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[Conflict]

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i would recommend against adding more growers.

How many squares are actually planted in your plots?  they'll look like a =

Also,  try dedicating a grower to ONLY farming.  That way he doesn't have any other labors enabled that can distract him.

How do I upload a save?

I've taken up your advice and limited my amount of farmers down to three pure dedicated ones.

Also I have 19 planted farms I believe. (see image at bottom of post)

Probably not the main issue, but your farms should be much smaller.  You can probably feed an ~80 fortress on a 5x5 plot, depending on how talented your planters are.  It's possible your production is being hampered by simply having too much land to tend to.  And I could be wrong, but planters seem to train faster when you have smaller farms.

I'll probably cut down on the number of farms if my situation doesn't begin to approve, 'tis a good thought.

When I start out,  I'll place two maximum size plots.  They rarely get fully planted,  but that way I can manage my crops per season easier.

I must be doing *something* wrong if you can manage with that.

You don't want lots of farmers. Two full-time farmers are more than enough to support a fortress of 80 dwarves. All that "farming" entails is planting seeds in the ground, and harvesting plants that have grown. The skill of the farmer determines how much of a return you get from each seed. For example, an unskilled farmer planting a plump helmet spawn will generally get 1 plant back (i.e. a "stack" of 1 Plump Helmet), but might get 0 or 2 instead. A highly-skilled farmer will frequently get 5 plants back (a stack of 5 Plump Helmets).

Having unskilled farmers around is just a recipe to waste seeds, though since you have so many that shouldn't be a problem.

Look at your farms. They should have one of two symbols on each square: either a doubled ~, or an =. The former indicates unplanted farmland, the latter planted farmland. How much of each do you have?

Aright I've cut down on the number of farmers I have so let's hope their skill will improve so they can pick more food for me (like you said). Luckily I've been able to buy some food from a caravan to buy me some much needed time.

And for the # of farmland see the image below. (Bottom of post)

As others have already said, 2 or 3 skilled farmers is better than a dozen unskilled ones.  Turn off "Farming(Fields)" for the ones who are only dabbling or novice, and turn off everything else for the skilled farmers.  Also, I tend to set my orders to "Dwarves All Harvest", because harvesting will train growers without affecting the amount of food.  Stack size is determined when the seed is planted, so you want skilled farmers doing the planting.  Everyone harvesting means I have some emergency backup if something nasty Dwarfy happens to my farmers.

In the short term, gathering, fishing, and hunting are all good ideas, like Derakon said.  You might also try cooking some of your booze or seeds that you're not using (20 easy meals = 40 seeds).

The only problem with hunting/fishing is that they're high priority tasks, so don't expect those Dwarfs to do anything else, not even haul the food to a stockpile.  And raw fish need to be cleaned at a fishery, which Fisherdwarfs won't do.

Good luck with the food

JMZ

Well with plenty of excess people I'll probably construct an entire fish industry but stay away from hunting (heard of the risks). Will I need to put the fish into barrels as well to keep them from rotting?


BELOW IS IMAGE OF MY FARMING SECTOR.

[Smew]

Yeah, less farmers ought to do you good, with dedicated, skilled farmers you begin to acquire more plants than you need. haha

To upload a save, copy your data>save file into a .zip or a .rar(with winzip or winrar, though winzip doesn't do rars I think.), and upload it to http://dffd.wimbli.com/
Although, if you have any mods, you will probably need to upload your whole DF folder.

[Conflict]

Yeah, less farmers ought to do you good, with dedicated, skilled farmers you begin to acquire more plants than you need. haha

To upload a save, copy your data>save file into a .zip or a .rar(with winzip or winrar, though winzip doesn't do rars I think.), and upload it to http://dffd.wimbli.com/
Although, if you have any mods, you will probably need to upload your whole DF folder.

OK, I've uploaded my game but now where do I find the link/whatever to give to someone else so they can DL it?

[Derakon]

Where is your seed storage? Not much of your farm plot is getting used, and it might be because the seeds are so far away from the farms that it takes a long time to plant each seed (thus giving more opportunities for the dwarf doing the planting to get thirsty, hungry, sleepy, or in need of a break). Make a stockpile just for seeds right next to the farm plot, disallow seeds in your main food stockpile(s), and set the seed stockpile to take from whichever stockpile has the seeds.

[assimilateur]

and set the seed stockpile to take from whichever stockpile has the seeds.

A stockpile taking from another stockpile? How do you set up that?

