Farms in T2k

[Antenna]

Farmlife for GDW houserules
Introduction:
I was inspired by ReHerakte's Post on Op Omega, 9th of May 2004 on the RPG Host about feeding the 7th Army from Europe in Norfolk. I thought that I could try to make a roughly made FFS ruleset for farming and agriculture. So thanks to the RPG Host board I now present my take on farming mainly for T2k.

Table 1 : Techlevels and factors.
TL Leff Gen WCA LL eff
0 0.55 4:1 0.50 2 1.05
1 0.60 4:1 0.50 2 1.10
2 0.70 10:1 0.60 2.5 1.15
3 0.90 11:1 0.70 3 1.50
4 1.00 12:1 1.00 4 2.00
5 1.40 13:1 1.10 5 5.00
6 1.90 14:1 1.15 6 8.00
7 2.60 16:1 1.20 7 15.0
8 3.50 18:1 1.25 8 25.0
9 4.60 20:1 1.25 9 50.0
10 5.30 22:1 1.30 10 90.0
11 5.70 24:1 1.40 11 125
12 5.90 26:1 1.45 12 175
13 6.00 28:1 1.50 13 250
14 6.00 30:1 1.55 14 500
15 6.00 32:1 1.60 15 1000

TL - Tech Level
Leff - Output Factor/ha
Gen - Food generated per seed
WCA - Weight coefficient Animals
He - coeff for peak season extra hand
eff - efficiency factor labor/ha
ha - 2.469 acre

Table 2 : Crop and yield (Estimated TL:4)
CROP kg/ha
Corn 1470
Wheat 868
Rye 521
Barley 1035
Oat 930
Cowpeas 287
Field Beans 808
Peanuts 628
Field Pea 1077
Potatoe 7362
Sweet Potatoe 4741
Suger Beet 7856 (8% exchange to sugger)
Grassland 461
Grassfield 1654

Table 3 : Animaldata (output average per year lifetime)
Animal Meat/yr Grass/yr Fodder/yr Leather/yr Other/yr Years WT Main Note
Cheep 3.3 250 ---- 3.06 1.2 1+6 80 0+0.1 (1)
Cheep 31.8 300 ---- 17.1 ---- 1 80 0+0.1
Cow 22.7 1200 1200 5.31 2000 2+6 400 1+2 (2)
Cattle 99.5 1200 1200 19.9 ---- 2 500 1+0.2
Steer 33.2 1000 1000 5.22 ---- 2+4 500 1+0.2
Pig 40.0 ---- 500 23.2 ---- 1+5 80 1+2.5
Turkey 10.5 ---- 35 ---- ---- 0.6 15 1+1
Broiler 1.0 ---- 4 ---- ---- 0.4 1 1+0.2
Hen --- ---- 8 ---- 2.4 1.2+4 1 1+0.3 (3)
Horse 18.2 1200 1200 3.60 ---- 3+7 450 3+2
Bee --- ---- 500 ---- 40 --- --- 1+0 (4)
Fish 1.0 ---- 2 ---- ---- 1-2 --- 0+1 (5)
goat 2.3 120 ---- 2.43 0.13/100 1+6 40 0+0.3 (6)
goat 15.9 140 ---- 17.1 ---- 1 40 0+0.1

Meat/yr - Average production of meat per year
Grass/yr - Average consumption of grass per year
Fodder/yr - Average consumption of fodder per year
Leather/yr - Average production of leather per year
other/yr - Other production per year
Years - first number years to come up to production(except meat), other
number years of production in average.
WT - Wt of animal
Main - Maintence, the first number is weekly maintence the other is daily
care to get milk, feeding etc.

(1) - Cheeps that produce wool will finally produce this amount in kg fabric
(other/yr in average)
(2) - Cows milk this amount in Liters (other/yr in average), accounted for 2
offsprings.
(3) - lay this amount in kgs (other/yr in average)
(4) - Beehive produce this amount of honey a avergae year, and need 500kg
sugger beet (8% exchange) in sugger to replace the hive.
(5) - The amount of fish is set to 1 kg fish.
(6) - Goats will produce 0.13 kg wool that make fabirc nad 100 Litre milk.

