I have just discovered that two 10x20 pastures filled with chickens will result in about the same number of eggs per year as one 20x20 pasture filled with chickens, but results in approximately 50% more chicken meat per year. In both instances, two herdsmen were employed.
This result appears to hold true to a lesser extent for cattle as well, with a wider variation in numbers between pastures in my existing examples. One 20x20 pasture holds 25 sheep, so dividing those between two 10x20 pastures results in a loss of one sheep total per 400 square tiles.
i use 12x16 pastures for sheeps in this map, it s same amount of sheeps 12, but takes only 1 worker
I think the only time you need to use more than one herdsman is when you are reducing the # of animals in a pasture for some reason, it seems to go faster. I've never noticed that it reduced the amount of eggs or of wool.
To be more clear, it was two herdsmen total for the chicken experiment. Two for the 20x20 and one each for the 10x20s. But with the two smaller pens you get 1.5 times as much meat, even though it is still only 66 chickens.
How long did the experiment run? Were all pastures well-established (at full capacity for a year or more)?
edit: ah, never mind, I understand now.
Quote from: slink on August 14, 2014, 07:27:55 PM
To be more clear, it was two herdsmen total for the chicken experiment. Two for the 20x20 and one each for the 10x20s. But with the two smaller pens you get 1.5 times as much meat, even though it is still only 66 chickens.
Interesting,
@slink. It does make sense because in the two pastures you likely get an extra chicken (which is what they butcher) more often than in one pen thus resulting in more chicken meat. Since the total number of egg-producing chickens is the same the egg production would not show the same effect.
Even some of us humanities guys once were half-decent at math. ;D
Quote from: irrelevant on August 14, 2014, 07:38:14 PM
How long did the experiment run? Were all pastures well-established (at full capacity for a year or more)?
Four years at full capacity. Years 5 through 8. In Year 4, the 20x20 pasture was not at full capacity for the entire year. In both cases, the pastures were directly behind the houses. 96 for the 20x20 is probably an anomaly. The rest of the meat may have shown up on some other production center due to reassignment of a worker carrying it at the time.
20x20 pasture; two herdsmen
Eggs: 774,756,762,768; avg 765
Meat: 190,192,96,156; avg 158, highest 192
2 x 10x20 pastures; one herdsmen each
Eggs: 756,774,750,780; avg 765
Meat: 312,282,288,288; avg 292, lowest 282
282/192 = 1.5 to the first decimal place
@rkelly17: Ironically, I was trying for more eggs when I split the flock. I reasoned that the size of the pasture shelter was limiting the egg output since there are never more than two rows of nests displayed there. Imagine my surprise when I got so much more meat, and almost identical numbers of eggs. I agree that the difference must be at the edge of the model where excess animals are turning into meat, while the eggs are produced about one monthly per chicken (765/66=11.6, so there are just a few roosters in the flock).
Good stuff! Thanks for doing this.
Now I wonder about sheep and cattle, that's probably the same deal there.
Ah, this is good to know! I prefer making 10x20 pastures, anyway.
Quote from: irrelevant on August 15, 2014, 08:23:49 AM
Good stuff! Thanks for doing this.
Now I wonder about sheep and cattle, that's probably the same deal there.
Given
@slink's experience I would hypothesize that wool production would be unaffected and mutton production raised for sheep and that both beef and leather (since leather requires butchering the cow) would be up for cattle. Since 1 20X20 sheep pasture produces way more wool than a 20X20 cow pasture produces leather, switching to 2 10X20 cow pastures seems like a good idea. Question: How many cows fit in 10X20? Is it enough that one can split the herd when it is time to expand? I like to have at least 1 20X20 of each animal to provide the new herds for new pastures.
@rkelly17 according to banishedinfo.com, ten cattle will fit in a 10x20 pasture.
Quote from: irrelevant on August 16, 2014, 06:59:30 AM
@rkelly17 according to banishedinfo.com, ten cattle will fit in a 10x20 pasture.
So, one could split. I'm a little reluctant to split into 2 herds of 5 when cattle reproduce so slowly. Still, if in the end you get more leather . . . .
