Perfect amount of outside space for upgraded barn/co-op?

Lisastardew

Lisastardew

Tiller
Been trying out some options in regards to how much fenced in space to give my animals so that the grass is able to regrow itself fast enough that they don't run out (causing me to have to craft a bunch of grass starters). I was wondering if anyone knew of any data that already exists out there for this?
 
Lew Zealand

Lew Zealand

Helper
Based on my observation of growing and feeding animals with Grass as exclusively as possible, a full Barn and Coop of 24 total Animals eats far too fast to maintain a self-sustaining patch of Grass for 3 seasons. Your best option may be to have far fewer Animals, maybe only 6-8 total, and a very large patch of Grass.

The problem has always been:

• Grass spreads very slowly
• Grass only spreads to adjacent empty tiles so even a large patch of Grass can only expand at the edges
• Animals will eat the closest Grass they can find, creating a straight diagonal line of eaten Grass

That third thing is the killer because it works in exact opposition to the second. You need a lot of open area for Grass to spread efficiently where each tile of Grass is surrounded by empty tiles to spread to. But instead Animals mow down a clean line as close to the Barn/Coop entrance as they can get. So the patch of Grass is always receding away from the building entrances and never recovering as the eating is wayyyy faster than the spreading.

IMO the your option for something akin to self-sustaining Grass for animals is what I do:

• Use Blue Grass if you have access to it, Animals eat half of Blue Grass compared to regular Grass so you only need half the space
• Big patch of Grass, like 1/8 the Standard Farm area for 24 animals (full Barn and Coop)
• Let 'em eat it down to almost nothing for 3 seasons
• Thin it out with the scythe once a week or so in the tiles away from the Line of Munchitude for winter Hay, and the Grass will spread to fill the holes
• Replant ~15-25 evenly separated Grass Starter on Winter 28 to fill everything back up. Grass gets a ~30x spread multiplier this night only, it's a Grass BOOM!
 
Jayamos

Jayamos

Farmer
Don’t forget to stick something on top of the grass starter (flamingo for fun, fence post for cheap, lightning rod for your agro-electricity operation) so the animals never eat all of it. I allow a couple per animal, spread out. I don’t fence in the animals, I fence away from crops. Pretty sure I’ve kept a full barn and coop going spring-fall-winter this way, with a hefty store of hay for winter. But it does take a lot of space and strategic grass starter placement to keep the animals well-fed.
 
MogBeoulve

MogBeoulve

Farmer
If you are using regular grass, it's cheap to make grass starter to periodically reseed your pastures. (If you are using the new blue grass, start a mystic tree farm ASAP.) Since I build and fill an untenable amount of coops, I also do as Lew suggests and occasionally punch holes in my fields of grass. Don't mow neatly, just run around and swing the scythe every couple steps. (Make sure you have silo space for the hay you are cutting!)

Once I get out of early game, I move all actual crop farming to the greenhouse or to Ginger Island, and turn over all available tillable soil to pasture. The beach farm with regular grass supports around 100 animals with minimal management; I'm still working on figuring out how the meadowlands does with blue grass, since it is not consumed as quickly.
 
HaleyRocks

HaleyRocks

Farmer
I myself remedied that problem, with a simple solution, others suggested to me. I put Lightningrods over grass patches, not individually, but surrounding a number of them; essentially, closing of grass "squares", inside fence-like constructs, but from Lightningrods!

From my 2 coops 2 barns filled to the brim with animals, only small areas of growing blue grass, is ever being chewed up. The real problem isn't the animals' apetite for me though, but the chance of normal grass to spawn and spread, since i always want to trim it... Which forces me to open holes in my meadowlands! Especially annoying, whenever normal grass, appears in the place that animals ate up the blue patches.
 
Yvi

Yvi

Rancher
Another option, if you have room on the farm, is move the barn/coop. I just did that. My animals had eaten all the grass just outside their doors, so I moved them to a part of the farm with more grass. Moving buildings is free at Robin's, after all.
 
Lew Zealand

Lew Zealand

Helper
Yvi said:
Another option, if you have room on the farm, is move the barn/coop. I just did that. My animals had eaten all the grass just outside their doors, so I moved them to a part of the farm with more grass. Moving buildings is free at Robin's, after all.
Click to expand...
100% this. I need to do move my Barn with my current Farm design as the animals have cleared the area around the Barn by mid-Summer and their Grass detection seems to have a distance limit. Move the Barn down the Farm next to the Grass Line and they're good for the rest of the year.

Pro Tip: You can also move your buildings at the Book in the Wizard's Tower which is not only self-service (big win!) but also open a lot later (11pm) for those of you who are late risers forgetful like a super busy Farmer with many important things to do before 5pm.
 
Yvi

Yvi

Rancher
I never knew you could move non-wizard buildings at the tower! That's helpful, I always remember I needed something at Robin's at 6pm.
 
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