Pallegney – October (Year 1)

The middle of Autumn and so much still to be done if I want my Winter crops in the ground. I’m going to have some busy workers this month and I’m going to have to find contract work to do myself so that I keep the positive bank balance. Last month’s idea about field 103 has become a decision so the first job handed out was to plough that one using the Axion 830…

…After which the tractor and worker swapped the plough for the Horsch Versa/Kredo combo to sow field 31 with Barley.

While this work progressed I took the Claas Arion off to do a cultivation job high up on the side of the valley. As I proceeded to work I could see the fields and town below shrouded in the Autumn mists…

Contract work for me and chores around the farm for the workers became the pattern for the first 3 weeks of October. In that first week, seeding moved to the small fields, 19 and 21. Meanwhile I took on a big Spinach harvesting job. That required a specialised tool, so I hired the equipment….

…Between issuing new orders to workers – The sowing moved on to field 103, completing the new Grass areas – this would keep me busy for the rest of the week. I did learn something while doing this contract – Spinach is actually very heavy! It doesn’t look it when you pick up the bag in the supermarket but when I can only half fill a trailer because of the weight then that’s heavy 😅 (Note – I have trailer fill limit turned on in the game for realism)

Week 2 began with the purchase of a roller. Now I had two active workers – One sowing Wheat in field 32 and the other rolling field 31 to improve the yield. The rolling would continue on to the other freshly sown fields through the week. For me there was more contracted cultivation…

…If you look in the top right you can see there’s a message telling me that one of the workers has completed the assigned task. So when I get to the end of the row I’ll be assigning them their next task. The bank balance is holding its own too! Field 63 was a big one but well within the capabilities of the Amazone Cenio with a 4m working width. However, the gradient was at times hard work for the Claas Arion – its 155HP being only just enough to work the 150HP rated Cenio. In the back of my mind I was thinking – Need a 180-190HP tractor for this work!

At the end of the week things were looking good – All the new grass fields sown and both winter crops in the ground. Rolling to compact the soil done. Growth is under way!…

…Fields 9 and 25 can now be prepared for spring at our leisure. But there is still a task for the 3rd week of October – All my other fields, including the existing grass ones, will need to be fertilized.

A different type of contract work for the start of week 3…

…Felling diseased trees. A chainsaw will cost €1000 and the jobs average around the same, so you do the first one effectively for free and then all the others are money in the bank – Just the cost of fuel to get to them! While I was waving the Stihl around I had a worker driving the John Deere and the spreader doing the fertilising.

I moved on to more cultivating (it’s that time of year) and thought you’d like to see what happens at the edge of the map…

…On roads you’ll get those red glowing symbols. They don’t show until very late so if you’re speeding along you’ll probably still come to a sudden halt! On foot and at the edge of the map in the woods there are no signs – you just suddenly find yourself walking sideways along an invisible wall 😅

I’ve been praising the ai workers and rightly so but the fertilising in the grass fields did catch them out. If you look at field 90 you can see that the island of trees in the middle has foxed the driver and there’s some been missed…

…There’s also a small piece in field 92. These are tricky fields for me to work, so I’m not surprised that the ai would find a problem here. I took the John Deere back over to those fields to complete the task…

…And that was the last work for the week but not the final action.

I popped in to the dealer to get the tractor and spreader serviced. While there I took a look at the second-hand stock and there was the answer to my cultivator problem – A Kubota M8 with 180HP engine. On the spot I decided to trade in the John Deere 3650. The Kubota, once serviced and fitted with wheel-weights would take the spreader back to the farm…

Some will be thinking why sell the 3650 rather than the Arion 470. The ‘Deere was the lowest HP tractor on the farm and the Arion is equipped for a front loader. I will miss the 3650’s rumbling engine – The M8 is a very modern machine that is so well muffled that it barely sounds like a tractor at all!

Week 4 and I can concentrate on contract work to improve my finances. The Kubota took on a medium field to kick off the day…

…demonstrating that it could handle the cultivator on hilly fields without slowing. Then I took the Arion off to do a grass tedding contract. Finally I took on a massive cultivation task – Too big for my equipment. Instead I borrowed the kit that came with the job. Hiring the tractor and harrow cost nearly €1000 but with a job paying £13k I’m happy!..

And that was the work done for October. I took my tractors and equipment back to the farm where I carried out some servicing. I even found the light switch for the workshop 🤣 …

…so I could photograph both my Claas tractors and the Horsch seeder inside.

The finances look a bit better and hopefully will recover some more in November with more contract work. I will need to give my sown fields another dose of fertilizer during the month but I think I have enough in stock to do that without incurring more costs. See you next post 😎👍