MyFarm on Facebook, best crops to grow.
I’ve done quite a bit of work trying to figure out which crops are the best to invest in. There are a few ways to look at this though. One way, is to assume that the crop that gives you the highest profit would be the best way to go. Another way to look at it would be to consider it’s return on investment (ROI).
From the beginning, I assumed that because Tomatoes gave the highest profit they would be the best. They take only one day to grow, and provide $201 in profit. But, as Randy S. has pointed out, strawberries look like the best way to go. At least at first.
With your intial $1000 you can plant:
18 Strawberry Fields (…forever…..)
6 Tomato Fields
17 Rice Fields
6 Corn Fields
6 Potato Fields
9 Wheat Fields
Out of which, your $1000 investment will earn you:
Strawberries -> $810
Tomatoes -> $288
Rice -> $1224
Corn -> $516
Potatoes -> $ 726
Wheat -> $891
At first glance, you would naturally be drawn to the Rice for some immediate money. However, take another look at the harvest times for each crop. Rice takes two days to grow/harvest. Strawberries only takes 1 day. So 810 * 2 = $1620. Not bad for your first two days in business!!
The trick to all of this is this, you have 18 fields of strawberries. This makes your profit incredible for the first few days. Your next trick will be to keep planting strawberries (obviously) until you could fill all 18 of your fields with tomatoes. Strawberries are the catalyst to quick profits in the beginning, but Tomatoes will take over after a few days.
Use the tables below for a reference:
| Crop Name | Sale Price | Buy Price | Plowing Fees | Profit | 6 Days of Profit |
| Strawberries | $98 | $33 | $20 | $45 | $270 |
| Tomatoes | $201 | $133 | $20 | $48 | $288 |
| Rice | $129 | $37 | $20 | $72 | $216 |
| Corn | $233 | $127 | $20 | $86 | $258 |
| Potatoes | $285 | $144 | $20 | $121 | $242 |
| Wheat | $200 | $81 | $20 | $99 | $198 |
Here is a percentage return on investment per crop. This is calculated as follows:
[(Sale Price - Total Cost) / Total Cost] * 100 = Percent (Rounded up)
| Crop | Seed Cost | Plow Cost | Total Cost | Sale Price | Days | Profit | Daily Profit | ROI | Daily ROI |
| Strawberries | $33 | $20 | $53 | $98 | 1 | $45 | $45 | 85% | 85% |
| Rice | $37 | $20 | $57 | $129 | 2 | $72 | $36 | 126% | 63% |
| Wheat | $81 | $20 | $101 | $200 | 3 | $99 | $33 | 98% | 33% |
| Tomatoes | $133 | $20 | $153 | $201 | 1 | $48 | $48 | 31% | 31% |
| Corn | $127 | $20 | $147 | $233 | 2 | $86 | $43 | 59% | 29% |
| Potatoes | $144 | $20 | $164 | $285 | 3 | $121 | $40 | 74% | 25% |
| Thanks to Randy S. for the calculations | |||||||||
The value of trees per harvest:
| Tree Name | Harvest Profit |
| Apple | $58 |
| Banana | $69 |
| Cherry | $84 |
| Christmas ** | $220 |
| Coconut | $88 |
| Mango | $77 |
| Orange | $74 |
| Peach | $82 |
| Plum | $86 |
And as you can clearly see, Coconut Trees provide the most profit (for free). So if you’re going to send me gifts, please send me coconut trees. Thanks!
Harvest and Spoil Times (These times are not 100%):
| Crop Name | Harvest Time | Spoiled After |
| Strawberrries | 20 Hours | 2 Days, 4 Hours |
| Tomatoes | Unknown | Unknown |
| Rice | Unknown | Unknown |
| Corn | Unknown | Unknown |
| Potatoes | Unknown | Unknown |
| Wheat | Unknown | Unknown |
I am working on getting enough cash to buy the woodshed and barn. Once I have them I will provide data regarding them as to which animals sell the best, and which trees are the most valuable to chop down.
Popularity: 31% [?]
Sorry… hit tab then space… was formatting the table… not posting… trying again… please delete the last post in moderation…
I came to the same number 1 position but the rest came out a bit different… slightly different criteria was used… it didn’t factor for if there is price fluctuation… haven’t been playing for long enough…
Rank…Crop Name……Cost….Sold……Profit/Day
1……Tomatoes…….$133….$202.95…$69.95
2……Strawberries…$33…..$98.80….$65.80
3……Corn………..$137….$97.95….$48.98
4……Potatoes…….$144….$288.20…$48.07
5……Rice………..$37…..$130.50…$46.75
6……Wheat……….$81…..$201.60…$40.20
What was your formula?
