Cows, Farms and Related Queries

[Kobold Catgirl]

Hi guys,

If I have a field of wheat, and I'm a 3rd level sorcerer, how much wheat will I get per year? How about per round?

—KC

[Kobold Catgirl]

Hi all,

I have another question for my 3rd-level sorcerer. If I am going to buy fifty cows to produce 175 ounces of milk per round, which cow is the best one?

Thanks!

—KC

[Kobold Catgirl]

Hi all,

How much does it cost to start a farm?

Thanks!

—KC

[Milo v3]

Try to see if any of your cows have retrained their Skill Focus to Craft (Milk).

[swoosh]

The War Bull is only ever described as a bull, but logic follows given they're bred that there have to be female cows carrying the same genetics, but you might want to ask your GM.

Huge size, 9 HD and 7 CR(Cow Rating) pretty much guarantees a lot of milk, but training one is probably beyond the scope of a third level sorcerer. It's still something to think about for when you're a higher ECL rancher.

[d'Eon]

Ok, seriously? Where are farmers coming from?

Traditionally an acre was defined as the area one yoke of oxen could work in a day. Since you are just 3rd level and can't have Leadership, we'll assume one acre as a good-sized field for one person. Modern wheat is cited at around 30 bushels per acre or so. I have no idea what medieval yields were, but Golarion has a lot of people and magic, so let's just use modern wheat for this. One bushel is about 60 lbs of wheat, so you get 1,800 lbs or so of wheat at harvest time.

There are 10 rounds in a minute, 600 in an hour, 14,400 in a day, 100,800 in a week, and 5,241,600 in a 52 week year. Dividing 1,800 lbs by 5,241,600 gives you 0.000343407 lbs/round of wheat. But, since we are proper engineers, we apply significant figure rules to that. 1,800 has 2 sigfigs, so we round our answer to 2 sigfigs. Thus, you get 0 lbs of wheat per round.

[Kobold Catgirl]

What if it's two acres, though?

[Kobold Catgirl]

What about a Brahman? Or maybe a Holstein?

[Kobold Catgirl]

Hi all,

If my third-level smurfcerer starts a mushroom farm, how fast will the mushrooms grow?

Thanks!

—KC

[Claxon]

Kobold Cleaver, mind explaining what this is really about?

I've noticed you've spammed the forums with a lot of posts about cows and farms, and I'm not really sure why.

[The Morphling]

How your designated smurfvatar matches your usual avatar is beyond my feeble mortal ability to comprehend.

[Kobold Catgirl]

Yes.

[Newbonomicon]

It largely depends on the climate, and the ecosystem therein. For example, is your farm likely to be visited by badgers? Or snakes?

[d'Eon]

Then you double the results, 3,600 lbs per year. 3,600 still only has 2 sigfigs though, so you still round off to 0 lbs per round.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Hi guys,

If I have a field of wheat, and I'm a 3rd level sorcerer, how much wheat will I get per year? How about per round?

—KC

Sorcery doesn't really have any impact on agriculture, especially at that level.

[Nefreet]

Milo v3 wrote:

Try to see if any of your cows have retrained their Skill Focus to Craft (Milk).

Yup. The cow must succeed at the Craft DC, spend 8 hours each day nonstop producing milk, and consume resources equal to 1/3 the price of said milk.

[Kobold Catgirl]

We don't have badgers here. Maybe snakes. How do I keep snakes from visiting me?

[Nefreet]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

What if it's two acres, though?

You hit the frequently asked nail on the head there.

[Stereofm]

medieval yields were also lower, but mostly a lot of it was lost to poor storage conditions.

Not to mention gremlins and other pests :)

[Milo v3]

2,090 gp

[d'Eon]

Like I said, magic. Geb probably has undead cats watching the granaries.

Random aside that touches on the price of grain in Golarion, I did a Mythic campaign a few years ago focusing on Atropus from the 3.5 Elder Evils book. One sign of Atropus's approach is a random chance of the dead rising as a zombie, and eventually a world-wide desecrate effect. My players started seeing massive shipments of grain from Geb due tonthe enhanced zombies, culminating in Geb using the wealth they had aquired as well as the strengthened undead to cross the Mana Wastes. Then the undead plague got even worse and pretty much every country stopped existing as anything but a name. The inquisitor could also shoot anything she knew the direction to. Mythic is nuts. Good times :D

[Routana]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Hi all,

If my third-level smurfcerer starts a mushroom farm, how fast will the mushrooms grow?

Thanks!

