General Strategies

• When the town expands, you have an opportunity to vote for the type of development that will be built on the plot. Your vote usually counts. If you have enough dough for a crop duster, vote for an airport. Crop dusters will save you money when you need to spray multiple fields.
• Sell Futures. Check the Schedule Window to find out the current value of your crop, and compare that to its Market Value. If your crop's value is high, sell a future and forget about it. You will have guaranteed a price for that crop. Just hope that its Market Value doesn't go up.
• If you are designing your own terrain, be sure to select a lake or river, or both. These are great water sources. Do consider that farms too close to water are subject to flood damage.
• Plan for taxes. The town will collect some of your money for maintenance and expansion. Taxes are computed from your total land value, machinery owned, structures built, and profit. If you've bought lots of expensive land, your taxes will rise considerably. You're in a heap of trouble at year's end if you don't have money for the tax man.
• Don 't use paved roads on your farmland unless you have a lot of land or several non-contiguous plots. Dirt roads are cheaper and don 't need to be bulldozed when you rearrange your farm layout.
• Save often! The power still goes out sometimes, y'know....

• Buy seed. Although there is a default AutoBuy option, seed prices can fluctuate. Buy seeds that can be stored for a long time when prices are low.
• Consult the Farm Expert before planting. The Farm Expert window contains useful info such as ideal crop growth temperatures, moisture requirements, harvest methods, etc.
• Stagger the planting of new fields. By planting fields two weeks apart, you can re-use machinery you own. If you plant several fields simultaneously, you will need more equipment, because the fields will all demand plows and planters at the same time.
• Always plant trees around every field. Trees protect your soil from wind. Trees will have no effect unless they are within two tiles of your fields. You will need at least eight tree tiles to protect your field.
• Use the same ditches to irrigate AND drain your fields. Place a valve in the ditch just before it gets to the field. Turn this valve on and off to regulate water flow and drainage.
• Do not "dead-end" ditches into your fields. Instead, run them all the way along one side. The more exposure your field has to the ditches, the more effect they have.
• Buy a large silo if you can, rather that a few small ones. Four small silos cost $3200, whereas one large one is $2400, with equivalent storage capacity.
• Don't let a field whose crop quality has gone to Bad ("X" grade) go to harvest if it's deep into the growth cycle. You will incur use damage to your machinery and take up storage of a crop that has little or no value. If you notice a crop go to the X grade, use the Cut button to leave it fallow, or replant it with another crop.

Machinery Strategies

• The absolutely necessary machinery for a single field is:
  1 Tractor
  1 Planter
  1 Plow
  1 Harvester
  1 Truck
  
• Although some crops don 't need a harvester, buy these machines when you first start your farm. After two or three plantings, you will save BIG on leasing costs.
• Sell and replace your machinery before it breaks. Low-quality machinery is worth more than dead machinery. Check its quality frequently with the Examine (Magnifying Glass) tool or with the Sell window. You won 't notice machinery performance problems until it breaks.
• Machinery always enters fields from the upper left-hand corner. Machinery tends to exit the field on the lower-left corner, but occasionally exits on the lower right. It's helpful to place roads along the left-hand side of the field to ensure they can make it in and out of the field with minimal damage.
• Turn AutoLease off when you own machinery. This will prevent machinery from being leased when you mess up your schedule. You can always fix your schedule.
• If you don 't plan on purchasing machinery, build a paved road from the town to your farm. Try to make the road as close to a direct path from the upper left-hand corner of the initial town plot to your fields. This will reduce damage to the leased machinery and lower your leasing costs. (Machinery always leaves town from the upper left-hand corner of the first town plot, no matter how many town plots there are.) Expect the road to be partially destroyed due to the occasional flood and town expansion. Check it every four months (game time).
• Use paved roads when you have several non-contiguous plots of land. This will help machinery get to your other plots with minimal damage.
• Buy a shed for machinery. It will keep your equipment's value and functionality high.
• Machinery will exit sheds from the side closest to the destination field. Try to lay roads from that side of the shed to the field.

• Take care of livestock. You make more money through breeding than raising.
  1) Buy new livestock.
  2) Take care of them.
  3) Sell them when they're older and after they have produced offspring.
  4) Repeat Step 2.
  5) Bask in riches and glory.
  
• You don 't need a thousand Water Troughs to water livestock. Just a couple can water an entire pen if you have a Water Tower.
• Water Towers should be placed next to an irrigation ditches that you always keep full (if possible). Floods will occasionally destroy ditches from rivers and lakes, droughts will sometimes make rivers and lakes recede from Water Pumps, and low winds will prevent a Windmill from functioning at all. Water Towers will store water for a couple of weeks until you can repair or restart your water sources. Note: If you have lots of livestock and Water Troughs, you may need more than one Water Tower.
• Place Water Troughs and Feed strategically if you have multiple livestock pens. Livestock are DUMB. If feed in a neighboring pen is closer to the livestock than the feed in their own pen, they will try to go to the neighboring pen. This can cause starvation and destruction on fences, and perhaps make you feel as dim as your beasts.
• If you can afford it, buy a barn for livestock. Livestock won't drink or eat as much if they have a barn to enter. It will also raise their value by protecting them from the elements.
• Grow enough food to feed the hungry. (I know this isn't a strategy, but I thought I'd give you an incentive.)

• Type CORN: Gives you $10000.
• Type FUND: Gives the mayor $10000.
• Type POULTRY: Gives you three cows in perfect health.