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Farming Simulator 17 > Guides > Undying29's Guides
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Best Crop For Profit
By Undying29
Statistics from data collected for each of the crops, intended to compare the Yield and Profit.
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Created by
Undying29
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Category: Gameplay Basics
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
4 Nov, 2016 @ 8:26pm
25 Nov, 2016 @ 3:32pm
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269 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Introduction 
Crop Price 
Data Collected And Results 
Conclusion and my final thoughts 
Comments
Introduction
This is my attempt to identify the most profitable crop to grow in order to maximize my profit.

I have used field 25 (3.01 Ha) for regular crops and field 24 (1.05 Ha) for root crops. This was with Normal difficulty, Plowing disabled and full fertilization in Goldcrest. This means the yield was maximized at 200%.
Crop Price
Crop prices varies a lot in FS17, and calculating an average price would be very hard to do. So what I did is opted to use the price at which the crops go "Green" to compare the prices between them.

I ran the game on 120X speed for about 10 in game days and noted the prices each crop type become Green. Some of them (Potato and Beet) actually never went in the green during my test, the prices listed bellow are the highest I have seen.

I've added Seed used and cost based on Normal prices with manual refill ($900 for 1000 Liters). You may manually re-calculate with the adjusted seed cost for High difficulty games.

I also calculated Silage value. It is, as expected, higher then other, but it took me much more time.
Data Collected And Results
Crop
Yield
Field Size
Yield/Ha
Crop Prices
Profit/Ha
Seed/Ha
Profit/Ha minus Seed Cost
Wheat
53,477
3.01
17,766
660
11,726
502
11,274
Wheat's Straw
209,571
3.01
69,625
60
4,177
N/A
4,177
Barley
57,677
3.01
19,162
630
12,072
502
11,620
Barley's Straw
209,587
3.01
69,630
60
4,178
N/A
4,178
Canola
34,864
3.01
11,583
1,050
12,162
698
11,534
Sunflower
31,328
3.01
10,408
1,170
12,177
300
11,907
Soybean
27,057
3.01
8,989
1,170
11,955
300
11,685
Corn
55,419
3.01
1,8412
750
13,809
402
13,447
Potatoes
86,965
1.05
82,824
350
28,988
4000
25,388
Beet
121,784
1.05
115,985
253
29,344
402
28,982
Silage
430,555
3.01
143,042
437
62,509
402
62,147

My silos after:
Conclusion and my final thoughts
It appears like all regular crops have very similar profit per hectare with corn being in the lead. However, if Straw is collected, Wheat and Barley would easily win with almost 40% more profit. But collecting Straw require additional work and machinery. I have not made bale in my test, only picked it up with a loading wagon.

Beets and Potatoes are about 2.5 times more profitable, but they require special equipment, can only be seeded a few rows at a time, and also harvested a few rows at once. It also takes much longer to grow then the regular crops.

I'm personally not convinced that Beet and Potato would pay much more then regular crops for the same in game time period.

But because of this almost perfect balance in work vs effort, it can be fun to try any or all of the crops without feeling like we will be missing out on profit margin.

Remember that due to the price dropping when a crop is sold, the best way to maximize profit is to grow and sell a variety of crops, whenever price is green if possible. Use a large trailer instead of many smaller ones as price will drop between each unloaded trailer!

Share your thoughts in the comment sections!
76 Comments
< >
herniman123 14 Jun, 2023 @ 1:33am 
NICE CROP
DID YOU FERTLIZE IT ALOT THEN#
coastertroy 11 Mar, 2023 @ 11:46am 
Being the nerd that I am, I love stuff like this. I've done a few of my own comparisons and always found soybeans to be the best bang for my buck because of the relatively high price vs low complexity, but I don't know much about silage. I'm going to have to try that next. Thanks for this.
Mad_Sailor01 9 Nov, 2022 @ 12:49pm 
hey, include an additional column for planting and harvesting time, then pick a standard rate per hour and subtract this the labor cost from the final profits. potatoes and sugar beets are high yield crops but very labor intensive.
✙.kraken1✙ ღღღ 2 Aug, 2022 @ 5:36am 
1
k. benton 5 Jan, 2021 @ 11:18am 
for me when im starting a new world. i only go with Canola, Sunflower, and Soybean. for me well in my game i get better sell profits.at one time i saw that a place was buying Soybeans for 3091$ for 1000L. so for the start i like to go with the 3 crops keep it simple. untill i have the money for bailing and all of that.
Jolly Englishman 3 Oct, 2020 @ 7:38am 
For me i found silage bales are the best way to make fast money and most profitable.. it is a grind but you get £5,880 per bale. fields 14 15 and 20 on goldcrest valley can make you over 300,00 a day. just deliver to your barn. you don't need the BGA plant to make money.
Tryst49 28 May, 2020 @ 9:22pm 
Should add time and costs of machinery into the equation.
Silage looks good for profit but takes a very long time to do.
Root crops are profitable but the machinery costs to plant and harvest can be very high.
xan7 2 May, 2019 @ 10:24pm 
good work - tnx a lot!:steammocking:
‴ 𝙕𝙄𝙉𝙓 ‴ ツ 12 Jan, 2019 @ 8:29am 
dAM,
Usaric-BR 29 Oct, 2018 @ 3:23pm 
I´m using Seasons and MREngine mods (not the gameplay one, which affects yield and the price of the crops), and I have yielded pretty much the same amounts of Wheat (17.807/ha), Canola (11.596/ha), Corn (18.392/ha), Soybean (9.012/ha) and Sunflower (10.397).

But running at Estancia Lapacho map (normal difficulty), the selling prices of the crops are quite different, making Soybeans and wheat one of the most profitable crops in the game, excepting the root crops (did not test Barley yet). Also I did not take into account the seeding costs.

I sold Soybeans at $2674 and Sunflower at $1852 in GD; Canola at $1504, Corn at $1027 and Wheat at $841 (green prices, not GD). My profits per ha were: 1 - Soybeans ($24,098); 2 - Wheat ($14,975 + 17,6 straw bales that can be sold at $469 each, which gives an extra $8,254, totalling $23,229); Sunflower ($19,255); Corn ($18,888); Canola ($17,440).