Most effective size for herd?

[Wise Wolf]

I know that the most effective size for farms is 7x7 because you only need 1 farmer per farm but what about herds? has anyone found out what the most effective size is for herds?

[Forever_Lona]

7x7 for farms? Damn, I wish I'd know this before, I've been rocking big old 15x15 farms for ages now :( I did read somewhere today that 1 herdsman is optimal, but I'm not sure what pasture size you need for it, sorry!

[jensenthecat]

20x20 is max for size of pasture. Try that for cattle and sheep. Same size for chickens if you have plenty of pasture land or you can go smaller.

Just go with the recommendations obviously the larger the pasture or the farm the more that is needed. Pretty much two for each paddock.

[Dawnmist]

7x7 isn't necessarily the best size for farms - it varies depending on type of farm, how close the barns/housing are, climate, whether the farmers are educated, etc. A happy/healthy/educated worker with nearby housing/storage can handle up to about 120-125 squares (11x11 farms) for the faster growing crops (beans/corn/peppers/cabbage) on the medium climate setting.

http://banishedinfo.com/t/Size_calculator/ - that site has the breakpoints for pasture sizes verses number of animals that fit in them. Note that cows/sheep/chickens all have different breakpoints - and that you need a minimum of 10 animals in a pasture to be able to split the herd.

[johntarmac]

I've always found the biggest size of both farms and pastures works well.
Whenever I make smaller fields I like to do 9x9 and limit them to 1 worker. However I very rarely use squashes or pumpkins because their harvest time is so late.

[Wise Wolf]

I played a little bit more today and experimented with the size of the pastures, to get 1 person to take care of the pasture you need 10x12 Pastures but I had issues with pastures of that size, for some reason it wont let me "split" part of the animals into other pens like with the bigger pastures, it will grey out the "split" button even when you have another herder working on a second empty pasture for the same animal type.

[johntarmac]

To split animals you need a minimum of 10 before the option shows.

[Axz]

I go with the biggest size possible for chickens as they can hold a lot and reproduce quickly, and ofc you can't beat the eggs.

Get it?

Me neither.

[SpiritDragon]

Originally posted by Axz:

I go with the biggest size possible for chickens as they can hold a lot and reproduce quickly, and ofc you can't beat the eggs.

Get it?

Me neither.

Hilarious. :D

I've had success with 14x6 farms with educated farmers. However, with pumpkins they do run late in the year so you have to have two farmers on one plot if you do that, but the food produced is nice.

[Triggerhippy]

It's in the wiki, but

The numbers are size of field then + number is number of herdsman needed, all are optimal

Cows
9x20 +1
10x18 +1
12x15 +1
20x20 +2

Sheep
12x16 +1
20x20 +2

Chicken
11x18 +1

[Ameret]

Farms should be 14x4 - 1 farmer
14x4=56 producing squares your 7x7 is only 49

Orchards 15x4 - 1 farmer - seated east west (horizontal is the long dimension) as it allows the most trees per square.

20x20 I think for pasture - but not entirely sure yet as it gives 400 squares thus greater feed/room for herd population growth.

[kevinshow]

It really does depend on a few factors. Corn and bean get harvested pretty fast. All things being equal for the distance to home and storage barn, I would say they could be on a larger crop field. Some of the crops also can be harvested later even if it gets colder.

So to really think about mins and maxes, this could be part of your strategy.

I've also read that 1 herder works just fine, even for the larger pastures. Bigger means more animal population but you don't necessarily need 2 workers.