Farming Question

[Samusin]

How big of a plot can one assigned Farmer handle, between plowing, fertilizing, and planting in the standard 3 days per season setup? NPC has level 3 Farming

[Naryoril]

I don't know how big a plot a single farmer can handle, but the farming level doesn't make a difference for farmers.

[Kevin]

If you are early i would say set him as a barn worker, I would want the farm xp for myself.
I would think he could handle a 10x10 or a 16x4 of grain, smaller if vegetables.
if the barn is on the north side of the field, as close as possible.

[darkestkhan]

With everything in a single season, on a 3 day season npc can't do 16x16 field. From what I have noticed it can handle 8x16.

[subwaybananas]

It all depends of the ways between the morning starting point to the barn and from there to the fields, the field layout and what to do.
A farmer can do ~150 - 200 field square work per day. Mean 200 field square harvest, or 100 fertilizer and plow, or 50 harvest, fertilizer, plow and seed...
Short ways are important for a efficient farmer.

[Samusin]

Originally posted by subwaybananas:

It all depends of the ways between the morning starting point to the barn and from there to the fields, the field layout and what to do.
A farmer can do ~150 - 200 field square work per day. Mean 200 field square harvest, or 100 fertilizer and plow, or 50 harvest, fertilizer, plow and seed...
Short ways are important for a efficient farmer.

Thank you all for the replies, but this guy seems to have the answers to the test I was looking for. Basically a 7x7 field for 49 plots and have the home and barn right next door

[subwaybananas]

I would recommend a even number of east-west rows, because the start and endpoint is north and the way back (harvest > fertilize > plow) or to the field next is short. Start point is everytime north-west corner. So its best to have the barn west side and the fields east side.
I use 2x10 or 4x10 fields, small enough for flexible farmers work.

[Veny]

Originally posted by darkestkhan:

With everything in a single season, on a 3 day season npc can't do 16x16 field. From what I have noticed it can handle 8x16.

They can handle 16x16 since each activity (ploughing, sowing, fertilizing, harvesting) can be done by only one farmer. BUT, it is not very safe option - if your farm is not near the barn or there is some delay, 16x16 is very inefficient and risky.
I would say 10x10 at most. Farming math is very complicated - some seasons are busy (especially summer), some are less, farmers are also stupid - they do what is near their barn. They dont care you have 1000 tiles to harvest, they will rather fertilize empty fields because they are close. It is difficult to have farm optimized so every season is well spent while failures like unharvested plants or empty fields are avoided.

[Veny]

Originally posted by subwaybananas:

It all depends of the ways between the morning starting point to the barn and from there to the fields, the field layout and what to do.
A farmer can do ~150 - 200 field square work per day. Mean 200 field square harvest, or 100 fertilizer and plow, or 50 harvest, fertilizer, plow and seed...
Short ways are important for a efficient farmer.

Are you sure? I was doing some math and one activity takes approx. 8 in game minutes. Including movement between tiles and farms.

[subwaybananas]

Originally posted by Veny:

Are you sure? I was doing some math and one activity takes approx. 8 in game minutes. Including movement between tiles and farms.

In my tests a 6x5 field cabbage in summer can a field worker easy comlete working (all 4 works) and have enough time for extra squares. ~200 is with perfect way.
But i have seen that the field workers sometimes a little bit faster/slower. 2 workers start at the exact same time with same fieldwork and size. But one of them finished a 6x10 field and the other one have 6 squares left. Same skill, a little bit different terrains. Its not everytime happend but sometimes.

[Veny]

I will check their speed tomorrow again. Will find out how much time one action needs. Then we can simply multiply it by the number of tiles.
Also farmers move a lot between barn and farms which takes away precisious time. Also multiple small fields can have worse "time per tile" ratio because farmers need to move between them.

[Moustache]

Question about farming: If i have harvest bonus skill maxed. Are the workers also have this bonus when harvesting? Same question on tools durability

[Sin]

It's also worth remembering that not all fields will need worked on every season, as many crops take 2 seasons to grow.
If you really want to make it automatic, you're better off having excess workers and putting up with them doing nothing sometimes.

[Sin]

Originally posted by Moustache:

Question about farming: If i have harvest bonus skill maxed. Are the workers also have this bonus when harvesting? Same question on tools durability

No, those bonuses are personal skills.

[subwaybananas]

Originally posted by Sin:

It's also worth remembering that not all fields will need worked on every season, as many crops take 2 seasons to grow.
If you really want to make it automatic, you're better off having excess workers and putting up with them doing nothing sometimes.

yea, farming is hard to optimize on point. If you make a little journey it can sometimes happen if you come back in your village, the farmers starts again at the barn-storage and walk to the fields (but have worked before there). Don´t know at which range the animation calculation stopped/start again.
I have most times a field worker more, as i calculated to need. In the less work seasons they assign as barn workers.

[myk]

The farmers seem to work better than when I last played in EA, but if you're planning on a seed/crop economy or food production for your village running like a well oiled machine you should plan on doing a lot of it yourself. Like everything else the farmers are much slower than you are. Also 3 farmers are better than one (when they're willing). You can have times were one is picking, one is fertilizing and one is hoeing then the one that was picking will go back to the end of the line and plant. When/if they do that they can get work done. When they don't and you end up with one hanging out in the barn like there's nothing to do you get a field that's half and sometimes randomly done.

I know that is absolutely not what you asked but you seem to have some pretty good estimations of that.
My estimation is I can harvest a 16x16 field from the opposite end while the workers have finished 2 rows at the other end. I would at least try to harvest yourself (let them finish the last square in front of them). Or let them do their thing for a day and you come along at quitting time and finish off whatever they had started. They seem less likely to get confused if they can start from the north west every day (and north south rows).

And if you're planning on multi cropping a field do not mark the new crop until the old is harvested. I'm sure I lost a beetroot crop like that and think I lost some cabbage. I did it in EA no problem but in release the old crop just disappeared (positive about the beetroot because I had none show up in storage).

Compare to your blacksmith or seamstress making you stuff to sell, you'll eventually get what you tell them to make. Farmers, you need to keep an eye on them.