There are plenty of ways to make money in Ranch Simulator, but today we’re focusing on maximizing profits: I will share the BEST ways to make money in the game, and sprinkle in the best crops you should plant, based on the latest updates.
In a game so complex, with plenty of things you can add and many mechanics affecting them, it makes sense to know that the best crops you farm as well as the animals you keep synergize to bring you a lot of money in return.
We’ll talk about all of these (and more) in today’s article, but if you want to explore your surroundings and see what you can find while looking around the world check out our guide on how to find oil in Ranch Simulator.
Ranch Simulator: Animal Husbandry
When you’re setting up your ranch, animals are the backbone of your economy and the main source of income. With the latest version (including the Southwest Ranch & Farm Expansion Pack), the variety of animals and processing options has expanded, so the “best” method now means two things: fast returns early, and scalable operations later on.
Chickens
Chickens remain the most accessible starting point. After your tutorial, use your initial funds to buy basic chickens and get egg production going.
They will lay eggs each day at 16:00, and there will be a steady flow of cash. It may not appear to be such a huge cash flow in the beginning, but as you begin to get more chickens the money will keep flowing in.
Just make sure to buy food for your chickens and keep the coop stocked up with water.
At some point, you can also purchase a rooster for your chicken coop. With a rooster, chickens will be able to lay fertilized eggs that will grow into baby chicks.
Usually, to check if an egg is fertilized, you should use an ovoscope purchased at the general store, but there is another way to tell. Fertilized eggs are laid every day at 10:00. Unfertilized eggs are laid every day at 16:00.
You can check at the beginning of the day, and if you find eggs then they will be fertilized eggs. Just be careful, because chickens and roosters will chase you for some time if you take the fertilized eggs.
Pigs
Another animal you can raise that will greatly affect your economic management is pigs. Male and female pigs cost $300 each and can be found in the general store.
Pigs have several age stages, each stage providing more pieces of pork meat. The maximum yield from a single pig is 26 pieces of pork.
Though pigs bought from the general store provide 7 pieces of pork when killed, that’s why breeding pigs will be important.
Pigs can be bred by placing a male and a female pig close to one another. After a while you should see hearts floating around the animals, indicating successful mating.
After 3 to 5 days mother pig will give birth to varying amounts of piglets (about 3-4). Piglets need their mother to eat for some days until they can eat on their own.
Once a fully-grown pig is killed, and you get the 26 pieces of pork, you can sell them back at the general store for $30 for each piece of meat.
So you just need a male and a female pig, and with enough care, you will get an abundance of money from them as well.
Cows, Goats & Sheep
If you want to make the big bucks, you have to eventually switch to these larger animals that produce multiple streams of income. These are now vital to a top-tier income strategy.
Cows produce milk, which can be processed into cheese and butter. Cheese and butter command premium prices in the market, making cows among the top late-game earners.
Goats offer a faster breeding cycle than cows and produce goat milk, which can be converted into goat cheese. Lower feed cost, quicker turnaround – perfect for a strong cash-flow machine before fully scaling cows.
Sheep produce wool rather than meat. Wool is lower maintenance: you don’t need to slaughter the animal. Shearing can be done periodically and is a steady passive income source.
Many late-game ranchers keep a flock of sheep just for steady revenue while focusing on cows and goats.
Thus the animal revenue tier list in Ranch Simulator runs roughly as:
- S-tier: Cows – cheese/butter
- A-tier: Goats – goat cheese
- B-tier: Chickens – eggs
- C-tier: Pigs – pork
- D-tier: Sheep – wool (slower but passive)
Keep in mind: space, infrastructure cost, feed cost and labour/time all increase as you move up tiers. Chickens are cheap; cows are expensive up-front but pay off big once running.
Ranch Simulator: Best Crops to Grow
Crops are another great way to make money, but only a few can be considered ideal for generating more income. We’ll discuss them immediately, but first, let’s review some basics.
To start planting fruit and vegetables, you’ll need to build a crop plot. You can then purchase seeds from the general store to plant within the plots.
All small crops require 1 unit of water to fully water them, but some crops will consume water more quickly than others.
Crops can be watered with a bucket or using sprinklers. Sprinklers require a windmill to use. They will water crops within a small radius around them once a day but must be activated once upon placing them.
Sprinklers can be placed on the ground outside, or crop plots.
Now the reason crops can be a great way to earn money is the re-harvesting mechanic.
All crops besides cabbages can be harvested between 0 and 10 times. Upon each harvest, there is a 10*n% chance of the crop dying, where n is the number of times harvested.
So, for the first time, you harvest a plant, there is a 10% chance of the plant dying, on the second harvest, there is a 20% chance, and so forth until the tenth harvest. At the tenth harvest, the plant now has a 100% chance of dying.
If you manage to get close to the tenth harvest, you will have gotten way more than your money’s worth for what you purchased them for at the general store.
There are two seeds you will want to plant in the beginning that can yield a nice amount of money.
| Crops | Seed Price (per packet of 10) | Sell Price (individual items) | # Per Harvest | Time to grow |
| Watermelon | $10 | $7 | 1 | 15m |
| Bell Pepper | $20 | $2 | 5 | 20m |
These crops are the best ones to use in the beginning to snowball your money, as you start using a little bit of everything.
What to focus on next
As of the Southwest Ranch & Farm Expansion Pack and the modern build of Ranch Simulator, several crops outperform the old pair, especially in greenhouses or large farms (although you can still start with the two and expand when you have more land and money):
- Tomatoes: fast growth, excellent in greenhouses, steady profit cycle.
- Pumpkins: expensive seeds but strong per-harvest value, especially late game.
- Strawberries: quick, lightweight, and good as a rotation filler. Plus, they’re delicious in real life, so you must have them!
- Cucumbers: thrive in greenhouse setups, good re-harvest potential.
- Blueberries: profitable if you can manage their water demands.
Watermelons still sit high in early game, but greenhouses put Tomatoes and Pumpkins on a new tier entirely. If you pair those with beehives, you boost pollination and yield, making big crop blocks far more efficient.
Using Greenhouses to Make Even More Money
Greenhouses stabilize plant life, improve survival across harvest cycles (meaning that you can harvest more before a plant dies), and reduce overall water spoilage.
A greenhouse with sprinklers and well-organized plant patterns (for example, rows of tomatoes with pumpkins on ends) makes farming easier than tending free-range plots, and you’ll also harvest more (and get more money) for the same amount of seeds.
And once you stack this with beehives nearby, your yield goes up further.
Beehives: passive yield boosters
Beehives produce honey – which you can sell – and also support crop output. The yield increase isn’t extreme, but it adds up across large plantings and compensates for any crops with higher death chances on repeated harvests.
Combined with a greenhouse, beehives make your crop layer almost fully automated, so you have to keep them in mind and build your ranch with them in mind. You can learn more about this mechanic in my Bees Guide.
Final Thoughts
Managing your budget, and having enough money to get everything you want when you want it is really important.
If you want to try our hunting to get more meat to profit of off, check out our guide on the best place to hunt in Ranch Simulator.
With all the information about the best way to make money, and the best crops laid out, you will be able to hit the ground running as you start the game. Let us know in the comments what crops you use the most, and which animal you think are worth.
And if you can’t get enough farming, make sure to also take a look at the Best Farming Games to Play on PC/Laptops.
With thousands of hours played on Nintendo systems since the original Gameboy, Nikiforos is happy to share his endless passion for Nintendo franchises and everything he can get his hands on.
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