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Philosophy of feeding

McFeisty (US1)McFeisty (US1) US1 Posts: 110
I've searched, but cannot find any discussions on this.

Sometimes, when I come into the game for the first time in a day, I will have hungry animals, and no feed to give them. I wondered if anyone had given any thought to whether it's best to make a bunch of feed, let the animals 'starve' while you're doing so, or can it possibly be better to make only enough to feed one stable (chick or pig or cow), feed one stable while another batch of feed is being made, until you have all the stables fed, then start making multiple batches of feed.

I'm on the fence about it, and wondered if there are people who do the one, and people who do the other, and whether it can be shown that one method is better than the other.

I have 5 chicken coops, and no water tower, so I can make 6 batches of feed in the time it takes for them to 'use up' a batch (my silo is fully upgraded), so once they are all fed, I know I can keep up with them. Sometimes I'll make 7 batches, and let them idle for a minute or so, to build up a supply. Once I have enough to feed all the coops twice, I max out the batches (12, or 120 feed) that I make, and keep ahead of them easily. I think avoiding making the initial 5 batches and making one batch at a time is probably not saving me any idle time with the chickens.

Of course, the pigs then also need to be fed, which cuts in to some of that time making chick feed... The pigs might be better served by being fed one at a time, and then enough batches to feed them multiple times are achievable within the remaining time, and that might actually save me some idle time with the pigs, but I'm not sure.

Your thoughts? Thanks! :)
Post edited by McFeisty (US1) on

Comments

  • monica79538monica79538 Posts: 1,932
    edited 30.08.2013
    didn't make sense, so deleted
  • ss02092ss02092 Posts: 772
    edited 30.08.2013
    I mostly make the chick feed during the tasks... I have just one coop, 3 sties and 4 sheds... So with this feed made during the event... I can run a week...

    I do cow feeds at night... If i feel i am running out of feeds for some time... I will stop collecting the milk from shed... By the time i have enough feed my dairy might be ready and so i will sell only less milk....

    In between i shuffle the things... I hardly remember my animals starving now a days. It was difficult when i had lots of coops so demloished all but one... The only thing that is idle at some times is the silo...
  • McFeisty (US1)McFeisty (US1) US1 Posts: 110
    edited 30.08.2013
    I appreciate a response, but I honestly can't tell what you're advising me to do.
    i make huge batches of chicken feed during the day...

    **if you are REALLY behind on chick feed especially--run a full batch and log out til it is finished, then make another full batch and log out again. The chickens use up feed about as fast as you can make it.
    'Chickens use up feed about as fast as you can make it' doesn't make much sense to me, either.
    It takes 2:04 minutes (two minutes and four seconds) for me to make one batch of chick feed (10).
    The chicken coop then uses up that feed in 13 minutes.
    In 10:20 minutes I can make 5 batches of feed (50), enough to feed all 5 of my coops.
    If I feed all my coops at once, then they use up all that feed in about 13 minutes.
    If I have 100 feed (10 batches), that's enough to start the chicken coops two times in a row, lasting roughly 26 minutes.
    I can then make 120 feed (12 batches) in 24 minutes and 48 seconds, enough to start all my coops, with 20 left over, in less time than the chickens will take to use up the 2 rounds of feed.
    So the chickens do not use up the feed about as fast as I can make it.
    Even if I had 6 coops, I could still make it faster than they could use it, I just wouldn't have the extra batches.

