Am I right to assume that no farmers are needed for 9 months of the year.

[Didz]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3240754647
I just had a panic as I have no farmers in my farmhouses due to a shortage of townsfolk. So, I stripped some of my workers from other things to populate the farmhouses thinking that they would do something useful like sow, plough or harvest some of the untended fields.

But they just sat on their arses and did nothing. So, I took them away again to do something useful. Am I right to assume that farmers only actually do any work in the Autumn?

I know that's true in 'Going Medieval' where its only necessary to strip everyone from other tasks to deal with the harvest.

[FinalPhaseKiller]

when the plants are in the growing phase you can let them do other things yes. I told them to come back to work at the farm before the start of the last month of Autumn and had no problems with the full 8 families taking the crop off.

[Agony_Aunt]

Depends on how you handle your farms. If left to automatically do their stuff, then yes, you only need them in autumn.

However, you can do stuff out of sync and force a nearly harvest and have them working different fields at different times of the year.

The only limitations are crops grow very slowly in winter and if you are sowing you need to do it before winter sets in.

[tank16365]

Also, If the farmer isn't actively farming, they're helping out with other tasks like hauling

[Gregomoto]

Yes, you’re right to assume that, but you can start the harvest already in June instead of September, so it would be 6-7 months of lazy farmers^^
I don‘t take them out during that time, as i‘ve enough families, but at the start of the game this could be helpfull.

[Fighter of the Nightman]

You only need to keep them there if there's something to do. Harvest, plow, sow, or thresh wheat into grain. It's just like you done keep people in the forster hut during winter.

Otherwise they can be productive somewhere else.