Quote from: rkelly17 on August 16, 2014, 07:01:26 AM
Quote from: irrelevant on August 16, 2014, 06:59:30 AM
@rkelly17 according to banishedinfo.com, ten cattle will fit in a 10x20 pasture.
So, one could split. I'm a little reluctant to split into 2 herds of 5 when cattle reproduce so slowly. Still, if in the end you get more leather . . . .
Yes, ten cattle will fit into a 10x20 pasture. I have had a herd of five dwindle away rather than reproduce, though. One could stock the 10x20 pastures from a single breeder 20x20 until the desired total is achieved, as you have suggested.
The best way to dump animals out of a pasture and re-purpose the pasture is to mark it for demolition with no builders present. Reclaim it and it will not be marked for occupancy by any animal.
I have had odd behavior when splitting herds and flocks, recently. The animals in the new pasture reproduce much more quickly than the ones in the old pasture. Has anyone else seen this behavior?
i suspect animals have genders, so if you have 6 cattle, 4 male and 2 female... it will be slower than a 3-3 combo
Quote from: slink on August 16, 2014, 06:08:43 PM
I have had odd behavior when splitting herds and flocks, recently. The animals in the new pasture reproduce much more quickly than the ones in the old pasture. Has anyone else seen this behavior?
It took me awhile to figure out that you have to have 10 animals to split a herd. In those days, before I read the many enlightening posts here and on the SRS forum about agriculture I just made all my fields and pastures 12X12. Anyway, 12X12 only holds 9 sheep, so if I wanted to split a herd I had to wait and catch the pasture just when an extra sheep appeared and pause th game before the herder butchered it. Then I could split into 2 5-sheep herds. Most of the time that worked. Sometimes the new herd was back up to 9 when the old herd was still at 5. Sometimes the reverse. Sometimes (rare, but it did happen) one herd died off completely. Since I've switched to much larger pastures I don't pay close attention, but I've never had a complete die-off. I think it depends on which herd gets the pregnant females or which herd gets mostly older animals, but I have no idea on how one might even check on such things, let alone control or influence them.
Then, of course, there are the chickens, who can actually reproduce on the move from one pasture to another.
Quote from: rkelly17 on August 17, 2014, 10:06:14 AM
Quote from: slink on August 16, 2014, 06:08:43 PM
I have had odd behavior when splitting herds and flocks, recently. The animals in the new pasture reproduce much more quickly than the ones in the old pasture. Has anyone else seen this behavior?
It took me awhile to figure out that you have to have 10 animals to split a herd. In those days, before I read the many enlightening posts here and on the SRS forum about agriculture I just made all my fields and pastures 12X12. Anyway, 12X12 only holds 9 sheep, so if I wanted to split a herd I had to wait and catch the pasture just when an extra sheep appeared and pause th game before the herder butchered it. Then I could split into 2 5-sheep herds. Most of the time that worked. Sometimes the new herd was back up to 9 when the old herd was still at 5. Sometimes the reverse. Sometimes (rare, but it did happen) one herd died off completely. Since I've switched to much larger pastures I don't pay close attention, but I've never had a complete die-off. I think it depends on which herd gets the pregnant females or which herd gets mostly older animals, but I have no idea on how one might even check on such things, let alone control or influence them.
Then, of course, there are the chickens, who can actually reproduce on the move from one pasture to another.
I noticed it when splitting herds of 20 cattle or 33 chickens. In the instance of the cattle, all or most of the young ones ended up in the new pasture. I couldn't see a size difference in the chickens, but the new pasture was nearly full before the old pasture began refilling. I had the same result with the cattle, only not so dramatic since the difference was 10 going to 20 rather than 16 or 17 going to 33.
It's probably due to the order in the memory list of animals. Perhaps LIFO is used?
Not sure who is behind the site, but it had a lot of mods, which is how I found it, and there is also this rather nifty size calculator.
http://banishedinfo.com/t/Size_calculator
I've only briefly checked it out, but it looked pretty informative.