    I'm not sure what logging out has to do with anything, either, is that your way of saying 'let the chicks starve while you're making feed,' maybe, Monica?
    ss02092 wrote: »
    I do cow feeds at night... If i feel i am running out of feeds for some time... I will stop collecting the milk from shed... By the time i have enough feed my dairy might be ready and so i will sell only less milk...
    Thank you for your response, as well, ss0209, I think maybe I got 'I let my cows go idle while making feed' from some of that. But do you make one cow feed and collect from one shed, then let the others remain uncollected while you make another single batch of cow feed? Or do you make enough feed for them all to be fed, and make them all wait the same length of time?
  • Bella71 (INT1)Bella71 (INT1) Posts: 79
    edited 30.08.2013
    When I am online I make chicken feed like crazy. I make 12 batches at a time as my chickens are always hungry :) If I surplus chick feed I make 2 to 3 batches of pig feed until I can make chick feed again.
    If I know I'll be away from my pc for a while I make pig feed. (Takes 1hr 48min.)
    The last thing I do on my farm each night is to start the cow feed, depending on what time I start work I will set it for between 7 and 10 batches.
    Since I started this game, I always liked my barns to be full. So I just need to top up my stock, no need to start from scratch and I don't like helping the vet as I she has way to many accident. ;)
    Hope this helps.
  • ss02092ss02092 Posts: 772
    edited 30.08.2013
    McFeisty wrote: »
    Thank you for your response, as well, ss0209, I think maybe I got 'I let my cows go idle while making feed' from some of that. But do you make one cow feed and collect from one shed, then let the others remain uncollected while you make another single batch of cow feed? Or do you make enough feed for them all to be fed, and make them all wait the same length of time?

    If i ran out of cow feed... I will make one by one and feed it to the sheds... that too i make sure i have atleast 20 pig feeds extra.

    so in 55 mints i can make for a shed and make the pig feed before the sties become ready. I dont starve my chick or pigs while i am online... sine they starve when i am sleeping or offline... where as the cows happy feed at that time....

    So when there is a feed deficiency i will make my cow to wait else the already starved chicks may die ;)

    I see your farm is with 2 different level cow sheds. I suggest you to starve the low level cow shed (if you decided to go like this). The higher level shed gives more milk for the same feed when compared to the low level.

    When you have enough feed run the low level too...


    Also you have one level 5 coop, one L4, one L3 and two level 2 coops. They will give you a total of (166+156+145+(2*135)) 737 eggs.

    I suggest you to upgrade three of them to level 5 and demolish one coop. Four level 5 coops will give you 664 eggs. This is only 73 eggs less but when compared in the feed cycle you will get another approximately 2 mins extra. This can be used for other grinding other feeds. Similar the case for pigs also.


    Since you are having less number of orchards... I dont think you will have the problem of fertilizers not sufficient if you reduced the number of stables.
  • White Diamonds2White Diamonds2 Posts: 4
    edited 30.08.2013
    I do like Bella, I leave all my feeds at full levels in my barns so that when I come back in the morning all I have to do is feed and make what I need
    Chicken if I know I am going to be on for a while
    Pig when I have to go and come back in a few hours and always Cow at night
    Letting them sit there doing nothing wont make any difference to your farm, or how it runs, just no money from selling produce till you start
  • ElizabethKElizabethK Posts: 519
    edited 30.08.2013
    Mcfiesty, if my chickens were starving I would run 5 batches for the 5 coops. Then 5 more batches, 5 more. etc. until I had 10 batches stocked up, then I would run the full 12. I would not run 1 batch at a time because each harvest and begin production will take up a little bit of time (and more if you are not right on top of it).

    I also run cow feed and wheat at night, even though with only 2 cowsheds (and currently 1250 cow feed stocked up) it is not necessary to run them every night for me. Therefore on nights when I don't need to run wheat or cow feed I will run cabbage and pig feed (special cabbage seeds are especially nice to run at night).

    I would not necessarily demolish the chicken coops. I love my coops (just built my fifth and can't wait to build my 6th) and have no problem keeping them fed except maybe on weekends when I don't play for extended periods. When I come back Monday morning I sometimes can't hear anything else with all of their squawking. Besides chickens give more dung per hour than pigs or cows as long as you are able to harvest them frequently.

    Regarding pigs, I will usually plant cabbage when I have enough corn to run the windmill at least twice or sometimes more. I run pig feed as I said, sometimes at night, but also I will pick times that my chickens are stuffed and barns bursting or if I am going to be away from my computer for awhile. Doing it this way I can keep my pigs quite full. If I ran out of pig feed I would run the same number of batches as sties, then I would run 7 batches (~1 hour). At this point I would go back to chickens or more pig feed, depending on what I have in stock.

