Meet the real-life farmers who play Farming Simulator

The agricultural simulation game could cultivate a new generation's enthusiasm for a declining industry

Imagine that you spend most of your day ploughing fields, sowing seeds, spraying fertilisers or pesticides, harvesting crops, feeding livestock (if you have any), repairing fences, and maintaining a half-dozen different kinds of farm machinery. You do this every day, all year, in all weather. And then, in the evening, you sit down at a computer to do it all again - virtually.

Farming Simulator is a long-running video game series played by about a million people. The game's creator, Giants Software, estimates that as many as a quarter of its players are connected to farming in some way, and around 8-10% are full-time, professional farmers.