Thread: FARMING in T2K
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Old 12-09-2008, 08:27 AM
Graebarde Graebarde is offline
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Location: Texas Coastal Bend
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Quote:
Originally Posted by headquarters
So what can you expect from an encounter with a "Stout yeomanry " as they are called in the V.2.0 book .

gear ?
stockpiles?
resources?
what would they have ?
crops - and crop yields ?
how big a plot to feed 10 peopel for a year ,and what should they grow?
human factor?
I have addressed the crops yield in previous posts. The good rule of thumb is ONE acre per person for crops, though as I stated elsewhere this would depend on WHAT crops. Wheat yield potential is ~ 20 bu/a which is ~1200 pounds, where as potato yield potential is ~ 100 cwt/a ~10000 pounds. However wheat is easier to grow as it has less problems and takes less moisture than spuds. Spud storage can be a problem.

SO what does a 'typical' farm have.

Buildings: Primary common buildings include housing, barns/shed for livestock, grainery/storage for crops and supplies, workshop, well and fuel facilities. These are the basics and types would vary from one region to another. Additional types of structures would include greenhouses, smokehouses, woodsheds, outhouses (toilets), icehouses (in northern climes close to bodies of water that would freeze over in winter), processing buildings (summer kitchens or just a place to butcher and can/process food for storage out of the weather). This is NOT an all inclusive list by any means. Some farms would be like a village with specialty shops even.

Equipment:
In mechanized days there would be in all likelyhood a light truck, perhaps heavier trucks, tractors (small and large), implements for cultivation, planting, hayings, harvesting what ever crops, fertilizing, chemical application, etc. On the post-mechanization farm, the equipment would be MUCH smaller versions adapted to muscle power.

Tools (and equipment) for all sorts of tasks:
Carts (the two wheeled garden type with bicycle wheels relatively easily constructed)
garden-farm tools such as spades, digging forks, hoes, and rakes for garden type crops (and others too);
sickles and scyths for harvesting hay and grain, large rakes, flails for threshing the grain (if a machine is not available) and winnowing baskets; carpentry tools (non-powered basics),
metal working tools (forge and anvil, whether large or small depends, hammers, thongs, etc),
mechanics tools (wrenches, pliers, hammers, screwdrivers, etc)
Livestock tools (pitchforks, shovels, brooms, buckets, ropes, shears (large scissor type to shear sheep, trim manes, etc)
Leather tools (for working on harness, saddle, or even shoes usually knives, awls, large needles)
Textile tools (cards, combs, spinning wheel (or spindles), looms, dying vats, boiling kettles)
Butcher tools (knives, saw, scrapers, buckets, meat grinder (with sausage funnel), hooks for hanging, rendering kettle, scalding barrel/trough)
Mills for grinding grains, extruder for getting oils out of seeds, presses for getting juices out of such as apples.
Dairy tools (pails, strainer, covered cans/pails, kettles, cheese cutters, cheese press, butter churn, cream seperator, butter molds)
Canning/processing tools (knives, drying racks, canning jars, lids, crocks, slicers, shredders, pressure cooker/canner, large kettles, ladels)
Fuel production (axes, saws, wedges, sledges, chains, tongs)
Methane digester
Stills

This is but a partial list. Much of the items are multi-purpose. For example the pitchfork from the barn would also be used in the hay fields, the cart used everywhere to haul, buckets and pails have many uses.

Stockpile:
In the present there would be feeds, seeds, chemicals, fuels and lubricants, hardware (nuts and bolts), common repair parts, twines and ropes. A long and varied list indeed, and quantities depending on size and location.

In post-mechanization the stocks would be the seed for next year, food for the year or more depending on the season (18-months from the last harvest is a minimum I would shoot for, which means you have just enough to get to the next harvest if the crop fails entirely IF your careful). Butr FOOD for the humans and animals is the largest stock pile.

Food is followed by fuel. Here again it depends on location and availability of fuels, but wood would probably be the main sourse in most locales. A years supply is a good goal, allowing for the seasoning of the wood. It will be used for more than just heating the house in winter also. There's the cook stoves, smoke house (though corn cobs have been used for this also), still operations... lots of wood. I would plan a minimum of eight cords for the year in an average house though I'm not that fixed on quanties for wood yet.

Metals for use in the smithy-metal working would probably be the next stockpile and the hardest to come by. Also spare tools and repair parts for tools, such as handles. Bags and baskets for storage of grains and produce also come to mind. Cut lumber and hardware; leather for harness repair and other such. Here the imagination is key. It would depend on the scrounging plan and ability of the farmer and his/her extended family.

Resources:
Human resources would be valuable. I envision the typical survival farm as an extended 'family' operating in a community effort (a commune of sorts I guess, but isn't that what a family does or at least should?) Land should not be the restricting problem, but getting people working it might be. The farming communities would be targets for starving urbanites. The influx of relatives going to visit Uncle Ben, who they ignored up until this time. I would, if I had the food to feed them without starving my own established family, take in 'qualified' strangers. Remember we're on muscle power now. They have to 1) have SOME useful knowledge; 2) be relatively able to work; 3) most importantly, WILLING to work and learn for food and shelter. It would be hard times and tough love.

Food and seed resources I have already addressed somewhat, but overlooked the time of year this all come down in the US. Thanksgiving. One of the seasons where kids come home to the family farm, even if they live in the city now. A time neighbors get together as well. It is also AFTER the harvest. MOST farms in the midwest would have full grain bins, not having marketed every kernal at harvest.

These steel bins, or silos as some call them, range from 1000 bushels to 50000 bushels ON THE FARM. Now a SMALL operator would probably have at least one of the small 1000-1500 bu bins full at this time. Let's say it was 1000 bu of wheat stored. That is 60 000 pounds of wheat. IF it takes an individual 600 pounds of wheat a year to survive (basic survival here), that bin will feed 100 persons for a year! That gives Farmer John some options taking in folks and getting them up to speed. Of course Uncle Sam will probably be poking his nose into the matter too, wanting it to give to the folks who are to lazy or unwilling to work for the food, demanding what is their right and all.

So this is my basics folks and should give you a starting idea. It is not all inclusive and has room for clarification I know, so if you interested, ask away. As I said this is for the US and probably Canada as well. Agricultural practices and grouping of farms is different in other parts of the world. Germany for example is clusterd in villages usually, though there are 'isolated' farms that are more modern. From my readings, Poland uses a linerar type village, so the farms are relatively close to one another but along roads with long fields traditionally. Korea uses the village approach, with fields/paddies in the outside. This is common in other areas of the far east I have 'visited'.

One thing I know about farmers in general, the world over, is they just want to raise food for their families, enjoy some basic luxuries, and be left the hell alone!

Grae
(Sorry for the soap boxing, but it all ties in I think)
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