Bure Valley Farm – An Intro…

Having introduced the area of Norfolk that I will be farming in the previous post, it’s time to set the scene at the start of August and highlight the choices that will need consideration as I start farming proper in September. The first choice was quite easy – give the farm a name. Future posts will be headed Bure Valley Farm.

When you start the game in Easy Mode, the farm comes with some equipment. Most of that equipment is at the farm itself – there are 2 tractors, a plough, a cultivator, a harrow/seeder combination and a sprayer with additional tank. There’s also a large trailer. The game drops you into the dealership at the start and there you find a 3rd tractor in the service area and a harvester, with header and trailer, in the new equipment area. From this disposition of equipment we can infer that when we bought the farm we only got some of the equipment that we need to run it and that the Harvester is our first purchase to replace one of the missing pieces of equipment. One of our fields has a potato crop which means the previous farmer may have had a machine to plant potatoes. The absence of that machine and the means of harvesting the potatoes strongly suggests that these items may have been leased and have been returned to the dealer when the farm was sold.

I started August with €47k in the bank – that isn’t going to go very far! I have harvested all the seed and grain crops in my fields. I chose to sell the Canola (Field 41) and the Oats (Field 42). The other grains have been stored in the silo at the farm…

…There’s over 70k litres of Wheat and 20k of Barley in there – quantities that I can only dream of in Osada! I’m hoping I can hold on until a better time to sell so I can maximise my income.

All that harvesting has left me with fields full of straw…

…A lot of straw! That is ‘free money’ only I don’t have a baler😅This points to one my first actions in September – Buy a Baler and get a bale trailer – possibly hired. Another tool I will need in order to start down the precision farming road is a soil sampler. Again, I can hire this if necessary.

The Sprayer is in a poor state of repair so I need to either get it repaired or replace it – the type I have doesn’t support spot-spraying (technology that detects weeds and only sprays them) so I will need to replace it at some stage. The Power Harrow and Seeder also needs repairs but I think it will do the job I need for now – although I’m dreading seeding field 1🙄 Eventually I’ll need a much larger direct-drill seeder with the size of the fields in the area to improve efficiency and thus save time. There are other key items missing such as a spreader for lime and fertilizer which I will need soon.

Three tractors!..

…I think we can sell one of these and persevere with the other two. The Massey-Ferguson 3670 will go as the John Deere 7810 has a front power take off and they both have 170 horsepower. That will generate some funds. Ultimately, I will need a tractor with around 230-260hp for the heavier machinery. The 150hp Fendt 515C will be able to handle the light tasks.

Finally – the elephant standing in plain sight (Field 14)…

…Full of healthy Potato plants. This is the field that is posing me lots of questions as I don’t have the necessary equipment to harvest the crop when it matures. It seems I have several options none of which is ideal: –

• Take a loan and buy the required harvesting equipment.
• Hire the harvesting equipment.
• Plough in the crop and seed the field with a grain or rape.
• Sell the field before harvest time.

And that is the biggest dilemma facing me at the end of August. It’s a decision I will have to make sometime in September when I see how finances are playing out. Hopefully I can boost my account by doing some jobs for other farmers – Unlike in Osada I will be hiring the equipment for contract work!

That’s it – the stage is set, and the background settings put to normal as they are in Osada, ready for the September kick-off😎👍