I did, (cropcost * 20) – (cropsale * 20) * (6 / days2harvest) = profit
So if you had tomatoes, it takes one day to harvest, so 6/1 = 6 (so you get 6 days of money). But Wheat takes 3 days, so 6/3 = 2, so you only calculate two harvests. That might make your numbers match mine.
However, I did not take into account the $20 it costs to clear each field after harvest. So that puts a damper in the harvest profit. Either way you go, tomatoes are the best option if you’re going for money.
I have no idea how well trees do, or how long they take to produce fruit. I’ve been sending my wife about 15/20 trees each day, and ask that people send me trees too. I think trees provide a bunch of money (especially Christmas trees)!!
(Crop Sale Price – Crop purchase price) / Number of Days to harvest = Daily Profit
I also didn’t factor for the $20 to plow. I wanted to get a potential daily profit number… so you only get the benefit of tomatoes if you harvest and plant daily–also true in your formula.
I’m also curious about trees… and given that the woodshed is half the price of the barn, I’ll be getting that first…
now back to the spreadsheet to rework my calculations… I think you were on the right track with a 6 day calculation but I’ll use a slightly different approach… we already know that if you harvest everyday, grow tomatoes for the best profit. What if you know you’ll be away for 2 or 3 days… neither of our formulas tell us the best approach in that event.
As previously mentioned… tomatoes are the best for daily checking of your farm. I you know you’ll be away for 1 day, here’s the ranking:
If you check every two days, plant corn…
Crop Name/Cost to Grow/Crop Total Sale Price/2 Day Profit
Corn/$147.00/$234.95/$234.95
Tomatoes/$153.00/$202.95/$202.95
Rice/$57.00/$130.50/$130.50
Strawberries/$53.00/$98.80/$98.80
Potatoes/$164.00/$316.80/0
Wheat/$101.00/$201.60/0
And if you’ll be checking on your farm every three days, grow potatoes:
Crop Name/Cost to Grow/Crop Total Sale Price/3 Day Profit
Potatoes/$164.00/$316.80/$316.80
Corn/$147.00/$234.95/$234.95
Tomatoes/$153.00/$202.95/$202.95
Wheat/$101.00/$201.60/$201.60
Rice/$57.00/$130.50/$130.50
Strawberries/$53.00/$98.80/$98.80
BTW… these numbers factor for plowing necessary…
stupid taxes…
The best money making crop is actually wheat.
- profit already deducted $20 for plowing
Strawberries: $65
Tomatoes: $68
Rice: $92
Corn: $106
Potatoes: —–
Wheat: 119
How can you come up with wheat as the best Emily? that doesn’t compute.
How do you exactly create an app like MyFarm?
Tomatoes might give you the best return for investment (profit) but Strawberries with their very low investment cost, means you can plow/plant up to 4 times more for the same cost, thus increasing your Profit by the same amount over #1 rank tomatoes for the same period. Simple massive quantity.
Using the Profit figures at the top (which I agree with) you get your daily profit of:
t: 48
s: 45
c: 43
R: 36
W: 33
P: 20
Now to Plant plot you must first Plow it for $20, then the cost of planting. So taking a $1000 budget we get plowed/planted plots of:
t: 6 plots
s: 18 plots
c: 6 plots
R: 17 plots
W: 9 plots
P: 6 plots
So for the $1000 investment over a 6 day period (divided to show daily profit), our profit is:
t: 288
S: 810
c: 258
r: 612
w: 297
p: 120
Clearly you can see that because of the quantity of plots, Strawberries outperform all other crops, with (of all things) Rice coming in second and Tomatoes way down at 4th!!
@Claudia – You can visit http://developers.facebook.com/?ref=pf and read the tutorials on how to create your own apps. It takes a bit of programming knowledge as well as some artistic ability. HTH.
Strawberries are the best DAILY return on investment per dollar spent, almost doubling it every day. Not bad.
Daily ROI (((price*yeild)-expenses)/expenses)/harvest days:
strawberries = 86.42%
rice = 64.47%
wheat = 33.20%
tomatoes = 32.65%
corn = 29.91%
potatoes = 25.24%
(86% means $1.00 returns $1.86)
@Randy – I am glad you’ve done some fancy work on your calculations. However you are going by what the values on myFarm say explicitly. That means you’re not accounting for the King’s share. Above, I briefly discuss how the King is taking from our profits, and therefore we must not use the values given by myFarm’s store.
The values I use above, are taken directly from “That cost you $xx” and “You earned $xx” With that information given, if we want to play the percentage game you must use this formula:
((Buy Price – Profit) / Buy Price) * -1 = Percent Profit
So in the case for strawberries you must calculate:
Strawberries: ((33 – 45) / 33) * -1 = 36%
@KewlBigDan – I am amazed at your post! Very well thought out and accurate (I double checked!)
I agree, that if we followed your plan from the start we should all use strawberries as our prime crop to give us the best bang for our buck.
