Help with pasture splitting.

[CoLS Firestar]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=234500941
This is my screenshot. I can't get pastures to split. The option doe not show up. It's grey.

If I click "empty", the chickens just go from the 8 chicken pasture to 8 chicken pasture.
Split still does not show up. I tried making a new, larger pasture in the hopes that the "split" option would show up but I can't get the chickens to move to the larger pasture.

I've tried enabling and disabling work, assigning different herdsman to each pasture and I just can't get these 8 chickens to spread out! Please help.

[Ottomic]

You need more than 10 of an animal in a pasture in order to split it. I would recommend you to make a bigger one, emptying that one, and then splitting the big pasture when it reaches 10.

[CoLS Firestar]

So do I have to completely destroy the smaller 2 pastures to get the chickens to move?

[Ottomic]

Originally posted by CoLS Firestar:

So do I have to completely destroy the smaller 2 pastures to get the chickens to move?

Nope, just click the "empty" button and all animals in that pasture will be moved to another pasture set to that same animal.

[CoLS Firestar]

But they keep going back and fourth between the two smaller ones is my problem. All 3 are set to chicken.

[Moosemedford]

Eventually yes. You build the bigger pasture first. Select the animal type you want there (in this case, chickens). Then click on one you want to be emptied out and stop production. You can then choose "Empty" from the menu on the one you want emptied out. You will see the animals march to your new pasture (which could be clear across the map, they don't seem to care). It's actually sort of humorous watching the sheep and cows cross a lake as they walk along the bottom...

Frankly, I never bother with a pasture that's smaller than 20x20 (max size). And, as an additional free hint, I always keep one pasture unused. Otherwise when a plauge comes you risk loosing the whole herd.

And as a bonus free hint, never keep two pastures of the same type of animals right next to each other. The animal plagues are animal-type specific and will easily jump from one herd to the next if the herds are close.

Hope that helps,
Moose

[CoLS Firestar]

I'll just destroy all of them since I can't get this to work. I made 7x7s because that's what a single farmer can handle in one season. What is the size of what one herdsman can handle or does that matter?

[Ottomic]

Originally posted by Moosealbany:

Eventually yes. You build the bigger pasture first. Select the animal type you want there (in this case, chickens). Then click on one you want to be emptied out and stop production. You can then choose "Empty" from the menu on the one you want emptied out. You will see the animals march to your new pasture (which could be clear across the map, they don't seem to care). It's actually sort of humorous watching the sheep and cows cross a lake as they walk along the bottom...

Frankly, I never bother with a pasture that's smaller than 20x20 (max size). And, as an additional free hint, I always keep one pasture unused. Otherwise when a plauge comes you risk loosing the whole herd.

And as a bonus free hint, never keep two pastures of the same type of animals right next to each other. The animal plagues are animal-type specific and will easily jump from one herd to the next if the herds are close.

Hope that helps,
Moose

Smaller pastures come in handy in the event of an infestation.

Originally posted by CoLS Firestar:

I'll just destroy all of them since I can't get this to work. I made 7x7s because that's what a single farmer can handle in one season. What is the size of what one herdsman can handle or does that matter?

No idea on the size, but in your case I would only destroy the two smaller ones. The big one will net you lots and lots and lots of eggs.

[Moosemedford]

Originally posted by Ottomic:

Smaller pastures come in handy in the event of an infestation.

I've battled off several infestations without losing animals doing it with 20x20 pastures. As long as all the pastures are the same size, they have the same capacity. As long as you don't have pastures of the same animal type adjacent to each other the infestation should not spread to more than one pasture.

My work process is like this: click the empty one and turn production on setting it to the animal type that is infested; click the infested one and stop work; click the infested one again and choose "Empty". One time my infested one was over-capacity and I clicked "split" instead of "empty", Kept watching the infested one and within a few seconds "empty" went from gray to available and I clicked it. All the animals started leaving and as soon as they were gone the "yellow cloud" quickly evaporated.

Just tryng to help - whatever works for you. I'd suggest that whether you use 20x20 or whatever size that all your animal pens are the same size and that you always keep one not in use so that you can quickly fight off an infestation.