    I do highly recommend getting the water tower. In my opinion it is by far the best thing to spend gold on. Even if you never can afford to upgrade it beyond level 1, it can make a huge difference in helping to keep animals fed and orchards fertilized.

    Hope this helps.
  • Gwendolen (US1)Gwendolen (US1) Posts: 1,268
    edited 30.08.2013
    Well, you know I agree with Elizabeth about the watertower :P

    I also like to have big stocks in my barns and work on keeping them topped up. That way I always have feed to start the day with.

    What I do is mill what I plant. This does require to be ahead of corn/cabbage/wheat though as well, but for me it works good. While I'm milling chickenfeed I plant the corn to replenish what I used, while I plant cabbage I mill 5 batches of piggiefeed. With a lvl4 mill, that takes exactly the same time.
    Wheat and cowfeed overnight.
    Sometimes when the cows really don't need more, I do 4 fields with special cabbage and then mill as much pigfeed as I can overnight.
  • McFeisty (US1)McFeisty (US1) US1 Posts: 110
    edited 30.08.2013
    I don't have the problem of cows being idle, usually, unless I have a 'net outage and cannot plant wheat and mill cow feed overnight. And the chickens, it seems, don't really benefit from the 'make one chicken coop worth of feed, feed one chick, make one coop's worth more, etc.,' since about the time I have the 5th one fed, the first one is hungry again.

    But the pigs, it seems I might have a little less idle time if I feed them one at a time, since it takes so much less time to make that feed, and once I have the 4th one fed, there's plenty of time left to make multiple batches.

    I usually make the 5 chicken coops' worth of feed, then mill 6 after I've fed them, for a few rounds, until that extra one adds up to enough to feed the coops for 2 full cycles, then mill 120 and feed the chicks 100 while that's going.

    Pigs, I usually start off milling one sty's worth, feed, mill enough for one more, feed that one, until all are fed, then mill 3 or 4 batches, etc. I usually only do this once I'm way ahead of the chicks for the day (over 200 chick feed in reserve) so I don't end up with starving chicks again.

    I'm certainly not going to demolish any chickens, I really like having 6, when it's feasible. The issue isn't the eggs, it's the fertilizer. I'm constantly running out of it, which is why I only have the single Apple and single Cherry orchard. Once I can get the hang of having enough fertilizer, then I plan to add more Apples. I also have 2 Almonds, and now an Olive Grove, which also use up my fertilizer.

    I do understand the wisdom of getting the Water Tower, and plan to, when I can afford it. That may be some time, however. Thanks, everyone! :)
  • monica79538monica79538 Posts: 1,932
    edited 30.08.2013
    post delete
  • McFeisty (US1)McFeisty (US1) US1 Posts: 110
    edited 30.08.2013
    Is English not your first language, Monica? It is mine, and "did not like" is not equal in meaning to what I said, which was "cannot tell what you are advising me to do" - I meant I could not understand what you were advising me. To make feed and let my chickens 'starve'? I honestly could not tell. There was no 'not liking' of it, I wanted some clarification of what you were trying to tell me.

    I wasn't of the opinion that the feed mill was 'causing' my situation. I wanted to know whether people feed things one at a time, or let them all wait until a sufficient amount of feed is available. Did you not understand my question? I've edited the OP so that it is clearer, I hope.

    And I certainly wasn't trying to open myself up for your bashing of the shape of my farm, why be critical of something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH the original question?

    The advice to demolish the Silo and rebuild it to level 2, where it takes 5 more bags of dung, and 6 more minutes to make a batch of fertilizer, has got to be singularly the worst piece of advice I've ever seen on these forums, however. That piece of advice I DO NOT LIKE! (Just to be clear.)
    I just went to see your farm--since you did not like my earlier advice. I thought you had all level 5 chicken coops, they cost the same amount of feed but you get more eggs and poop for only one more worker. That said--you can upgrade 3 of the lower level ones and then the last one--you could demolish it or upgrade. Your feed consumption will be a little lower since you won't be running quite so many coops.

