How Many Farmers?

[Tenzek]

Most of the buildings in this game seem to work perfectly well on the default number of workers, but if I leave my 15x15 farms at the default 4 workers, I dont get full harvests.

It seems like 5 workers does the job most of the time. How do those of you who actually know what you are doing manage farms?

[Aldehydra]

Five workers is enough for a 15x15 plot, as long as there's a storage barn nearby. If they have to walk more than ~20 tiles to reach a barn, you'll never be able to harvest before winter regardless of the number of workers.

Note that you don't need to have five workers assigned to the farm all year round. Once the fields are sown you can stop work there until it's time to harvest.

[Patches]

The Farmers seem to turn into Labors with out doing anything. They go gather resources like the Woodcutter, etc. when they have reached their quota. Then they go Harvest.

[Tenzek]

I've overbuilt barns all over the map to hold extra food, so most of my farms have a barn across the road. This does make a huge difference.

[Rogue]

Solution: Don't make large farms. I found that one farmer can plant and harvest about 80 sq ft. in one growing season. All my farms and orchards are made that size. I put a Storage Barn close by that they can all use.

In my experience, which isn't all that much, I found that the farmers dawdle to much if there are too many of them on one field. If you build 5 small fields 8X10 you have 400 sq ft of farmland using only 5 farmers. One 15 X 15 field is only 225 sq ft of farming area and your using 3 tines the number of farmers.

[Dotsforlife]

Different types of crops will require a different amount of farmers to reap the full yeild of your harvest. Some you can get away with just 3, others 4/5

[Onyx]

Originally posted by Slowmo:

Solution: Don't make large farms. I found that one farmer can plant and harvest about 80 sq ft. in one growing season. All my farms and orchards are made that size. I put a Storage Barn close by that they can all use.

Someone posted the results of an experiment they conducted with corn over on Reddit.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Banished/comments/1yr2iy/ideal_farm_size_to_maximize_output_per_labor_input/

[JErosion]

I usually go with two educated farmers on a 10 x 15 plot with adjacent house and barn they can usually get the job done, give or take for early frosts or late frosts in the spring

[Rogue]

Thanks Onyx. It pretty much varifies what I suggested.

[Tenzek]

Originally posted by Onyx:

Someone posted the results of an experiment they conducted with corn over on Reddit.

Does the crop chosen make a difference?

[Hat8]

Originally posted by Tenzek:

Originally posted by Onyx:

Someone posted the results of an experiment they conducted with corn over on Reddit.

Does the crop chosen make a difference?

Yeah. Different crops have different growth times and temperatures, etc.
I just plant them all with a focus on Corn, Wheat and Beans since they grow the fastest.

[R246]

Something to note: Storage Barns have only 1 useable door even though they appear visually to have 2.

If you look at the barn head on, the door with a low roof on the right is the useable door.

http://banished-wiki.com/w/images/banishedwiki/7/74/Storagebarn_img_400.jpg