35k for 3 hours of work, just less than $12k per hour. It ended up paying less than those $15k harvesting contracts that often appear.

[Psistorm]

I feel like reimbursements should be handled a bit better than they are now, since I often also do not get reimbursed for fertilizer that was used.
I feel like it should be something like the following:

* using your own equipment you get reimbursed for the fertilizer/seed put on the field
* using leased equipment, you get one of two cases:
** If there is fertilizer left in the spreader/seed in the machine, you get reimbursed for it + what you put on the field, so ideally the cost of however many pallets you bought
** If there is no fertilizer/seed/etc left in the machine (such as if you dumped it at your farm to use yourself) you only get reimbursed for what was used for the contract

That should cover all the bases, be fair, and keep it a valid strategy to empty out machines on a pile at your farm after use as well, before returning them.

[Rasping rabbit]

I canceled the Contract and it didn’t cost me any money, whew. I thought I would be screwed eating the cost of already choosing to lease the equipment.

Where are you unloading the seed at to use for later, just dumping it on the ground?

Fertiliser goes down an awful lot slower in fs19. I initially bought 3 pallets thinking I would use them on my two fields. Still have 2 full ones after a number of harvests.

Plus, you will either get reimbursed for any seed/fert left over, or you can unload and they appear in a pallet next to the sprayer. Not sure which platform you use but on Xbox it is the same option I use to unload a tipper into a sale point

[TacoFarmer]

My own opinion,I think that doing the grain harvesting contracts,especially the big fields,are the best contracts.
The next best ones are the fertlilizing contracts.

[IowaFarmer34]

I’m with Taco, I stick to the fertilizing and harvesting contracts. I only do contracts that are $6500 or more usually. Harvesting contracts have an added bonus, you get some of the left over grain.

I started the Brazil map with one small field and was primarily a contract farmer with my own equipment.. S790, 8245R, 8RT, Great Plains seeder, large kinze cart, semi and trailer. Slowly buying up more land with ~100k/day contract profits.

[Neilyboy1]

When contracting always lease the machines you’ll get your money back on the seed, fert etc, also unload from your fert spreader to a pallet with just a little and you’ll get £1440 for the pallet keep doing so until you have none left when returning unused pallets to the sell point

[gordon861]

I think the contracts are underpaid at the moment, as above I mostly just do the higher paying fertiliser contracts with my own sprayer. Most of the other contracts seem to be a waste of time.

All the harvesting contracts seem to want the harvest dropped on the opposite side of the map and with having to drive two vehicles to the mission location this game should have had 'follow me' built into the base game.

Also on the subject of contracts, who designed the UI for this game? It works but a couple of basic changes would really help.
For example, why can't we have an option to view the contracts on the map page from a different view, like the field buying menu. That way you could mouse over a field and see what contracts are available and it could highlight the delivery location. Right now I spend a bunch of time flicking back and forth between the two pages to work out what is worth the trouble, which isn't helped by the fact that the contracts appear in a random order on their pages, the fields have numbers, why not list them in order or list them by job? Right now it is a mess.

[Neilyboy1]

Maybe an idea as you say list them in some sort of order but have higher cash payments if you complete them driving yourself and reduced a fair amount if we use the helper. I do agree not a lot of money for the time spent on contracts

[Ruges]

Its all about the size of your machine. Any contract that can be done with an implement over 10meters can be profitable. And fertilizers are the best paying (if you own your own 36m+ sprayer). This generally limits you to large harvester contracts, sprayer contracts, plow contracts that use the SPSL9 plow, a couple of the planting contracts. I dont like the cultivator contracts as the lease equipment is usually to expensive for the payout, but will give them a go with I can afford the 24m one myself (plus that 500hp tractor it needs).

Hualing contracts are garbage since they dont pay you anything, and you will basically need a tractor with a frontend loader and pulling a trailer. Most plow jobs dont give the option for the big plow, most of the sowing jobs dont offer the larger seeders. Fertilizing should be done with your own equipment. (metris 4102 can be purchsed for 84k, can do most fields in minutes). I even take the small field fertilize and spray contracts, might only pay 2k. but I can get those done in less then 5 minutes (use the fasttrac to get to the jobsite) and probly only cost $250 in fertilizer.

But basically avoid root crop contracts, sure you see some nice pay in there. but the amount of time they take, That one 50k potato harvest is a nice payday. But you could probably do 20 10k fert jobs in the same amount of time, probably more then that.

[PoggleBox]

I find fertilizing contracts pay the best for the time taken, using solid fertilizer. Unload unused Fertilizer at the back of one of my sheds if I need to spread lime. It puts it in big bags automatically. I own the fertilizing machine with 18m spreader that can do 12mph so it is quick. Even field 12 on Felsbrunn only takes 15 minutes to do. I never finish the fields completely, as soon as the contract complete message comes up I stop. If the contractor is happy then why waste money? Fertilizer use is minimal, unlike lime which it gets through very quickly. Harvesting cereals can be lucrative if you own decent equipment. Beets and potatoes take time. Baling is the least profitable contracting from what I've done. About 1/6th per hour that you get from fertilizing. Oh, and there are no trees left in either of my fields now .......