    The silo level 3 upgrade is not much help for making the fert is not much help unless you have a lot of poop to process. You could demolish the silo and rebuild it to level 2 and free up 10 workers to use elsewhere.

    And lastly, the outer fence is an odd arrangement that seems very hard to fit an efficient farm layout, especially with lots of decorations to help reduce your operating costs.

    If I am really low on feed--I only run the fully upgraded ones. But, I am never that low on feed. Build up a good supply first and it will be less of a struggle.

    In summary, I think your situation has little to do with your feed mill.
  • monica79538monica79538 Posts: 1,932
    edited 30.08.2013
    post delete
  • McFeisty (US1)McFeisty (US1) US1 Posts: 110
    edited 30.08.2013
    I was trying to get you to clarify what you were telling me to do, but your reaction is to simply delete the entire post. ???

    I asked for opinions on whether people feed their stables one at a time, or just let them all sit idle while multiple feeds are milled. I'd like you to address that subject, and stop criticizing me.
    There is no reason for your behavior. If the mods see fit to edit my post, then they have my permission. I did not write either post with anger or malice toward you. I changed my answer earlier because i thought i misunderstood your question, so I changed it. I am not changing my answer because you do not like my tips to help your farm be more successful. They are the same tips i would give to anyone that asked my opinion.

    Good luck.
  • Lilypaddle (INT1)Lilypaddle (INT1) Posts: 614
    edited 30.08.2013
    I made as much as I could in the beginning for one batch especially when I finally got to Level 4 for the windmill. And then would move on to another batch. I eventually got the water tower and boy that really made a big difference. Now my feed is pretty well always fully stocked.

    I don't think there is really any "right" way to do it. Just depends how often you are on. I wasn't working when I first started playing this game so I could literally spend the whole day making feed.
  • McFeisty (US1)McFeisty (US1) US1 Posts: 110
    edited 31.08.2013
    Thanks, maxiroy! I agree, there's probably not a 'right' way, I was just wondering if there were any clear preferences, and if anyone was willing to discuss why they had those preferences.

    Mostly, the responses have been 'that doesn't happen to me' - which is less than helpful, in case anyone wasn't clear on that, and not the response I was hoping for. Even if it doesn't happen to you anymore, or hasn't ever, can people please try to put themselves in the situation, as if it were happening? Then what would you do? One at a time? Or, 'all of you animals must suffer the same'?

    Mostly a philosophical thing, I guess, it's not really going to make a huge difference in anything in the long run. :D
  • Lilypaddle (INT1)Lilypaddle (INT1) Posts: 614
    edited 31.08.2013
    Well they are only pixels so if they starved once in awhile that was okay :D.

    Sometimes it is hard to remember exactly what you did at the beginning. I do remember not having enough dung for fertilizer and having to build more coops and then on top of that having to feed them. I do remember it being hard trying to keep up with everything though. The one good thing about the cows was they take longer to produce milk so I could work on other feeds in the meantime. I think what you are doing make sense. It can be hard to find a balance at times.
  • Bella71 (INT1)Bella71 (INT1) Posts: 79
    edited 31.08.2013
    let me try again. in the beginning i hired steve screwdriver to get ahead with my animal feed. then and still now i make big batches of everything. at that time i only had to 2 chicken coops. so i made 2 batches at a time. when steve screwdriver is on my farm i make the maximum batches of chicken feed. (120 turns to 132 if i remember my numbers correctly) i have three stys therefore i make the max nr i can. the only thing i don't max is the cow feed. it takes to long. i only do cow feed at night, depending on what time i go to sleep and what time i must be up, i will make it in batches of 5,6 or 7. i hope this is a better explanation than the first one and that this is of more help. :)
  • Larino (INT1)Larino (INT1) Posts: 4,572
    edited 31.08.2013
    What I do is just make the max batch I can make, so depending on the amount of crop I have. And when the mill is done I make another max batch. I always make the feed I need the most first, so if I have too little chicken, I go make corn and chicken feed. If I have too little pig, I go make cabbage and pig feed. I usually do not have too little cow feed, but I only make that over night, also the max batch I can make; similarly I also usually only grow wheat overnight (except for in co-op projects). Then about the starving, if the animals go idle I basically do not care, but I do start making feed for them. Also max batches and I just feed them like I can. Can I only start 2 coops, I do so. Can I start all 4, I do so. Can I start none, I start none :D

