Constant straw famines

[Dong Quixote]

So I've finally gotten a village to the bronze age, and I can't seem to keep my straw supplies up - I have more crops planted than my 125 people can reliably harvest (sometimes theres a little bit left, not a significant amount, but enough that I can't increase my workload anymore) and they usually produce ~125 straw. I have over 500 grain in storage, so I'm not worried about grain, but I desperately need straw.

Is there a formula for straw consumption, like a clear way of knowing what animals eat how much? I've been keeping 20 cows and numerous sheep, but even cutting my sheep population from 60 down to 30 doesn't stop my straw supplies from diminishing faster than I can rebuild them - my last harvest I had 150 straw afterwards, 60 animals, and was down to 50 straw by next winter. I know I'm going to have to go back to an earlier save or maybe start over, but I've played for ~15 hours and all four of my villages have failed because of straw problems.

Am I doing something wrong here? The whole straw thing seems like kind of an issue, I don't understand why you can't feed livestock grain, at least. I'd like to get through to the iron age but this is a little bit frustrating.

[gittubaba]

keep spamming barley field. I had the same problem, and opened a thread earlier. It'd nice to have a setting to choose between grain/straw for animal food. For now there's not much to do. I keep giving hundreds of grain trader each time to free up storage :P

[nasojjr]

The basic strategy for this is try to use your straw for building at the end of Autumn, early winter, when your workload is down. That way, once your straw is gone, hopefully mid winter, they'll start eating your grain. Barley does produce the most straw of the 4 cereal grains, but don't plant it exclusively in case of disease. But, it doesn't hurt to plant extra barley over the other types.

This does leave you with no straw for spring and summer, but with planning, it's an easy cycle to maintain. But there is nothing wrong from a game standpoint, with your animals eating grain once the straw is depleted.

[Kernest]

If you have 125 people, you should be able to produce a lot more than ~125 straw. If your workloads get too high to harvest all of your fields, do something about the workload. Also, increase the Sickle limit, make it a 75% or 100% of population.

Additionally, you should try planting Barley, which has a 50% chance of producing extra straw, so that a 5X4 field on average should produce 30 straw each harvest.

One issue that you're probably facing and not considering, is that pretty much all buildings that cost straw to build also cost straw to repair, such as your housing, storage, granaries...

[Dong Quixote]

I specifically haven't done any building that requires straw for a couple seasons, so that isn't contributing beyond repair costs for existing buildings - I've also definitely gone hard on the Barley within the limits of acceptable crop diversity. At one point I had 400 straw, but my sheep at through that in like seven or eight seasons, even with my additional harvests (that have been growing as I plant new fields, enough that I can barely sustain the workload with 125 people)

Originally posted by nasojjr:

The basic strategy for this is try to use your straw for building at the end of Autumn, early winter, when your workload is down. That way, once your straw is gone, hopefully mid winter, they'll start eating your grain. Barley does produce the most straw of the 4 cereal grains, but don't plant it exclusively in case of disease. But, it doesn't hurt to plant extra barley over the other types.

This does leave you with no straw for spring and summer, but with planning, it's an easy cycle to maintain. But there is nothing wrong from a game standpoint, with your animals eating grain once the straw is depleted.

I keep seeing people claim animals can eat grain, but I'm 99% sure they can't. I get starvation messages when I have an effectively infinite supply of grain but no straw.

[General Malaise]

Have enough Sickles, like more than half as many as your population. Don't set them other tasks to do in Autumn - like building - leave it till Winter.

I've regularly harvested 300 straw(as said Barley grants the most). 30 Sheep will give you enough wool for all your clothing, and loads extra to trade for tech - you don't need more.

When I get cattle, Goats tend to auto phase themselves out, but I do it anyway.

I'd say 30 Sheep, 20 pigs, 20 cattle, 20 Donkeys and 20 Horses is more than enough livestock.

[General Malaise]

Originally posted by Dong Quixote:

I specifically haven't done any building that requires straw for a couple seasons, so that isn't contributing beyond repair costs for existing buildings - I've also definitely gone hard on the Barley within the limits of acceptable crop diversity. At one point I had 400 straw, but my sheep at through that in like seven or eight seasons, even with my additional harvests (that have been growing as I plant new fields, enough that I can barely sustain the workload with 125 people)

Originally posted by nasojjr:

The basic strategy for this is try to use your straw for building at the end of Autumn, early winter, when your workload is down. That way, once your straw is gone, hopefully mid winter, they'll start eating your grain. Barley does produce the most straw of the 4 cereal grains, but don't plant it exclusively in case of disease. But, it doesn't hurt to plant extra barley over the other types.