—KC

Unmanly squeee when I saw KC's Smurfified Avatar. Too cute, for kobold.

as for the answer to how to keep snakes out of your mushroom farm.

Acquire familiar and take Mongoose. Bonus points if you name it Rikki-Tikki-Tavi =)

[Routana]

Well I be Smurfed O_o

[d'Eon]

I don't know anything anymore! No wait, I want smurfolds to be a thing. To be joined by the smurfneblin

[d'Eon]

Wait, what the hell happened to me? Why is everyone a smurf?!

[Lakesidefantasy]

Brown Swiss are the best. Don't listen to the Holstein people with the watered down p!$# their cows produce!

[Lakesidefantasy]

Heh heh...youz got smurfed--wait.

[Lakesidefantasy]

What smurfcery is this Kobold Cleaver?!

I cannot copy and paste your original post as my post.

What wonders will they come up with next?

[The Shaman]

Nefreet wrote:

Yup. The cow must succeed at the Craft DC, spend 8 hours each day nonstop producing milk, and consume resources equal to 1/3 the price of said milk.

I imagine this exchange at the home of Bovus, master lactomancer:

"Master, good news! I was able to purchase the straw for the winter at almost half the price!"
"Stupid apprentice! I need straw worth 45 gold crowns for the cows to produce enough milk for the entire winter. Go back and get some more!"

[Rub-Eta]

I'd imagine that regular cow milk business isn't that efficient, since it's run by presents. I'm more into the "Trolls on tube" business.

[Lark Baker]

I'd be more worried about what happens if the cow fails the craft DC by 5, what sort of effects does cursed milk have?

[Bandw2]

can sorcerors create water, if so is create water on your spells known?

because unless you've got a great irrigation method growing wheat is hard work, like serious GP/GP_earned.

like how much of the wheat every year is just going to you not starving.

should make potatoes instead, way cheaper and easier to eat.

if you're in stereo-typical fantasy land (AKA Great Britan or New Zeeland), it's WAY easier to grow potatoes.

unfortunately potatoes are a New World product so if golarion hasn't had the Columbian Exchange yet, you can't even grow potatoes...

[Bandw2]

Depends on climate conditions and available land. in Medieval times people, even nobles, didn't "really" own property. so you could just go and find unused land and work it into a farm.

So for a standard farm, in a standard semi-forested area, with reasonable access to water, you'd need a Hatchet and several months worth of food, probably a goat or two. If you buy a bow you need less food due to hunting, which will also let you buy more food for selling the pelts.(wasn't til the renaissance that we got noble forests where only the lords could hunt game. For those interested:)

Also, beware taxes and being drafted by the local lord.

Spoiler:

We didn't get the landed stuff until we started modernizing armies with officers who weren't nobility or hiring mercenaries on mass. We(Western Europe) started pushing nobles into the bureaucracy and paid them with landing rights, which made it so the resources on that land actually belonged to the noble, this included the animals.

Now of course nobles had titles to areas, but that mostly meant that your lord would protect your right to draft and tax the people that lived there and not much else

[Milo v3]

Bandw2 wrote:

Depends on climate conditions and available land. in Medieval times people, even nobles, didn't "really" own property. so you could just go and find unused land and work it into a farm.

So for a standard farm, in a standard semi-forested area, with reasonable access to water, you'd need a Hatchet and several months worth of food, probably a goat or two. If you buy a bow you need less food due to hunting, which will also let you buy more food for selling the pelts.(wasn't til the renaissance that we got noble forests where only the lords could hunt game. For those interested:)

Also, beware taxes and being drafted by the local lord.

How dare you use logic and out-of-game knowledge on this noble rules forum. Ultimate Campaign declares the price as 2,090 gp, and thus it shall cost 2,090 and never cost anything ever again!

[Bandw2]

also, the goats are lawnmowers/fertilizer not for meat or anything.

[lemeres]

Nefreet wrote:

Milo v3 wrote:

Try to see if any of your cows have retrained their Skill Focus to Craft (Milk).

Yup. The cow must succeed at the Craft DC, spend 8 hours each day nonstop producing milk, and consume resources equal to 1/3 the price of said milk.

...I could actually reverse engineer the 1/3 price worth of resources.

Because typically, for milk, the stuff used to 'craft' it would be the cow's food, gained from grazing.

So the cost would be the value of the grazing (renting the field?) for the amount of grass needed for a cow to get the proper nutrients in order to produce that much milk. So the value of the milk actually would determine the value of the grazing rights (...although you also might have to take into account the value of craft (beef) into that...)