Average occupation of farmer
(h/day): ha / (eff * 2) (agriculture)
(h/day): acre * 0.405 / (eff * 2) (agriculture)

Seasonvariation :
Winter : no agriculture, animal care add 50% time.
Spring : agriculture * 0.50, animal care add 50% time
Summer : agriculture * 1.75, animal care as normal
Fall : agriculture * 0.50, animal care add 50% time




Antenna

PS
Gonna tidy the file tomorrow after a good night sleep
DS



edit kato13 this is the best solution for information with spaces layouts

Stuff with lots of spaces

[Antenna]

Lets say that this farm has 26 ha large area and has with following mix of crops

26/4 ha as grassland : 461 * 3.50 kg =
9 ha Grasfield - 1654 * 3.50 kg = 57890 that would give 17 cows, 34 cattle, 2 steers

They would need 57200 kg Corn (as an example) as fodder from a field of 10 ha

Meat per Year : 22.7 * 17 + 99.5 * 34 + 2 * 33.2 = 3835 kg * 1.25 = 4974kg
Leather per year : 17 * 5.31 + 34 * 19.9 + 2 * 5.22 = 777.31 Sqre meter
Milk produced : 6/8 * 2000 * 17 * 1.25 = 31.875L
Maintence or Work(field) : 21.11 / (25 *2) = 25 min average per day
Maintence (beef weekly) : (17+34+2) * 1 = 53 h / 25 = 2 h 15 min per week
Maintence (beef daily) : 17 * 2 + (34 + 2) * 0.2 = 41.2 h / 25 = 1h + 40 min per day

All isn't just meat...

Potatoes to the meat
lets say that every meal counted as one meal per day has 1 kg meat and 1.5 kg potatoes.

7362 * 3.5 = 25767 per ha and we need for a balance on this 5348 *1.5

a field llarge as 0.31 ha of potaotes.

This would give us a normal daily food (2L milk, 1 kg meat, 1.5 kg potaotes)

4974 meals consisting of meat
4974 meals consisting of potatoes
9948 L of fluid to food

Can feed 13.6 men per year and the work per day as an average 2 h 25min
And we have farmed 25.81 ha

24929 L of milk to produce cream, cheese etc

[Antenna]

same farm as above.

26/4 = 6.5 grassland 461 * 0.9 * 6.5 = 414.9 kg
9 ha Grassfield 1654 * 0.9 * 9 = 1488.6 kg +414.9 = 16094 kg

16094 kg corn as fodder -> 9.85 ha

4 cows, 8 cattle, 2 steers

meat per year : (22.7 * 4 + 99.5 *8 + 33.2 *2 ) * 0.70 = 662.74 kg
leather per year : 5.31 * 4 + 19.9 * 8 + 5.22 * 2 = 190.88 Square meter
milk Per year : 8000 L

a normal meal per day : 0.5 kg meat, 2 kg potatoes, 2 L milk

1325 meals

Potatoes : 0.26 ha

this lot can feed 3.6 person per year with food

and uses 17.1 h per day of maintence for the fields
and uses 9.7 h per day as an average messure

[Antenna]

Conclussion :

Prewar farm that can be handled by 1 person can be around 75 ha and can feed 40.8 men

Postwar farm can be handled by 6 persons with long days and be around 75 ha and can feed 10.8 men

Note postwar is at TL 3 that is around 1800 AD

Antenna

[kalos72]

First let me say I LOVE the work here! Its the type of detail I couldnt dream of working up. :)

Secondly let me say that I guess we are all screwed because the ENTIRE island of Manhattan, all 6000HA worth turned farmland and I am only feeding 800 people! :(

6000 HA / 75 HA = 80 farms feeding 10 men each

DO NOT want to be negative at all about all this damn hard work but, are we sure those numbers are right?

I was using a fairly low number and figuring each acre could feed between 3-10 people....

[Legbreaker]

It seems to me that the numbers don't quite add up. 1.5kgs of potatoes per person per day? Ok, I'm guessing that probably includes other vegetables as well.
Also, a simple backyard vegetable patch can feed a small family quite well - there's certainly no need for acres of land. Also, several crops can be grown on the same ground throughout the year.
Admittedly meat requires a bit more space than carrots and peas, but a single cow produces a LOT of useful protein beyond just beef (brains, tongue, liver, etc).
Waste plant material (what's left of the peas after havesting for example) could be fed to animals further increasing the yeild from the area. Waste animal product likewise can be used to fertilise plants, again increasing yeild for fairly minimal effort.

[Antenna]

Oki, I used the worst case scenario when I made the Postwar farm around 1799 AD so you see that there would be hope that you might could side for a higher TL 4 to 6 depending on different areas of the world. TL 3 is preindustrialization

25 ha
TL 4 1900 AD - 6.8 hours per day to produce 5.2 meals per day
TL 5 1930 AD - 5.0 hours per day to produce 8.4 meals per day
TL 6 1950 AD - 3.2 hours per day to produce 13 meals per day

The farms is the same as before I just don't show the calculus here =)

Why time changes in this Statistical formulas, explanation is that level of mechanization get higher. A machine does instead what many men did before.
Why the yield gets higher, modern pesticides and newer crops from research stations.
Instead of pointing on a machine or pestecide the time won and higher yield is messured with Tech Levels

Antenna

[Antenna]

It seems to me that the numbers don't quite add up. 1.5kgs of potatoes per person per day? Ok, I'm guessing that probably includes other vegetables as well.

