Pawns still cutting hay fields in my pen

[Sanfranman491]

I have 'no cutting' marked on my hay grass Plots but they still get cut. Why?

[Vermillion Cardinal]

Because it only prevents pawns from cutting down trees/bushes or removing existing plants (when switching crops) to free up space for sowing; it does not stop them from harvesting. Delete the growing zone or download a mod for preventing harvesting instead.

You really shouldn't be letting animals graze directly on haygrass in a pen anyway. Either feed them the harvested hay or plant dandelions instead.

[Jigain]

Why wouldn't you want it harvested? You ARE aware haygrass has a LOT more nutrition harvested than as a live plant, right?

[Astasia]

The "no cutting" option disables colonists from cutting trees and such that get in the way of the plot which is specifically for use in ideologies that don't like cutting trees, it doesn't disable harvesting.

It's not a good idea to let animals eat live hay plants in a pen, you get several times more nutrition with significantly less work by harvesting the fully grown hay and putting it in a stockpile for them to eat.

If you want to grow something in a pen, dandelions work a lot better and don't need to be harvested, but it's still not very efficient.

Edit: Guess I was a bit slow responding to this one. =p

[Vermillion Cardinal]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Edit: Guess I was a bit slow responding to this one. =p

Found it a little amusing as my edit on haygrass got posted the moment Jigain replied about it as well. Left it in anyway.

[Sanfranman491]

Ok, good knowledge. Thanks

[Sotanaht]

Originally posted by Astasia:

The "no cutting" option disables colonists from cutting trees and such that get in the way of the plot which is specifically for use in ideologies that don't like cutting trees, it doesn't disable harvesting.

It's not a good idea to let animals eat live hay plants in a pen, you get several times more nutrition with significantly less work by harvesting the fully grown hay and putting it in a stockpile for them to eat.

If you want to grow something in a pen, dandelions work a lot better and don't need to be harvested, but it's still not very efficient.

Edit: Guess I was a bit slow responding to this one. =p

Debatable whether it's "siginificantly less work". Hauling is extremely labor intensive. Harvesting is good, but the plants will rot/deteriorate afterward.

A "toggle harvest" button would be very nice to have on growing zones for multiple reasons. For example if I have plenty of food right now, I can pause harvesting on my food crops but still have colonists sow them, that way if I need food a few weeks later for some reason it will be grown and ready to harvest. Also if I really want them to harvest food right now but my devilstrand is ready to harvest as well, I could toggle harvesting on devilstrand so they prioritize the food first, or vice versa I guess. I'm sure there is a mod somewhere but I never found it and this sort of very simple QOL change belongs in the base game.

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Why wouldn't you want it harvested? You ARE aware haygrass has a LOT more nutrition harvested than as a live plant, right?

This. If you want to grow food that they eat directly, plant dandelions in the pen. Plant the haygrass outside the pen to harvest and store for Winter.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Sotanaht:

Debatable whether it's "siginificantly less work". Hauling is extremely labor intensive. Harvesting is good, but the plants will rot/deteriorate afterward.

The main issue with allowing animals to eat plants is they eat one at a time causing your grower to stop what they are doing wherever they are on the map to walk back to your pen to replant that one crop. This happens again and again throughout the day. It's less of an issue with smaller animals like chickens that don't consume a whole plant, but for larger animals it is massively inefficient to grow live plants for animals to eat.

Hauling a harvest of hay is not labor intensive if it's being moved somewhere close by. If they are harvested all at around the same time it can be hauled all at around the same time with just a few trips. Replanting hay for a moderately skilled grower takes more time than moving a stack of hay a few tiles into a barn.

It takes around 3 seconds of "work" for a skill 8 grower to sow one haygrass plant. A harvested haygrass plant provides 0.9 nutrition (18 hay) and takes another around 3 seconds to harvest, a live fully grown haygrass plant has 0.3 nutrition, animals will eat live plants above 50% grown or at around the 0.15 nutrition point. It's 6 times more sowing effort to feed animals with live haygrass instead of harvested hay, or 12 extra seconds of work per plant (3+3 vs 18+0), that's ignoring the issue I mentioned above about growers constantly being pulled back to the pen to replant things one or two at a time.