This does leave you with no straw for spring and summer, but with planning, it's an easy cycle to maintain. But there is nothing wrong from a game standpoint, with your animals eating grain once the straw is depleted.

I keep seeing people claim animals can eat grain, but I'm 99% sure they can't. I get starvation messages when I have an effectively infinite supply of grain but no straw.

I'm pretty sure then can eat Grain. I'm sure I've seen it inside a Stable.

[nasojjr]

Well, it's your 99% to my 100% certainly that they can, and do, eat grain. I don't even try to produce enough straw to last the winter, because I end up with too much grain that way. I'm content with them eating some grain at the end of winter, and it happens every winter and I see them eating it. that stupid warning will keep popping up about no straw left, but they'll be happily chewing away on grain.

[d102_KoT]

Originally posted by nasojjr:

Well, it's your 99% to my 100% certainly that they can, and do, eat grain. I don't even try to produce enough straw to last the winter, because I end up with too much grain that way. I'm content with them eating some grain at the end of winter, and it happens every winter and I see them eating it. that stupid warning will keep popping up about no straw left, but they'll be happily chewing away on grain.

+1 can confirm livestock do eat grain. My problem with straw stems from having to refit too many huts/watchtowers/storage/granaries which has a knock-on effect for the following season

[d102_KoT]

Originally posted by Dong Quixote:

So I've finally gotten a village to the bronze age, and I can't seem to keep my straw supplies up - I have more crops planted than my 125 people can reliably harvest (sometimes theres a little bit left, not a significant amount, but enough that I can't increase my workload anymore) and they usually produce ~125 straw. I have over 500 grain in storage, so I'm not worried about grain, but I desperately need straw.

Is there a formula for straw consumption, like a clear way of knowing what animals eat how much? I've been keeping 20 cows and numerous sheep, but even cutting my sheep population from 60 down to 30 doesn't stop my straw supplies from diminishing faster than I can rebuild them - my last harvest I had 150 straw afterwards, 60 animals, and was down to 50 straw by next winter. I know I'm going to have to go back to an earlier save or maybe start over, but I've played for ~15 hours and all four of my villages have failed because of straw problems.

Am I doing something wrong here? The whole straw thing seems like kind of an issue, I don't understand why you can't feed livestock grain, at least. I'd like to get through to the iron age but this is a little bit frustrating.

If you're not able to get all the harvest your workload is too high or your setup is inefficient.
I have 6.5 5x5 fields (2.5x barley, 2x rye/einkorn) which yielded 160 straw. I have plenty left in summer with 60 animals that need winter care (7 stables) and a population of 90 humans.
Are you building lots of buildings which need straw to construct? Do you hunt during harvest?

Do you have a screenshot of your field/village setup?

[Dong Quixote]

Okay, so even with the straw warning, they'll eat the grain and not die - I'm not concerned about the efficiency of my setup, since it produces enormous amounts of grain, and I have enough sickles for 75% of the pop to harvest (though now that I'm transitioning into bronze, I don't have quite enough)

I read somewhere if you change your grain limit then excess grain will be converted into straw, is that accurate?

[Jet City Gambler]

The devs have confirmed in a similar thread that the animals do eat grain when all the straw is depleted, and they plan to address the issue in a game update (perhaps a grain/straw toggle option for feeding your animals).

[[IFC]Mjollnir]

I personally would like to see the addition of "real" hay, not the straw we have ingame right now... modify the haystack a bit so one can pick wether straw or hay is to be stored and add a job where gras is collected during summer and added to haystacks... could be something kids could do...

[Ooby]

I found the first stage guard towers chew up straw in repairs bad and also the thatch buildings

[Paraleo]

Originally posted by Dong Quixote:

I keep seeing people claim animals can eat grain, but I'm 99% sure they can't. I get starvation messages when I have an effectively infinite supply of grain but no straw.

You get the message for animals that aren't in the stables, the ones in the stables eat the grain after they finish the straw.

Also you will get the no straw message which might be an oversight from the developers, logically you should be able to pick what you feed them but it isn't implemented.