But, if we use that money to up the number of plots we have to 18 for tomatoes, they come in first again with a profit of $864.
Even if we upped the number of fields to 100 for each, tomatoes still come out on top by $300.
But, if somebody is a new “myFarmer” then they should start with strawberries using your strategy until they can have 18 fields with tomatoes growing on all of them.
@Ryan – Not only are the calculations fancy, they are accurate. If I adjust for the small “King’s taxes” that reduces profit by a dollar or so, the ROI percentages still favor to plant Strawberries.
And to reiterate, ROI is the money returned on your dollar. ROI does not mean it makes the most money. @KewlBigDan suggested this as well, and came to same conclusion of Strawberries.
Since new “myFarmers” have limited money and we all have a limited number of plots to plant crops, Strawberries maximize your return on your money UNTIL the point you have all your plots filled.
The only time I can see an advantage to planting Tomatoes is when you run out of plots. Then, you can maximize profits by planting as many Tomatoes as possible while still planting the rest Strawberries. This does not maximize ROI at this point, but we’re contained by plots.
My complete calculations, for completeness:
##Edited by Ryan @13:37, 21 Jan 2009
@Randy S. – Thanks a bunch for giving us a complete ROI table. I want to be the first to admit that my ROI calculations were wrong. I had run the numbers wrong. Your calculations are spot on!!
While I would never advocate planting much more than 24 plots (at most?) Having the entire farm area as a crop field would certainly be interesting. I tried a 116 crop field, and missed a harvest by one hour and I was down several thousand dollars!
@Ryan – Cheers, glad the numbers made sense.
I’m not sure what you meant by only using 24 plots. I upgraded my farm size and have a 900-plot farm (30×30), the standard farm being a 225-plot farm (15×15). I use most of my farm to plant crops. When I have lots of money, only then will I scale back the farming and live the good life.
Also, I’ve never missed a harvest. I wonder what the window of opportunity to harvest is. It seems 1-day crops take about 20 hours to finish. I’d be curious to know when the crops are not able to be harvested. You said 1 hour, but that seems so harsh. Harvest window is an interesting point to consider.
@Randy S. – The only reason I say 24 is that it seems to be a manageable size. Like I said, I had 116 at one point, and lost more money than I had to replant and try again.
I do think that the harvest times are close to 20 hours. I will keep track of it the next time I am able to get an accurate time.
I am also considering going nuts with trees as they require no plowing and are free gifts. They take longer to grow from initial planting, but they seem to have about a 4 day turn around. I harvest all my trees at once and they all grow back at the same rate. Their fruit also does not rot as quick as a crop does.
Thanks for the info. I was looking for the Pear Tree data (trying to compare whether it’s best to buy Apple, Orange or Pear trees).
@Ryan – I did an experiment for harvest times. For Strawberries, they seem to be ready to harvest in 20 hours. And, they seem to spoil after 2 days, 4 hours.
@Randy – Thanks for that data! Do you think you could get the other grow/spoil times?
use all your money to plant strawberries, after you have enough money, hit the tomatoes, that’s all….!!!!! (assuming gift not count) this is simply the bestway of making money in myFarm 100% guaranteeddd…!!!!!
if you have hefty number of friend playing myFarm; don’t bother to plant anything, ask your friend to send you as many plant as possible, especially the coconut. no plowing required !!!!!!
what is the best profit of ALL?!? Crops, Fruits, or animals? I would think animals?
@maksa df – Until I can get the full data collected from the animals (translate: until I can afford the $50,000) for right now I would still stick with growing tomatoes. However, I would also recommend having as many coconut trees as your friends will give to you. Be sure to harvest your trees all on the same day (for simplicity, even if that means losing some of the tree’s fruit.)
Hope that helps!
@Ryan – here’s a little data for your animals..
…
cow – buy $550 – sell $114
white chicken – buy $1200 – sell $29
brown horse – buy $500 – sell $71
…
i quit buying/selling animals, because i’m just throwing money away. it looks like animals are a waste of time, especially chickens! i’m sure once they get around to developing the app a little further the eggs will produce some cash, but right now your best bet seems to be trees. they’re the least work with the greatest long term gain. of course, if you don’t mind harvest/plow/planting several hundred plots a day, then strawberries/tomatoes are the way to go.
BTW- thanks for the calculations up top! they came in handy when i was starting out.
cheers!
JB
Another cost to factor in to the calculations is growing down-time caused by real world factors like sleep.
Growing tomatoes will produce the most profit if you are harvesting and replanting the crops as fast as possible, but with a grow time of 20 hours you eventually reach a point where the crops reach maturity while you’re sleeping. You end up with 4 hours per day where your farm is not actively growing anything.
Assuming 1 farm day is consistently 20 hours (I haven’t checked) two day crops have an 8 hour daily offset so you could get into a pattern of consistent harvests at 8am, 4pm, or midnight without any down time.