    Reason for that approach is that I do not like to click so often and sometimes walk away or go to my other accounts, so I basically do not plan, and make feed -> feed the animals how I can and for the longest period of time; that is why I start a max batch only. Basically just doing something with half a strategy :P
  • montuosmontuos Posts: 1,275
    edited 31.08.2013
    This first paragraph isn't strictly relevant to your question, but I'm throwing it out there anyway. Once my mill was level 4 and my five fields were all level 5, I found that milling feed was well balanced at 3 of each animal. I'm currently still feeling my way through having four pigs and four cows. I'm also finding that now that I have the gourmet farm, growing enough wheat has become a minor problem that isn't fully addressed by the special wheat, so I've just added a sixth field, which has unbalanced my happiness, so I'm not entirely pleased with where my farm stands at the moment. My other farms are nowhere near as advanced as yours, so I currently have plenty of fertilizer, and have my barns almost full now even though I have three apples and a cherry.

    I don't like letting any of my animals sit idle, and I try to keep my barns well-stocked with feed as well as produce, but even when I'm running low for whatever reason, I do my best to make sure there's enough feed left over at the end of the night to take care of feeding all the animals for at least the first round the next day. Then I take that time to run a round of chicken feed, because that's quickest, and then a double round, bootstrapping up to a full mill run of chicken feed. (Although if I had as many chickens as you do, a double round is almost a full round anyway.) I'd probably let the pigs idle while I dealt with bootstrapping the chickens, because the pigs simply take longer.

    But if I had more than just the three chickens, I think I would just let them sit idle while I started a full mill round. Doing them one by one introduces more waiting and less efficiency while you cycle the milling.
  • McFeisty (US1)McFeisty (US1) US1 Posts: 110
    edited 01.09.2013
    Thanks, Bella, I think I now understand that you make all the chickens or pigs or cows wait the same, and don't feed them piecemeal, and that if you had no feed, you'd not only make them wait for enough feed, you'd make them wait until you'd made many more batches than merely the amount you'd need to start all the animals of that type. Did I understand that right? :)

    Larino, thanks for answering, I understand not wanting to spend all the day tending to this game! I'm starting to resent the chicks, I think, since they are so fiddly, even though they yield so much more dung for fertilizer, if I stay on them all the time. If I do have the time to attend to them, I like to make sure they are going, and let the pigs idle. Ideally, perhaps I'll get to the point where I have barns full of feed and enough produce to make all the feed I like, any time I like, and all the fertilizer anyone could ever want! :)

    Montuos, great to have a response from you, too, thanks! I'm still having second and third and more thoughts about the number of stables I have. If I had only 3 chicks, I'd be more torn, since if I milled and fed one, then milled and fed the next, then milled and fed the 3rd, then I could mill enough to feed all 3 in the time before the first one was done, or close to it. I really like having at least 5, though, and sometimes 6 when I can manage it, and with that many, I never get to the point where I can mill and have none of them be idle, really, so they always have to wait. Sometimes I do 3, feed half, mill 3, feed the other half, etc., but I don't think that really lets me get ahead of them, either.

    You may have noticed a lot of things on my farm are not nearly as far upgraded as you have. I recently decided that for enough wheat, I really did need to get up to at least level 4 fields, so I'm aiming for that, lately. I also have 6 fields, but my happiness is very good, since I have less housing due to less upgrades. I'm limited by how much free gold I get, since I decided that (on the main farm), I'm going to try to have all level 1 fancy (blue) houses (except for 2 lvl3 reds). Plus, with the fields and stables still at first level, I can knock them down and build up another type, to help with co-op projects, or events, or missions, etc., and it doesn't really cost a lot in time or money. :)
  • montuosmontuos Posts: 1,275
    edited 01.09.2013
    Some further thought processes for your consideration and evaluation:

    One of the things I started to understand when I added my temporary 4th pig and decided to keep it was that there really is a comfortable balance to things at certain points, and that knocked me off it at a time when I did not have my storage full. The lesson was reinforced a couple of weeks ago when I lost my mind and started my third farm, and near the beginning there's a point where the tasks have you build your first cow and then a second chicken in fairly close succession. If I were to start a new farm now, what I would do is simply make certain from the very beginning to stock my barns as full as I could with the relevant kinds of both produce and feed before I added another of any given animal, every single time, and then restock to full every time I upgrade storage.