I suppose I could also see the use of a survival check to find proper grazing land. This gets weird, since obviously the resources are food, and there are rules for finding food.

[Milo v3]

lemeres wrote:

I suppose I could also see the use of a survival check to find proper grazing land. This gets weird, since obviously the resources are food, and there are rules for finding food.

Note: Cows have +0 to survival checks and finding food is DC 10, meaning each day they have 50% chance of being too dumb to remember they are surrounded by grass.

[lemeres]

Milo v3 wrote:

lemeres wrote:

I suppose I could also see the use of a survival check to find proper grazing land. This gets weird, since obviously the resources are food, and there are rules for finding food.

Note: Cows have +0 to survival checks and finding food is DC 10, meaning each day they have 50% chance of being too dumb to remember they are surrounded by grass.

That is why cows travel in herds. The cows that roll high help to remind the other cows that they are standing in grass (ie- you can feed another person for every 2 you exceed the DC 10 check to find food).

Though in seriousness, it might take some actual effort to find proper grazing grass. Because the cows reduce the amount of useful grass by eating it. Ergo, the challenge is to find good, uneaten grass. Since one of the other cow threads has taught me that cows can produce up to 70 pounds of milk per day... they might need a lot of grass.

[captain yesterday]

Brown Swiss, according to my mom, if you want to get exotic, there's also the Piedmontese which also produce some insane steaks.

Of course you can't go wrong with the tried and true Holstein.

[Poison Dusk]

Well, iirc the average farmer in Golarion makes about 1gp a year. So why farm when you can kill farmers bandits for the gold much easier?

[Sleygon]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Hi guys,

If I have a field of wheat, and I'm a 3rd level sorcerer, how much wheat will I get per year? How about per round?

—KC

i would say: zero! Because a sorceror isn´t proficient with a field of wheat.

[Jader7777]

d'Eon wrote:

Then you double the results, 3,600 lbs per year. 3,600 still only has 2 sigfigs though, so you still round off to 0 lbs per round.

Ah well you've overlooked the rules for fallowing

"plots of land producing year long crops require a fallowing year every seventh year or the field gains the fatigued condition (...) fatigued fields cannot take 20 on their craft (produce) checks" pg. 42 Ultimate horticulture

There are work arounds like fertilizer buffs and crop rotation feats but generally you need to factor downtime into the feilds yeild.

[lemeres]

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Hi guys,

If I have a field of wheat, and I'm a 3rd level sorcerer, how much wheat will I get per year? How about per round?

—KC

Sorcery doesn't really have any impact on agriculture, especially at that level.

Well, there are a few spells. But sorcerers would be terrible for this- restricted spell selection and all. Lets continue this discussion assuming that you are using a wizard.

Here are some spells
-unseen servant- extra pair of hands
-decompose corpse- fertilizer?
-excavate earth- mostly for digging up rocks and stumps, not enough to plough a field.
-ant haul- picking up more stuff

There is likely a lot more that can be done, but I am not sure of all the work that a farm needs vs. what low levels spells can do.

[GOAT, DEVOURER OF ALL]

YOU CANNOT HOPE TO CONTAIN ME.

I WILL CONSUME AS I PLEASE.

PREPARE YOUR FIELDS AND HIDE YOUR BOOTS.

THE RECKONING OF ALL YOU HOLD DEAR COMES ON CLOVEN FEET.

[Lakesidefantasy]

SWILL!

GO BROWN SWISS!

[Claxon]

Alright, can anyone else explain what the hell this is about?

[d'Eon]

Poison Dusk wrote:

Well, iirc the average farmer in Golarion makes about 1gp a year. So why farm when you can kill farmers bandits for the gold much easier?

According to the core rulebook, that isn't true. The farmer NPC given has +9 to Profession (farmer), so they're making more like 1 gp a week. If he saves up for masterwork farm tools and has a wife and two kids to help, he's raking in 1.5 gp a week.

[Saldiven]

Let's assume you're talking about Spring Wheat.

With Spring Wheat, you get zero pounds of wheat per round for approximately 120 days, at which point you get all of the wheat available for the acreage over the course of a few days.

That's how farming works. Lots and lots of nothing for weeks, months, or years, followed by a big, busy harvest.

[kyrt-ryder]

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Hi guys,

If I have a field of wheat, and I'm a 3rd level sorcerer, how much wheat will I get per year? How about per round?

—KC

Sorcery doesn't really have any impact on agriculture, especially at that level.

Unseen Servant is a thing.

[Claxon]

Alright, I think I get it now that I've looked around. This is making fun of Anarac's threads asking about cows right?