Is it possible to set up crop fields so that crops are not lost to rot?
Even with a full complement of farm workers I still have crops lost to rot almost every year.
I always make my crop fields the maximum size of 12 x 12. I expect crop loses due to rot when I do not have all 16 workers assigned. But even with a full work force it still happens almost every year.
I’ve considered reducing the size of my crop fields to 10 x 10, but then I would expect that my crop yield would go down anyway due to less crops produced.
The crop loses occur at the farm field and are separate from losses at storage locations.
Is this just the way it is, or is there something I can do to reduce or eliminate crop loss due to rot?
Are your fields scattered all over the map? Fields should be close together because farming is a joint effort from all farmers; they go from field to field depending on what needs doing where. If fields are far apart then they’re wasting a lot of time running to/from them all.
You shouldn’t need 16 farmers for a max size field. The initial 8 assigned should be fine.
The last month of the growing season in your field is harvest time. If your farmers are cultivating another field during this time, they will have less time to harvest that field, and the crop will rot there. This is especially common if your fields are located far apart and farmers spend a lot of time traveling between them.
To avoid this, plan your crops in different fields so that their harvest periods overlap as little as possible, and try to plant the fields close together.
Maps don’t really allow for this in large settlements. You have to plant where the Fertility Factor is, and those areas are scattered around.
You can still use less fertile land and its fertility will increase over time. Or you can use the area adjacent to the fields for grazing and sow later.
This is my experience. I’m presently playing an alpine biome and fertile lands are few and far between. In other biomes where there are numerous fertile crop areas, I consolidate fields into as many as 4-6 fields within a single fenced area.
However, even in biomes that have ample fertile crop areas I still have crop loss due to rot, even when my fields are consolidated and have max workers.
Perhaps this is just ‘working as intended’ and crop loss due to rot is part of the algorithm.
I’m currently playing the alpine biome so yes, fields are scattered due to limited fertility.
If 8 farmers are fine, what is the benefit of having 16? I presumed that more farmers = more crops harvested and faster planting/harvesting. Is this not true?
That said, I’ve played biomes with ample fertile areas and have consolidated crop fields and still have crops lost to rot, regardless of how many farmers are assigned. I always make my crop
fields max size, presuming that a larger crop area would provide more yield.
Then there is the impact of beehives. I typically place a beehive in each corner of my field. I know farmers also gather resources from beehives. Am I just placing too many and causing my farmers to spend too much time gathering bee resources?
I will also add that I have earned all knowledge factors relating to farming and still have rotten crops.
I always get the occasional rotting crops, there is a random component to it. But in general the yield is still enough for the year.
If you have them livestock is a great way to fertilize areas that you want to use as future farms
It is not working as intendent for sure. Maybe try to inestigate what your farmers do during the harvest. In my expirience approximately 1/4 of maximum field capacity of farmers is enough to avoid rot.
If it happens occasionally and low amounts of yeild is wasted to rot then it might happen I suppose. For example when your one or two farmers for some reason will stop processing their tile (like in case of sudden seeking beer or shelter) and other farmers have already switched to other tasks and there is no time to go back and finish those forsaken tiles.
Are the crops rotting because they’re not being harvested or because they’re diseased? If the latter change your crop rotations to help stop that happening.
All workers perform other actions besides their occupation. It may be a factor for all professions and is just visible because of the alert. The amount of crop rot loss varies and I still harvest more than I lose, but I would like to understand if some crop rot is ‘normal’ and if it is something we as players can alleviate.
I assume it is due to not being harvested because I am diligent in immediately responding to crop loss due to rot or disease and rotate out diseased crops. Plus, the loss message clearly distinguishes between loss due to disease vs. rot.
I removed about 25% of my beehives and crop loss due to rot has decreased noticeably.
It seems my farmers were spending too much time eating honey.
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Collecting it, that’s something they also do.