The three day crops should have a 12 hour offset so harvests will happen at say 9am and 9pm.
I haven’t done any calculations to see how that affects the overall values of the crops.
@evan – You’re right, there is some time that your crops will be idle. Fortunately this isn’t a real business!
I had myfarm for a couple of months and it became boring to me. i do miss it, but, i set up my land and my house and my crops and animals and trees the way i wanted to, and turned a profit every day then lost interest. from what i’ve read on this post, it seems like there are more of you like me who would have more fun with a game similar to this, but with more challenges and options. water the crops, feed the animals, watch the weather, pick your region, put food on the table, build fences, fix up the tractor, have dogs and cats, that kind of stuff. i don’t know, now i’m bored again. is there anybody else out there with me on this one? maybe we can create a better game? i set up an email at seemslikeagoodidea@gmail.com if anybody want to talk about this. i like the idea of pausing the game, for however many hours you want, so it’s easier to fit it in to your schedule. gotta go back outside now, the sun’s out, got chores to do.
I’ve found that Strawberries are the best investment, up until the point when you can not add any more plots. Strawberries are only better than Tomatoes when you can continually add more plots that are being harvested, but as soon as you use up all 225 plots on the small farm or 900 on the large farm, tomatoes become the best investment. If we had an unlimited plot size Strawberries would continually be the best investment, if you check your myfarm everyday and are willing to continually harvest, plow, and plant more and more plots which eventually becomes 1,040,591,100 plots in 30 days. (($1000(initial amount)/$53(cost of plow and seed) (ans x 98/53))(do ans x 98/53 thirty times to get thirty days) But considering we don’t have an unlimited amount of space, you should switch to tomatoes as soon as you can no longer add any more plots.
I hate to throw a wrench in anyone’s wheels, but I have to disagree with the supplied table. My calculations agree with you on strawberries and tomatoes, but differ by quite a bit thereafter. You cannot simply find the ROI and then divide by the number of days to find “Daily ROI”. You will see that if you find the “Daily Revenue” and “Daily Cost” and use those numbers to calculate “Daily ROI”. For EX: You equation given was:
Daily ROI=(((price*yeild)-expenses)/expenses)/harvest days but it should be……
Daily ROI=[((price*yeild)/days)-expenses/days)]/…
…(expenses/days))
Additional info that may be useful:
(In no particular order)
Animal Sales: Tree cutting:
Cow $114 Apple $175
Brown Horse $71 Orange $223
Black Horse $100 Pear $203
Grey Horse $71 Banana $206
White Chick $29 Plum $258
Barred Rock $143 Peach $246
Rhode Island $143 Cherry $253
goat $64 Mango $232
Unicorn** $1000 Coconut $263
**Yes, kidding of course, but I’m slightly obsessive compulsive and can’t stand uneven rows)
Don’t know about Christmas trees as I don’t have any
By the way… I really disagree about animals being a waste of time. I don’t think you should buy them, but when you get them as gifts, they’re free–%100 profit. I bought all of my fencing on sales from gifted cows. AND they’re cute, darn it!
Now with no plowing fees and many scarcrows Tomatoes are still the fastest money maker per day.
There more to life than making money.. sure you could start with $1000 plant Strawberries in 18 fields, the next day you harvest/plow/plant 34 fields, next day 63 fields, next day 116 fields, next day 215 fields then you realise the next day that you only have 225 fields and the money to plant 397 fields.
Then it occurs to you that if you plant rice you can afford to still plant out your entire 225 fields and make $16200 in two days time instead of $10125 for each of the next 2 days but for that $4050 of lost profit you get a day off work.
Eventually you come to the realisation that if you plant 108 fields of potatoes on 2 out of 3 days you will earn $26136 over 3 days instead of $30,375 and only need to work 216 fields over those 3 days instead of 675.
86% of the profit for 32% of the work.
Sure you could work all the fields but you need somewhere to relax.
My friend found a glitch in the system that some people can use if they’re really desperate. although i don’t recommend using it as it ruins the point of the game. when you receive a gift from a friend, open up myfarm and wait for it to load, when it does make sure that you have the gift in your “my gifts” page. Then open up as many tabs as you want and load up myfarm on each of them. MAKE SURE that they are all loaded before you do the next step. Now, go to one of the tabs and place your gift where you want it. then close the tab, now go to the next tab and place your gift where you want it, and repeat this for all of the tabs you have open, when you get to the last tab, don’t close it after you place the gift, just refresh it and when its loaded again you should have as many numbers of the gift as you had the numbers of tabs opened.
again i don’t recommend using this.
Also, thanks for giving me all the data on myfarm! It helped me alot. but right now im kind of confused, should i fill my farm with tomatoes or strawberries, or both, or should i also plant some potatoes or wheat or corn or rice…?
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