[Smew]

'q' over the stockpile you want to do the taking, and hit... 't' I think, then go to the stockpile you want to take from.

[assimilateur]

Not a bad thing to know. Thanks.

[Albedo]

If you're only using Plump Helmets, just designate a 1x1 area for seeds right next to the farm plot. Seeds go back to where they'll be needed, all good.

Designated Farmers: 15

Yeah, as soon as I read that, I knew what your problem was.

A skilled Grower (aka "farmer") will grow larger stacks of a plant than one with no/low skill.  That larger stack then becomes larger meals, larger barrels of drink - it feeds into everything, a real multiplier.

Having 15 farmers means that you have none that are becoming more skilled. I feed my starting group with 1 Proficient Grower, who is the only one who harvests from word one (and thus becomes Talented/Adept that much faster), plus (later) one or two apprentices once the group grows over 40 or so.  The apprentices actually HURT production at first, because half the plants suddenly are low-skill stacks and smaller, but they learn quickly and are needed for the harvesting (and I hate to see my miners leave their jobs and walk across the map to pull up one Plump Helmet!)

Next time you start a game, include one Proficient Farmer. (Since Grower is nearly a "full time" skill, pair that with something that is not full time, like Weaponsmith or your broker/leader or Brewer - whatever works for you.) 

Brew a good portion of your crops into booze to get seeds (and booze). Or Process them.  You want 25 seeds* for your 5x5 farm plot.  You can cook the rest.

(* Edit - NOTE - The size of a stack of plants depends on the Skill of the Grower.  A stack of 4 plants will yield 4 seeds (if not cooked). A dabbling/novice Grower might produce stacks of 1, or possibly 2 - or possibly 0.  A stack of 1 yields 1 seed - a stack of 0 yields... you got it.  If all your farmers are no-skill, you might actually be losing seeds. Go with your best.)

(I go with a spectrum of crops, and 2x2 farmplots to vary them.  About 25 tiles total, but it's more management - whatever works.)

Read the Wiki - all this stuff is in there (and these are not obscure topics).

[Fredd]

Not meaning to sound rude, but are you building farm plots over areas that need irrigation? Bare stone floors can grow crops, if you muddy them occasionally.You are sure not gonna raise crops off of dry stone floors.(I was guilty of that when I started,call me a gully dwerf)

[Albedo]

Also,  try dedicating a grower to ONLY farming.  That way he doesn't have any other labors enabled that can distract him.

Actually, "Farming" in general is a fairly high-priority labor, so unless he's doing something highly repetitive like mining, he'll break off to go plant seeds or harvest the crops, whatever needs doing.

On that note, I'd give him other jobs that are near the farms - maybe something else plant/kitchen related.  Food hauling, if nothing else, but Cooking, Brewing, Milling, Plant Processing - all centered in that small target area.

[Derakon]

Fredd: you shouldn't be able to put a farm plot down on non-muddy rock (and if you put a farm plot down on muddied rock, that farm plot is good for eternity, never needing to be re-muddied), so I doubt that's the issue.

[Shoku]

To me it seems like dumping has a similar priority to farming so if I have stones being dump a lot of the time I see my farmers rushing halfway across the fort to plant one seed and then going over to the over side of the fort.

[Conflict]

Sorry for the slow response but after cutting down on the amount of farmers I have, relocating some stockpiles, and dismantling some distant farms everything seems to be back on track. Thanks again

[Albedo]

You got it, good to hear.  A lot (ok, 99%) of this advice is in the wiki.

You should put workshops near their raw materials, and also near their "next use" station, so your entire farm plots/kitchen/still production area close to your dining room (farmplots can be on the far side of the kitchen/still), and your prepared meal stockpile should be adjacent to the dining hall.  (Booze near workshops is a good plan.) Farmer's workshop right there too.  Food moves nearby to get processed and/or then kitchen/still, then to near dining hall, then to dining hall - none of those a very far walk.

And don't be afraid to dig down 3 levels - that's only "3 steps" further to go down the stairs, probably a LOT closer than "just down that hall".

[Blargityblarg]

I had something similar to this a while ago. The dorfs just weren't planting, possibly to do with one of my two farmers alkso being a furnace operator and me having six-odd magma smelters set to Smelt Magnetite Ore (R). I designated the entire above ground map for harvesting, and set a dorf on hunting camels. I lived off of those two and merchants for maybe three years, but damn, I got a LOT of steel out of it