Editing Farm size calculations

{{Quality|Unrated}}

[[Dwarves]] require approximately 2 units of [[food]] and 5 units of [[drink]] each season. [[Farming]] can produce enough [[crop]]s to satisfy part or all of these requirements. However, be aware that the more and larger your farms are, the more time and effort must be accorded to their maintenance.

Your dwarves can plant 1 [[seed]] per tile on each [[farm plot]], and depending on the [[skill]] of the [[grower]], whether the farm plot was [[fertilizer|fertilized]], and random chance, each planted tile will yield a stack of 1-10 plants each harvest cycle. Legendary+5 planters more frequently produce larger stacks - up to 6 plants each (with an average of 3.17) without fertilizer, or up to 10 plants each (with an average of 5.17) when fertilized.

 

{|class="wikitable"

!rowspan=2|Plant Name

!colspan=5|Active Seasons

!rowspan=2|Underground

!rowspan=2|Days Per Harvest

!rowspan=2|Harvests Per Tile<br>Per Season

!rowspan=2|Harvests Per Tile<br>Per Year

!rowspan=2|Average Plants Harvested<br>Per Tile Per Year'''*'''

!rowspan=2|Average Processed Food/Drink<br>Per Tile Per Year'''*'''

|-

|[[Plump helmet]]

|[[Pig tail]]

|[[Cave wheat]]

|[[Sweet pod]]

|[[Quarry bush]]

|[[Prickle berry]]

|[[Wild strawberry]]

|[[Longland grass]]

|[[Rat weed]]

|[[Fisher berry]]

|[[Rope reed]]

|[[Sliver barb]]

|[[Sun berry]]

|[[Whip vine]]

:'''*''': ''Average 5 plants per harvest (Legendary farmer with fertilization)''

 

A beginning fortress has 7 dwarves, each of which consumes 7 units of food and drink per dwarf per season, or 196 for the whole fortress for the year. The starting group can theoretically be supported by a single farm tile, but in practice a larger farm will be necessary since a young fortress is unable to use farm tiles to their fullest potential.

 

A properly-managed and fully-utilized 3x3 plot growing plump helmets can produce an average of up to 2700 units of alcohol per year, enough to provide food (through booze-[[cooking]] with seeds) and drink for a fortress of 95 dwarves. A similar 5x5 plot can produce up to 7500 units of food and drink per year, enough to support 265 dwarves.

 

This calculation assumes your planters can consistently produce stacks of 5 plants (with or without fertilization), and that there are enough of them to avoid any labor shortages at planting times. The general limitation, then, is not the size of the farm, but the skill of the growers, the availability of seeds and [[potash]] for fertilizer, and careful management of [[labor]], [[stockpiles]], and the food industry to ensure that crops are harvested (rather than left to [[wear|wither]] in the field), are properly stored away from [[vermin]], the plants are processed, and seeds are recovered so that the cycle can continue next season. However, since adding farm tiles is practically free, most overseers find it easier to create larger farms than to optimize production on a smaller plot.

In practice, dwarves require booze variety to avoid bad [[thought]]s and desire food variety to create good thoughts. Additionally, if your dwarves are going to grow textiles (and [[dye]]s) for [[clothing]], they will need more farmland.  

At the high end, 50 tiles of farmland should provide all the food your fortress will ever need, even if divided between disparate types of less-efficient crops.

Many fortresses begin with a single large farm (5x5) with [[plump helmet]]s, or several smaller farms (3x3 or 1x5 are common) with a wider variety of crops. Given the small number of dwarves, only 10 or so tiles are needed for a beginning fortress. As the growers [[experience|level up]] and farm yields increase the farm can be expanded and newer, smaller farms with different crops can be added to enable new growers to practice their skills. The more tiles of farm plot you have, the more growers (and harvesters) you will need. A single legendary planter can plant up to 100 tiles of farmland if they never harvest themselves and the seed stockpile is only a half-dozen tiles from all farm plot tiles. Consider making the seed stockpile in the middle of a ring of farms to save travel time. 

{{Category|Agriculture}}