Crop Rotation

[=7CAV=SPC.Henson.K]

I'm witnessing an emerging meta where everyone is building 3 fields and setting the crop rotation to 1 year production to two years fallow. Wouldn't a proper crop rotation include a second year of production with a different crop? For example, year 1 emmer; year 2 barley; year 3 fallow. Has anyone tried this? And on the fallow year, I would love to be able to assign the field as pasture to help restore fertility.

[Shad1902]

yep, that's proper crop rotation, and I do it like that

[=7CAV=SPC.Henson.K]

But are you gaining maximum production without harming fertility?

[Kedryn]

I'm doing one where I rotate through all of the crops, and I lose maybe 2% fertility per full cycle. Like first time emmer was 60%, second time 58%. I don't know why I'd want to leave it fallow for two years.

[Metalllik]

Originally posted by SSG Henson USA ret.:

I'm witnessing an emerging meta where everyone is building 3 fields and setting the crop rotation to 1 year production to two years fallow. Wouldn't a proper crop rotation include a second year of production with a different crop? For example, year 1 emmer; year 2 barley; year 3 fallow. Has anyone tried this? And on the fallow year, I would love to be able to assign the field as pasture to help restore fertility.

i do year 1 emmer, year 2 barley and year 3 fallow and i get enough crops. i have 2 plots for every crops at 500 people

[votadc]

Maybe the reason for fence upgrade Is to get only one year fallow.

[Shahadem]

Proper rotation would also include growing beans.
But that isn't a crop in the game.
Neither are turnips even though they were widely eaten. I'm thinking of the court farters who could fart the alphabet.

[Celebrindan]

Three-plot rotations restore all fertility ratings without need for pasture.

crop, crop fallow
crop, fallow, crop
fallow, crop, crop

Pasture three fields, and the animals will not 'follow the fallow' back and forth, they just stay on the pasture they are first assigned to until it reaches maximum popcap, then the next field begins populating as your sheep count rises.

They will not raise the fertility beyond original, and do not show benefit beyond the 'crop, crop, fallow' rotation the game provides.

No info on full 'pasture w/three crop/no fallow' rotation, but I saw no benefit from making field to pasture beyond raising sheep popcap and wool production.

Strike Force!

[CatPerson]

I don't know anything about what "proper" rotation is - the only reason I go crop-fallow-fallow (using six fields, so 2 active fields per year) is because the only crop I bother with is wheat.

I import malt in small lots to upgrade town level/keep a small number of 3's happy etc.
I use leather/shoes (some extra goat farms) for clothing requirements. At the moment at least, that's all you need re: town happiness.

Thus there is no need for me to micromanage crops at all. eg, I'm lazy as f.

[John Warhammer]

I use 9 fields at 0.5 morgens each for each farm, with three families. Always got three fields on the go. Naturally you can do it at 1 morgen each with 6 families. But that is more mid to late game. Got to the point with the 9 x 0.5 morgan plots that I am making more ale than I can sell. So it's a great way to make money.

[CatPerson]

I did try growing all crops at first, and rotating fields with different crops. Fertility for each crop still dropped, albeit much more slowly, over time, at least for me. At some point I still had to leave them fallow. Meaning a lot more micromanagement/having to check fields more often.

[madpraxis]

Even with a proper 2 crop rotation with a fallow, there comes a point you need to rest the field.
This works just like real life. It doesn't matter how much wastage crop you grow in off season, or if you throw nitrogen fixing beans in somewhere during a cycle. At some point, you just need to let random junk grow for tillage. Because even if you are only leaching *some* of the nutrients out of the soil with rotation, that some adds up over time.

You can do a crop/alt crop/fallow for a good 3 cycles, depending in fertility though! Fenced up changes that up a bit too, probably even more once it actually starts working correctly all the time, heh.

[shaihulud]

It confuses me a bit. The first season of crops works simply, just choose.

But after the harvest, my farmers immediately start plowing the just-harvested fields, which are set for fallow for the next season. I have to micro-manage and order them to the next set of fields. Am I misunderstanding how farms work?

[David]

That's what I tried but farms are absolutely weird this game and don't work like how you'd expect.

[madpraxis]

Originally posted by shaihulud:

It confuses me a bit. The first season of crops works simply, just choose.

But after the harvest, my farmers immediately start plowing the just-harvested fields, which are set for fallow for the next season. I have to micro-manage and order them to the next set of fields. Am I misunderstanding how farms work?

Don't even bother micro managing them. 1 active morgen, 1 family. Even with that goofy stuff it does, that works just fine and they get the work done. I usually throw an extra family in top, just for extra manpower. You can cut a family OUT if you have an Ox, even.

Yea, it takes a minute if they need to thresh some wheat, but if you need the grain RIGHT NOW, you might have other problems...

[=7CAV=SPC.Henson.K]

Originally posted by Celebrindan:

Three-plot rotations restore all fertility ratings without need for pasture.

crop, crop fallow
crop, fallow, crop
fallow, crop, crop

Pasture three fields, and the animals will not 'follow the fallow' back and forth, they just stay on the pasture they are first assigned to until it reaches maximum popcap, then the next field begins populating as your sheep count rises.

They will not raise the fertility beyond original, and do not show benefit beyond the 'crop, crop, fallow' rotation the game provides.

No info on full 'pasture w/three crop/no fallow' rotation, but I saw no benefit from making field to pasture beyond raising sheep popcap and wool production.

Strike Force!

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