[martindirt]

Originally posted by Sotanaht:

Originally posted by Astasia:

The "no cutting" option disables colonists from cutting trees and such that get in the way of the plot which is specifically for use in ideologies that don't like cutting trees, it doesn't disable harvesting.

It's not a good idea to let animals eat live hay plants in a pen, you get several times more nutrition with significantly less work by harvesting the fully grown hay and putting it in a stockpile for them to eat.

If you want to grow something in a pen, dandelions work a lot better and don't need to be harvested, but it's still not very efficient.

Edit: Guess I was a bit slow responding to this one. =p

Debatable whether it's "siginificantly less work". Hauling is extremely labor intensive. Harvesting is good, but the plants will rot/deteriorate afterward.

A "toggle harvest" button would be very nice to have on growing zones for multiple reasons. For example if I have plenty of food right now, I can pause harvesting on my food crops but still have colonists sow them, that way if I need food a few weeks later for some reason it will be grown and ready to harvest. Also if I really want them to harvest food right now but my devilstrand is ready to harvest as well, I could toggle harvesting on devilstrand so they prioritize the food first, or vice versa I guess. I'm sure there is a mod somewhere but I never found it and this sort of very simple QOL change belongs in the base game.

Unharvested plants are not your desired food supply... They'll rot on feet due to being unharvested. It's not a QOL change, it's waste of food.

[Auzzie]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Why wouldn't you want it harvested? You ARE aware haygrass has a LOT more nutrition harvested than as a live plant, right?

Maybe he wants it to be like a field?

[Sotanaht]

Originally posted by martindirt:

Originally posted by Sotanaht:

Debatable whether it's "siginificantly less work". Hauling is extremely labor intensive. Harvesting is good, but the plants will rot/deteriorate afterward.

A "toggle harvest" button would be very nice to have on growing zones for multiple reasons. For example if I have plenty of food right now, I can pause harvesting on my food crops but still have colonists sow them, that way if I need food a few weeks later for some reason it will be grown and ready to harvest. Also if I really want them to harvest food right now but my devilstrand is ready to harvest as well, I could toggle harvesting on devilstrand so they prioritize the food first, or vice versa I guess. I'm sure there is a mod somewhere but I never found it and this sort of very simple QOL change belongs in the base game.

Unharvested plants are not your desired food supply... They'll rot on feet due to being unharvested. It's not a QOL change, it's waste of food.

They'll rot after a certain number of days based on the plant life. Its usually about 30 days though. I'd rather have them grown and ready in case I start running low in the freezer, rather than needing to wait an entire planting and growth cycle after I notice I've run low. It just makes much more sense to shut off harvesting when you are overstocked than to shut off sowing, which still requires your pawns to harvest and haul whatever is there. I could just delete the grow zone, but since I know I'm going to have to restart it eventually I'd rather leave it in place.

Also for colonys that cant or don't have refrigeration, the plants will last much longer unharvested than harvested so it really does work better as your immediate supply in that situation

And again, if you want them to prioritize harvesting one field over another, shutting off harvesting in the field you don't need as urgently makes far more sense than deleting that field.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Sotanaht:

Also for colonys that cant or don't have refrigeration, the plants will last much longer unharvested than harvested

That is only true for berries. Strawberries die 23 days after being planted and berries spoil after 14 days. Rice dies 15 days after being planted and raw rice spoils in 40 days. Haygrass dies 35 days after being planted and hay spoils after 60 days. Refrigeration isn't an issue for vegetables.

Originally posted by Sotanaht:

A "toggle harvest" button would be very nice to have

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1499848654

[Security Cam #7]

Originally posted by Auzzie:

Originally posted by Jigain:

Why wouldn't you want it harvested? You ARE aware haygrass has a LOT more nutrition harvested than as a live plant, right?

Maybe he wants it to be like a field?

Dandelions are better suited for that.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Vermillion Cardinal:

Because it only prevents pawns from cutting down trees/bushes or removing existing plants (when switching crops) to free up space for sowing; it does not stop them from harvesting.

More specifically: it removes any interaction with the plants that are not the currently selected plant (also harvesting), but does not change the interaction with the currently selected plant.

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by ᲼⁧⁧Smelly Fish:

Originally posted by Auzzie:

Maybe he wants it to be like a field?

Dandelions are better suited for that.

As stated above. ;)

Better nutrition value than hay when animals eat it, can spread on its own slowly, and also prettier.