How many fields per farm do you create?

[Kairiste]

I'm curious how many fields you all assign per farm? I rotate through 6 right now but wondering what works best for you.

[Trim]

Mostly I have 8 or 9, all 2500 in area (If I am building next to a shoreline or river I might have smaller fields to suit the area, but then I might have more of them).

Most years I plant 6 fields, which is the most you can plant just with labourers before the end of March, and I don't like sowing to go much into April because it reduces yields so much.

I usually have a farm per about 100 people, and my villages tend to be divided up into groups of 20-25 houses with a farm, granary, market, cowsheds, chicken coop, and one or two windmills. Most other industry and the trading post is in a more central location.

Smaller farms, perhaps serving fewer people, would probably work well, but keep an eye on how many labourers you are getting throughout the sowing season; you really ought to aim for 20 all the time if at all possible

I hardly ever plough, and I don't use farm managers, setting each field manually in the Winter.

[kiska87]

My new farm setup is having 6 fields 50x25x50x25, 4 of them get planted, the other 2 stay as fallow and it rotates every year.

My farm is fully staffed (including a farm manager). That way, i don't really need laborers.

This setup is something i was trying and it seems like it's working very well.

Too many (big) fields mean that the last fields are sown quite late, which reduces the yield.
In my opinion, it would probably be better to create a new farm than to assign too many fields to a farm.

[City Builder]

Average of 4 to 5 depending on terrain availkable

[Vic_Ukraine]

Originally posted by Trim:

Mostly I have 8 or 9, all 2500 in area (If I am building next to a shoreline or river I might have smaller fields to suit the area, but then I might have more of them).
Most years I plant 6 fields, which is the most you can plant just with labourers before the end of March, and I don't like sowing to go much into April because it reduces yields so much.
I hardly ever plough, and I don't use farm managers, setting each field manually in the Winter.

I do it in a similar way

[Kairiste]

Originally posted by Trim:

I usually have a farm per about 100 people, and my villages tend to be divided up into groups of 20-25 houses with a farm, granary, market, cowsheds, chicken coop, and one or two windmills. Most other industry and the trading post is in a more central location.

Eek, I've only got 2 farms and almost 700 citizens, I'm way behind there...

[City Builder]

Originally posted by kairiste:

Originally posted by Trim:

I usually have a farm per about 100 people, and my villages tend to be divided up into groups of 20-25 houses with a farm, granary, market, cowsheds, chicken coop, and one or two windmills. Most other industry and the trading post is in a more central location.

Eek, I've only got 2 farms and almost 700 citizens, I'm way behind there...

yeah, but what's your food supply like?

[Kairiste]

sometimes low on wheat, sometimes low on potatoes, but other times bursting at the seams with both. I have to work on a more even-keel supply. Citizens also grow a lot of their own food (I'd say i have 1 farmhouse to 4-5 regular houses).

[Trim]

You don't need much at all to feed your people. 700 people will eat about 60,000 food a year. If every house has a garden, these will provide about half the food, meaning you need to provide about 30,000. That's about 10 maximum-sized fields, which could easily be split between two farms, and if you have some fishing docks, cowsheds and/or saltworks (bizarrely, salt is a food, having the same nourishment value as almost everything else, unless this has changed in Alpha 4), then you might be able to manage with even less.

However, this won't give you anything much to export, apart from charcoal and salt, and unless you have very low wages and/or high taxes, rents and prices, then you may struggle with money.

My view is that farming is the most important activity in Ostriv. Much of the village's food and most exports come from farming, and the most important thing with farming is planting crops quickly, because every week's delay reduces the yield by 5%. Consequently, the thing I most look out for is having 20 labourers for a few weeks in March. Once my population can supply the 20 labourers (which might require as many as 40 unemployed villagers), I build a new lot of houses in a different part of the map, with their own farm, granary, market stalls, windmill(s), cowsheds, chicken coop and so on. When that neighbourhood can supply 20 farm labourers, I begin another neighbourhood somewhere else.

[Cat on Linux]

each of my farms has 6-9 fields. if you have more than 4-5 fields you have to make sure there's enough field workers to take all job openings (so you can sow all fields in 1-2 months time frame and can harvest before snow). I have separate granary (10k storage) for every crop storage in case we're overproducing and 2 granaries for buckwheat (to make sure my chicken always have something to eat). 3-4 fields would be good start, then you can add 2-3 more fields if you still have unemployed during spring.

[Kairiste]

Originally posted by Trim:

You don't need much at all to feed your people. 700 people will eat about 60,000 food a year. If every house has a garden, these will provide about half the food, meaning you need to provide about 30,000. That's about 10 maximum-sized fields, which could easily be split between two farms, and if you have some fishing docks, cowsheds and/or saltworks (bizarrely, salt is a food, having the same nourishment value as almost everything else, unless this has changed in Alpha 4), then you might be able to manage with even less.

However, this won't give you anything much to export, apart from charcoal and salt, and unless you have very low wages and/or high taxes, rents and prices, then you may struggle with money.

My view is that farming is the most important activity in Ostriv. Much of the village's food and most exports come from farming, and the most important thing with farming is planting crops quickly, because every week's delay reduces the yield by 5%. Consequently, the thing I most look out for is having 20 labourers for a few weeks in March. Once my population can supply the 20 labourers (which might require as many as 40 unemployed villagers), I build a new lot of houses in a different part of the map, with their own farm, granary, market stalls, windmill(s), cowsheds, chicken coop and so on. When that neighbourhood can supply 20 farm labourers, I begin another neighbourhood somewhere else.

I swear Trim, did you hack the code to find out the statistics of all this or was this your own calculations?? *bowing in praise at your mathmatical wizardry ;) *

[Grat Dalton]

After Alpha 4 Patch 2, farm fields for citizens food consumption is unbalanced.
In my current playthrough, i have a surplus of food at 230 population with no farm fields or fishing.
- List below = easy mode
- Wealth tax = $ stock pile for food import.
- Citizens can now hold beehives on their gardens.
- Linseed added as an option for animal = less citizens food consumed.
- Citizens will now use their gardens to grow their own food for sale and for personal consumption.
- Honey can now be bought from citizens = $ stock pile for export & import.
Just like Banished, this game has no combat + Ostriv has no environmental hazards that impact gameplay in a significant way.

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by Grat Dalton:

Ostriv has no environmental hazards that impact gameplay in a significant way.

you'll get hazards once your population grows. workers stuck someplace, failed delivery to trading houses on time, failed deliveries can make your livestock die and more population you have more time they're procrastinating or sabotaging :)

[Kairiste]

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

Originally posted by Grat Dalton:

Ostriv has no environmental hazards that impact gameplay in a significant way.

you'll get hazards once your population grows. workers stuck someplace, failed delivery to trading houses on time, failed deliveries can make your livestock die and more population you have more time they're procrastinating or sabotaging :)

True I just had a mass chicken die-off and I still don't exactly know what happened.

[Gloomy4fun]

I currently have a population of over 600, 6 farms with 5 fields each always keep a follow

[SLIPPY]

I do 8 fields for my first main farm 25x40 (just because that size looks right to me). 4 active fields with wheat/potato/buckwheat/sunflower the other 4 in fallow. I find this easiest since if you alternate the buckwheat and sunflower fields there is no need to ever plow or have cows.