Just a quick checklist for you�.likely you've done all
of these things, but you never know�.
1) Crop balance: in a good year, wheat and barley give
a better yield than rye does. What percentage of
different crops do you have? (I usually have
something like 35% wheat, low 40's% barley, low 20's %
rye)
2) sacred time magic: how much do you put into crops
each sacred time? If food is tight, max this out (if
you are a war clan, maybe you need to reorganize so
you can get more crops and herds magic) Putting magic
into herds and hunting will also help bring in food to
a lesser degree.
3) crop blessings: what do you have active? I find
Sun and Rain at least as effective as Bless Crops, and
of course as long as you are being raided regularly,
Earth Blood is priceless.
4) Other helpful blessings: Spare Grain helps a lot,
and each of preserve, Yinkin Friend, milk blessing,
and trueshot/tracking help bring in/preserve food
somehow. Less directly calf blessing and the Pig
blessing will increase herds which yield food.
Barntar of course can help make up for insufficient
farmers.
5) Number of farmers. If you don't have enough
farmers, have you checked if you have too many hunters
or crafters who can be returned to the plow? Have you
recruited new farmers? Have you turned off bless
children and made sure not to put magic into children
to slow down the baby boom? How about getting
fyrdwoman running, that lowers the birthrate too.
(Eventually all those kids will grow into strapping
young farmers, but you have to keep them alive that
long). I already mentioned the Barntar blessing, but
Woad will also help keep them alive so that they can
get on with farming.
6) Heroquests. You did do the Ernalda feeds the tribe
quest with the benefit of improved crop yields, right?
This is the only one that has a major impact,
although fighting drought and enlarging your herds can
both have an impact.
7) Curses. Have you checked with your ancestors to
see if you are under any curses?
8) Population. How big is your clan? If they
have been lobbying to split, let them do so (and don't
give them tula space). This will not help with not
enough farmers, but it does make trading/begging for
food more effective.
Good luck!
--Bryan (who usually ends up with more food than he can give away by the late game)
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