Well, I didn't make a menu for the farms just one simple protein source and one veggie source.

Also, a simple backyard vegetable patch can feed a small family quite well - there's certainly no need for acres of land. Also, several crops can be grown on the same ground throughout the year.
Admittedly meat requires a bit more space than carrots and peas, but a single cow produces a LOT of useful protein beyond just beef (brains, tongue, liver, etc).
Waste plant material (what's left of the peas after havesting for example) could be fed to animals further increasing the yeild from the area. Waste animal product likewise can be used to fertilise plants, again increasing yeild for fairly minimal effort.

Home gardening aint made by the same technology as My first example on postwar farm (1800 AD)

Antenna

[Antenna]

First let me say I LOVE the work here! Its the type of detail I couldnt dream of working up. :)

Secondly let me say that I guess we are all screwed because the ENTIRE island of Manhattan, all 6000HA worth turned farmland and I am only feeding 800 people! :(

6000 HA / 75 HA = 80 farms feeding 10 men each

DO NOT want to be negative at all about all this damn hard work but, are we sure those numbers are right?

I was using a fairly low number and figuring each acre could feed between 3-10 people....

If you use TL 5 Farm you would see that 6000 / 25 * 8.4 meals (2016 meals per day)

Also then it depends on what you have on your farm :)

Antenna

Antenna

[kalos72]

Perhaps I am not understanding your calculations with this, I will reexamine in the AM.

But I THINK your saying that if I change my TL to 5, I can feed 2000 people with 6000 hectares or land. the entire island of Manhattan, NYC. Cannon has 100000 people living there... /gulp

[Antenna]

Perhaps I am not understanding your calculations with this, I will reexamine in the AM.

But I THINK your saying that if I change my TL to 5, I can feed 2000 people with 6000 hectares or land. the entire island of Manhattan, NYC. Cannon has 100000 people living there... /gulp

First of all. The examples of farms that I presented here has cattle, cows and steers.

For NYC cannon you probably would just farm veggies etc.

A TL 5 potatoe farm would give a yield for a 25 ha farm 275,000 kg of potatoes
The thing with meat is that you loose energy to transform "veggies" to protein/meat the farms I made was made of 1-2% potatoes rest went to cattle etc

Antenna

[Legbreaker]

Don't forget though that scavenging forms a large part of what's supporting those 100,000 people. Even several years after the war there's likely to be a lot of preserved food squirrelled away in kitchens, resturaunts, cafeterias, vending machines and a thousand other places. Scavenging is probably considered a respectable profession by many city dwellers.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

It's also worth pointing out that you do not need to grow some vegetables in a traditional farm plot.
As was mentioned in a post some time back by I think Graebarde, you can grow potatoes in old tyres that have been filled with suitable soil and then stack them on top of each other. You don't have to have a field for cultivation, you can grow them in this manner on any piece of ground that is not suited to farming.
Some bean vines (and grape vines) can be encouraged to grow over any sort of trellis you set up with the potential to add some shade to an area if you have them climb up a suitable frame.
"Glasshouses" can be easily made from plastic pipe and plastic sheeting.

[Targan]

Don't forget though that scavenging forms a large part of what's supporting those 100,000 people. Even several years after the war there's likely to be a lot of preserved food squirrelled away in kitchens, resturaunts, cafeterias, vending machines and a thousand other places. Scavenging is probably considered a respectable profession by many city dwellers.

And fishing in the Hudson and East Rivers and nearby open water. Line fishing, netting, shellfish collection, even maybe small scale fish farming.

[kalos72]

OK I was just using my stats as an example....no need to debate that here. :)

Lets take Norfolk as the 40000 US Troops arrived for example...how many hectares of land would MILGOV need to support them?

[Matt W]

Very rough calculations... Please check

If you go by the standards of Ireland circa 1845, you can get about 6 tons of potatoes per acre (say 15 tons per hectare). That's UK tons - which is 'nearly' 1000kg

The average person needs 2.5 kg of food per day (very approximately). So let's assume that each hectare gives 6000 man-days of food.

To feed 40 000 for 1 year, you need 40 000 x 365 man-days of food = 14.6 million man-days

Therefore, you need 2 500 hectares = 25 square kilometres = You need a fertile space about 5 kilometres by 5 kilometres

Central Park is 3.4 km2

edited - hectares bigger than acres

[Legbreaker]

Hectares are larger than Acres.....
Roughly 2.5 Acres to the Hectare.

