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Here we go in the slightly altered format with a factual update and some info on my future plans. In the last post I left us all waiting with bated breath to see if the rains would stop in time for me to harvest my Soy Bean crop. I pottered about doing some small jobs for other farmers to keep some money coming in. Then around 16:30 there was a weather update – the rain was forcast to stop circa 10:30pm. With that good news, I decided to sow the original field with Wheat and get another crop on the grow. By 6:15pm it was already starting to look like the weather was improving and knowing that time was going to be tight for completing the harvest if the rain stopped, I decided to move the equipment down to Field 14 West……and by half-past Seven we had everything in place for quick start…

But the nail-biting wasn’t over. All I could do was fill in time with a small local delivery as I waited to see if the rain stopped. It finally did stop at 23:15. I fired up the New Holland TC5.90 for our first night harvest……We collected just over 13000l of Soy Beans……It was a tired farmer that headed back home with the combine and the harvested beans. I left the New Holland by the washer ready for a clean in the morning. I parked the trailer down by the piggery ready for an early morning trip to the store offering the best price. And I went to bed – (irl too!).

In the morning at 06:30 I drove down to Empire Stores and sold the beans for £21450 – that put our cash in the bank to £220k. I decided to pay back £50k of the original loan so I currently have a working capital of £170k. I cleaned off the Harvester and put it away. Then it was time for the new day’s chores. All that ‘lovely’ rain had made the original field look like a great candidate for a ‘Britain in Bloom’ award……More herbicide deployed in response!

That is where we are currently. The next chores will be harvesting the grass in field 4 and preparing 14 West for another crop. Working with the fields we have and doing contract work for other farmers, I want to boost the bank balance up to around £300k. We have a minor issue revolving around the Fendt – You can see that the value is marked in red on this screen……The resale value being low is the game’s way of telling me that the maintenance costs on that tractor will start creeping up and its pulling power will begin to slowly decrease (at least that is what I believe is supposed to happen). If you look at the hours column and compare the time the Fendt has done with the other farm machinery, you can understand why that is! So the plan of action is to buy a higher powered tractor once we reach £300k to do the heavier work. The Fendt will then handle grass harvests and other lighter tasks. The Massey Ferguson will continue as the transport tractor, although it can handle things like windrowing too……I’m also thinking of expanding field 4 by removing some of the trees on the north and east sides to improve the grass production, but that will be a side project that gets done in quiet moments. Then, eventually, I want to be buying a 6th field for crops.

Just a quick note on the planned ‘Story’ farm. I’ve had to look at changing a bit of background code so that when I come to tell the story I can present at least one change in a screenshot that would otherwise not be possible. I’ve started mentally fleshing out my character and those who you will meet in the first couple of posts. Where the story will go I don’t know but clearly it will be limited to a certain extent by working around the farming. Greenwich Valley may be a fictional map but the A52 and A54 roads, mentioned on signposts, pass through Staffordshire. The main town on the map is Ballygreen and just outside Leek in Staffordshire we find a place called Ball Haye Green – say it quickly and you can see where I’m going with this 😉 Of course, that may all be coincidence but I conclude that the map is set in the midlands and I may be able to use that as an aid to my story telling too. We’ll see!