Mirroring duties on a real farm, SimFarm puts players in charge of building up the land, placing the buildings, buying and selling livestock and planting crops. A weather and season system are in place as well presenting the same kind of challenges found in a real world farm. As with SimCity, there are disasters that can wreak havoc on the player's farm. Tornadoes, droughts, pests, and dust storms are some of the events that can disrupt farm crops and harvests.

SimFarm also has a small town included in its simulation. This town is reminiscent of SimCity in its form and function. The player may interact with the town occasionally by suggesting new tile types and joining competitions with livestock (such as sending in a prize pig to potentially earn a blue ribbon and a cash prize.) Suggesting an airport to be built in the town will usually cause its construction, thus unlocking the ability to buy and use a crop duster.

The homestead in SimFarm is where the player lives and is expanded at the beginning of each game year if the player has made enough money in the previous year.

SimFarm allows the player to choose a location derived from the region and climate of one of nine areas of the US or to design one's own climate by selecting average winds, rainfall, and temperatures.

The game package also included a teachers guide to teaching with Sim Farm with black line masters for photo copying for the class and a users manual. These were printed and included in the box.

Equipment is necessary to maintain your farm and bring your crops to harvest. Structures store equipment, livestock, seeds, and etc. The minimum equipment required to bring one field to harvest is one tractor, one planter, one plow, one harvester, one truck, and one trailer. The crops are the main revenue raising item in SimFarm. All crops have specific maturity cycles, water requirements, temperature requirements, and resistance to pests, weeds, and diseases.

There are four types of livestock in SimFarm, all of which have specific food requirements, need water, and breed new livestock. Animals' value can be increased by making a barn available for their use.