[Matt W]

Shellfish

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Death-of-an-Oysteror-50000-in-New-York-Harbor-100292389.html

"Weeds"
It'll need experts like this guy

http://www.ediblemanhattan.com/20090914/weedeater/

or this lady

http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/episodes/928-Brooklyn-Eats-Episode-12-Ava-Chin

Backyard farms

Incidentally, the best approach might be to follow the Cuban model
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0104koont.htm

[kalos72]

Guys I am not trying to make it about Manhattan, just the figures. :P

I am just trying to apply Antenna's GREAT WORK to a real canon scenario...

[Webstral]

Antenna,

This is tremendous. Thanks for doing all of this work. It's a lot to wade through. I wanted to extend my appreciation before too much time went by.

Webstral

[Targan]

Agreed, amazing work. Very useful for a variety of game settings. Thanks for posting it Antenna.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Guys I am not trying to make it about Manhattan, just the figures. :P

I am just trying to apply Antenna's GREAT WORK to a real canon scenario...

No problem there, I think we were just using the Manhattan model to show how you don't have to work on the traditional farming plot to obtain some foods, there are alternatives that can reduce the amount of land you would normally need.

[General Pain]

have you considered pollution/radiation in the equations?

On the other hand a farm could "farm" roaches on the side as food for the livestock or kids when they misbehave etc....

[Targan]

On the other hand a farm could "farm" roaches on the side as food for the livestock or kids when they misbehave etc....

Oh Pain, there you go again singing the praises of farming "land shrimp". :D

[Antenna]

Thanks for the cred guys :)

Antenna

[Antenna]

have you considered pollution/radiation in the equations?

On the other hand a farm could "farm" roaches on the side as food for the livestock or kids when they misbehave etc....

Well, there are few studies what radiation does to crop, so sorry there :)

Antenna

[General Pain]

Oh Pain, there you go again singing the praises of farming "land shrimp". :D

Hey man as long as you powder them up after you cook them and sell them as red cross relief disaster packages who would know?

Apart from that they breed extremly easily and will basically eat anything from leftovers to garbage to political dissidents ;)

[Legbreaker]

Found this lovely little gem.
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/device/devices7.html

[dragoon500ly]

Just to give an idea how much meat livestock can provide:

During WWII, the German Army considered a meat ration to be about 173gm per day.

An Army Butcher Platoon could process the following in a single day:

40 beef cattle = equal to 40,000 meat rations
or
80 pigs = equal to 24,000 meat rations
or
240 sheep = equal to 19,000 meat rations

[Abbott Shaull]

Don't forget though that scavenging forms a large part of what's supporting those 100,000 people. Even several years after the war there's likely to be a lot of preserved food squirrelled away in kitchens, resturaunts, cafeterias, vending machines and a thousand other places. Scavenging is probably considered a respectable profession by many city dwellers.

Check out Armies of the Night if you have access but they covered this side of life in the big city after the TDM and result mad rush to leave town and then those who have stayed and survived.

[Fusilier]

During WWII, the German Army considered a meat ration to be about 173gm per day.

An Army Butcher Platoon could process the following in a single day:

40 beef cattle = equal to 40,000 meat rations
or
80 pigs = equal to 24,000 meat rations
or
240 sheep = equal to 19,000 meat rations

Good info. Thanks.

[WallShadow]

In addition to the "dirt in an old tire" planter, container gardening (5-gallon cat litter buckets et al), and the currently popular "upside-down tomatoes/strawberries" hanging planters, there is also the old-fashioned technique of window boxes and roof/balcony gardens, which could take advantage of the southern exposure to maximize the available insolation. The gardens could also be enclosed to make a greenhouse setup. This would make glass, glazing materials, plexiglass, framework components, and heavy transparent plastic sheeting a favorite on scavengers' "to find" lists.

And while roaches may be an insectoid proteinaceous delicacy, I'd let my clutch of semi-domesticated chickens fatten on them and other bugs, assuming I was able to obtain a breeding pair. I think that being the "Egg King" of Manhattan might focus some unwanted attention, however. Presenting a clutch of chicks as a peace offering or as an incentive for "good neighborliness" might make the difference between a lasting bond and continued friction. If they are going to be raising the chicks into a substantial flock, that requires a certain amount of peace and stability. Think of it as enlightened self-interest. Your potential loss is a couple of breakfasts skipped: their potential gain is that they've just been given a way to become more self-sufficient and, down the road, have a broader set of trade items--live chickens, chicken meat, eggs, feathers for pillows and comforters, fertilizer.

Come to think of it, ducks or even geese might be more likely as available domesticated poultry.