So I’ve got a problem with plan amount of raw food ingredients?

[Jeremy153]

Hi there , I'm Jeremy.

This is my first play through and I'm trying to figure out how to not grow/hunt/slaughter too much, yet make sure I have enough food for the coming year.  The problem I'm facing is the number of people and animals I have keeps changing. In addition, some animals are carnivores and some can just eat plants. So, does anyone have any insights on how to plan accordingly?
ufabet
Any help would be great.
Thank in advance.

[mndfreeze]

There is no simple or easy answer to this.  Managing how much food you have is always a core issue in RimWorld.  You definitely want to make sure you have more then you need so if a toxic fallout, bad raid, cold snap, etc hits you won't suddenly run out and starve over a harsh winter, but you don't want tooooooo much food that it causes your wealth and other factors to shoot up and cause larger raiding parties, etc.

Generally its better to have too much than not enough.   

When you have too much food you also can switch your meals to start making the nicer ones, and you can turn excess food into pemmican or packaged meals as well.  This way you have a long lasting store for caravanning, emergencies, etc if your fridge ever gets destroyed.

Animals that eat plants should be pastured outside where the can graze naturally, or you should grow hay.   Also you can use that hay and some meat to make kibble which all creatures eat (except maybe wargs, can't remember on that one).   Kibble also can work as an emergency 'oh shit' food for your colonists if you somehow lose your entire other food store, and it doesn't spoil.

[Drewski]

except maybe wargs, can't remember on that one

Yeah, wargs can't eat kibble, although it's worth noting that like all carnivores they'll be happy to take care of any spare human corpses you may have lying around. Some players even make little body fridges, ban colonists from it, and have animals haul dead raiders there to snack on later.

[OFWG]

To simplify things for a first play through I recommend not trying to keep animals for the first few years. Just designate farmers, hunters and a cook and stockpile as much food as your guys possibly can. You'll get a feel for how to balance it eventually.

[Bozobub]

I use 2 bills.  First, I have one that cooks simple meals, whenever less than {x} (for me, x=200 or so, for 10 colonists).  This is your basic "nest egg" of cheap, effective food.  I then set a 2nd bill to cook fine meals whenever less than {y}, as a lower priority.  You can thus easily keep a set safety buffer/trade goods/wealth limit balance of your choice.

This may seem excessive but I've weathered simultaneous volcanic winter and toxic fallout, and even heat wave/cold snap (for smaller periods) that lasted many quadrums more than once.

[mndfreeze]

I use 2 bills.  First, I have one that cooks simple meals, whenever less than {x} (for me, x=200 or so, for 10 colonists).  This is your basic "nest egg" of cheap, effective food.  I then set a 2nd bill to cook fine meals whenever less than {y}, as a lower priority.  You can thus easily keep a set safety buffer/trade goods/wealth limit balance of your choice.

This may seem excessive but I've weathered simultaneous volcanic winter and toxic fallout, and even heat wave/cold snap (for smaller periods) that lasted many quadrums more than once.

This is what I do also. Though I have my bills reverse with the fine meals being made first (the mood buff being more important).  I also make fields generally smaller at first just to get going but later on make them much larger than they need to be since I usually have many growers at that point, and once my fridge is pretty full I'll turn off sowing on them.

[Gadfly]

10x 10 field year round growing(normal soil) should provide enough simple meals for 5 colonists. Add meat and you have enough for 10.

But that is very basic, gut worms, gourmands, other stuff forces you to use more. So two fields of 10x10 and you would have more then enough for 5 or 10 (with meat) once in a while you grow something else on one of the fields.