    I think what I would probably do in your situation, given your preference for more chickens despite your second thoughts on managing them, is demolish at least half of them for a couple of days, grow corn and mill chicken feed like mad to stock up to full, and then carefully add the chickens back one at a time while you feel out (or calculate) where the best balance is for you. Alternatively, just add them all back at once without experimenting for balance first, because at least having full(er) storage puts you ahead of your previous game.

    I'm not sure how badly that would affect your orchards on your gourmet and flower farms, though, because I simply have no experience with those orchards or the goat stables. I know that leaves and twigs from the orchards are supposed to feed the goats, but I have no idea what the numbers are for that or how much dung the goats produce at various levels, but that's something to consider too for increasing your fertilizer.

    Regarding wheat and higher level fields, five humus'd level 5 fields gives 715 wheat, which is just about the right amount for 90 cow feed each night. Making pasta and piecrust broke that balance, and adding the fourth cow means that simply keeping up with daily feed requires more wheat than five fields produce. If I run two rounds of special wheat after starting my mill but before I start the regular wheat for overnight, I think I may be able to keep up if half the special wheat is humus'd, but I'm not sure how sustainable producing that much special wheat will be, and I don't like how much humus it uses either. (My experimentation is currently on hiatus, though, because I'm away from home and flash games overheat my laptop.) So that's why I finally added the sixth field, but that one's going to stay a quickly-replaceable level 1 until after I've expanded another plot or two, even though I'd rather it were fully upgraded. On the other hand, the need for wheat will be greatly reduced once I finally add almond orchards and start producing marzipan and ice cream instead of pasta and pies, so I may be able to lose that field for good later on.
  • McFeisty (US1)McFeisty (US1) US1 Posts: 110
    edited 01.09.2013
    Good advice, thanks, Montuos! 'Lost my mind,' indeed! I've been thinking about trying to start another farm to experiment with some things, but so far, I've managed to tell myself 'that's just crazy!' :D

    I'm really on the fence about upgrading, for fields it seems it only really makes a big difference for regular wheat seeds. But since it is something I need, I've been doing it. Although the upgrade from 4 to 5 seems unneeded, 11 hours and 2 workers for a difference of 90 to 95 wheat? Harrumph! Maybe when I run out of other things to do, I'll fully upgrade everything, including the fields.

    And when it comes to upgrading stables to get more dung, adding an additional stable seems to be a lot more cost/time effective. Although it does make my feeding balance a lot more erratic.

    I really like the goats, since they eat the stuff from the Almonds with no processing! I have 3 goat stables and 2 almond orchards, and I get 25 dung from each stable. 2 level 1 Almonds wasn't producing enough for my 2 goats, but when I upgraded one Almond to level 2, I again had too many leaves and twigs. Goat milk also sells for a pretty good income.

    My farm may seem pretty advanced, but I'm definitely still learning! Looking forward to more ideas and opinions, too! Thanks, everyone! :)
  • Bella71 (INT1)Bella71 (INT1) Posts: 79
    edited 01.09.2013
    My coop has been doing a project over the weekend and I therefor had to starve my poor chickens as we were only planting wheat. My chickens weren't idle as my barns were full before we started the project. I think I had something like 200 or so chick feed. (I have 6 chick coops, 3 pigs and 2 cows). I am now going to hire Steve Screwdriver so he can help me with all the feed I stopped making over the weekend as it is now 20:48 and I still haven't caught up with what I used and did not replace.
    What Montuos said is so true, keep your barns full from the beginning with feed. It helps especially when your busy with co op projects or if you can't make feed for some reason.

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