Cheers,
Moose

[Ottomic]

Originally posted by Moosealbany:

Originally posted by Ottomic:

Smaller pastures come in handy in the event of an infestation.

I've battled off several infestations without losing animals doing it with 20x20 pastures. As long as all the pastures are the same size, they have the same capacity. As long as you don't have pastures of the same animal type adjacent to each other the infestation should not spread to more than one pasture.

My work process is like this: click the empty one and turn production on setting it to the animal type that is infested; click the infested one and stop work; click the infested one again and choose "Empty". One time my infested one was over-capacity and I clicked "split" instead of "empty", Kept watching the infested one and within a few seconds "empty" went from gray to available and I clicked it. All the animals started leaving and as soon as they were gone the "yellow cloud" quickly evaporated.

Just tryng to help - whatever works for you. I'd suggest that whether you use 20x20 or whatever size that all your animal pens are the same size and that you always keep one not in use so that you can quickly fight off an infestation.

Cheers,
Moose

Yes, but an infestation on a 5-animal pen is less devastating than one in a 20-animal one. That way food stays steadier and herds can be rebuilt more quickly. I don't do the taking herds out of pasture thing, but only because I consider it kind of an exploit.

Hope you don't interpret me as confrontational, I love to discuss this kinda stuff with other people. They are different playstyles indeed, with their pros and cons.

[Moosemedford]

Originally posted by Ottomic:

Originally posted by Moosealbany:

Yes, but an infestation on a 5-animal pen is less devastating than one in a 20-animal one. That way food stays steadier and herds can be rebuilt more quickly. I don't do the switching herds off pasture thing, but only because I consider it kind of an exploit.

Hope you don't interpret me as confrontational, I love to discuss this kinda stuff with other people. They are different playstyles indeed, with their pros and cons.

Not confrontational at all, it's nice to chat about the game with other knowledgeable folks. Hopefully I come off that way... =)

The reason I like 20x20 sizes is that I find it scales better with respect to reward versus manpower. 20x20 only takes 3 herders to manage. Yet the payout is mathmatically better per man than the payout of a smaller herd which may take less workers. In this case, I believe scaling out is more economical (as compared to crops where it is not).

I have never lost a single animal to infestation. I get the message, I pause the game, I give the move orders as required, and a few minutes later problem is solved before the animals even begin to keel over. Now, if I ran AFK for awhile I might feel differently, but I don't so that's a non-issue for me.

I concede that the flip side is that I lose the opportunity cost of the land when I burn multiple 20x20 spots. IMO the trade-off is worth it. My next game I'll try and remember to do some running averages of yield vs. manpower vs. plot size and see if I can come up with some numbers to validate my position. Hell, maybe I'm wrong in terms of optimizing productivity. But I still feel that infestation doesn't have to be a big problem if you keep an empty pen around for contingency.

Cheers,
Moose

[Lady Rose]

Originally posted by CoLS Firestar:

I'll just destroy all of them since I can't get this to work. I made 7x7s because that's what a single farmer can handle in one season. What is the size of what one herdsman can handle or does that matter?

A single herdsman can handle an 11x18 pasture, which is big enough for 33 chickens, 12 sheep or 9 cows. (So cow pastures are most efficient at 20x20 because you can't split a single-herdsman pasture of cattle.)

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Mahnogard:

Originally posted by CoLS Firestar:

I'll just destroy all of them since I can't get this to work. I made 7x7s because that's what a single farmer can handle in one season. What is the size of what one herdsman can handle or does that matter?

A single herdsman can handle an 11x18 pasture, which is big enough for 33 chickens, 12 sheep or 9 cows. (So cow pastures are most efficient at 20x20 because you can't split a single-herdsman pasture of cattle.)

I totally agree that the most efficient pastures are the largest: 400-square 20x20, which hold 65 chickens, 25 sheep, or 20 cows. A single herdsman can handle pastures half that size, with a slight loss in efficiency. A 10x20 200-square pasture holds 10 cows (this size pasture can be split), 12 sheep or 32-33 chickens.