Do I have to have families in the farmhouse during crop growth?

[Valle]

Or can I just reassign them somewhere else untill the field is ready?

[Justin Sellers]

My experience is no. What is also counter-intuitive is that the growth season is from fall to fall, not spring to fall. You will not get anything worthy of the effort your first year.

[Clovis Sangrail]

You need families in the farm house in September (harvest), October (plowing), and November (sowing). And if growing wheat or rye, you need to leave someone in the farmhouse to thresh the harvested wheat (which the windmill cannot use) into grain (which the windmill can use).

Outside those months, you can reassign those families and any oxen.

You can harvest earlier than September, but it will affect your yield.

Counter-intuitive? Why do you think they call it winter wheat? You plant it in late fall, let it grow over winter and following spring and late summer, then harvest in summer or early spring.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_wheat

[Yehoodi]

Yes you can move them out of the farm house. As Clovis mentioned, once they have threshed the grain there is not more work for them, for me it is sometime in mid Dec. If you are really in need for peeps in other locations, once the crops are in the house and there is just threshing to do, I will take out half the work force and leave the rest behind the thresh the crops then take out all the crew once threshing is done.

Yah there is no watering or weeding in this game and so nothing is done between end of threshing and when you harvest.

There is an option to harvest early if you wish, but otherwise you do not need peeps in the farmhouse during growing season.