After surviving your first few days in Minecraft and getting familiar with the game, it’s time to set up a permanent base. For most players, this means creating a farm with fields and animals. Not only does this provide a place to live, but it also offers renewable food sources and other resources. In this post, we’ll guide you step-by-step on how to easily set up and run your own farm. This will give you a solid foundation for all your future endeavors, freeing you from concerns about food production or proper housing.
Basics for a Farm
A good location is key for a farm. Take some time to walk around until you find a suitable spot. It should be as flat as possible, but you can also use a shovel to flatten or build up the land to create a suitable area for your farm. A small house and some chests for essential tools are a good idea. Build your farm near a water source, as you’ll need this soon.
Other tools you should have ready for a farm:
- Fences and fence gates
- Buckets
- Shovel
- Hoe
- Possibly gravel
- Possibly bone meal
Setting Up Your Own Fields
Once you have all your preparations in place, you can start setting up your field. Choose a flat, open area to begin. It’s important to understand how water behaves in Minecraft. If you use a water source and pour it into a trench for your farm, it will flow up to eight blocks. Based on this, farm fields can be irrigated up to four blocks away. This is important to ensure they don’t revert to dirt or grow crops slowly.
To start, a single water source is sufficient. It can irrigate a 9x9 field. You can use the entire area for crops or create paths with a shovel or gravel for aesthetic purposes. Additionally, you should surround the field with fences and gates to keep it secure.
You can design the layout as you like. If you’ve already found a village, you might want to model your fields after theirs. Otherwise, the appearance is entirely up to you. Just keep in mind how far the water will irrigate the soil.
Things you can grow
With a hoe, you can right-click on grass, dirt, or another form of soil to turn it into farmland. This is the starting point for your farm. Let’s quickly go through all the crops.
Wheat:
- Found: As wheat seeds from grass
- Uses: Bread, hay bales, cake, cookies, animal breeding
Carrot:
- Found: Village, zombies, chest
- Uses: Golden carrot, rabbit stew, carrot on a stick, animal breeding
Potato:
- Found: Village, zombies, chest
- Uses: Baked potato, animal breeding
Beetroot:
- Found: Beetroot seeds from village, chest
- Uses: Animal breeding, red dye, beetroot soup
Pumpkin seeds:
- Found: Village, wilderness
- Uses: Pumpkin head, pumpkin pie
Melon seeds:
- Found: Village, jungle
- Uses: Melon slice, glistering melon slice
Tip: Plant different crops next to each other to speed up growth! This mechanic imitates real-life farms, which also grow better with crop diversity. A monoculture is less effective, so add some variety to your field.
Care and Harvest
Once your field is properly set up and irrigated, not much can go wrong. Wait for your first harvest to grow. This can take a few days. Using bone meal, which we mentioned earlier, can help your crops grow faster. You can get bone meal either from skeleton bones or by using compost.
You can recognize maturity by the growth status. If the vegetable’s color is visible, it’s ready! Harvest with a left-click. You’ll either get multiple items or additional seeds. Depending on the crop, you can replant these and likely have a good surplus as a result.
Breeding Your First Livestock
For food, you don’t necessarily need to set up a field; you can also keep animals. However, the field will be essential for animal breeding, as you’ll need food to breed your animals.
Animals are not only good for food but also for other important resources. Once you have two adult animals of one type, you’re well-equipped. With breeding, you can easily multiply them and grow your stock. Keep the animals in an enclosure to prevent them from wandering off. The pen can be as large or as small as you like, but give your virtual animals some space to roam.
Breed animals by right-clicking on two animals with their food. They will then show hearts, and voilà! A baby animal is born! You’ll also gain some experience. The baby animal will grow within a few minutes.
Livestock and Their Resources
Here’s a quick overview of the most important animals to look out for. You can lure them to your farm with their favorite food or a lead if you already have one. To get the products, you’ll need to kill the animals. Cook the meat in a furnace to make it better for your health.
Cows:
- For breeding: Wheat
- Products: Raw beef, leather, milk
Pigs:
- For breeding: Carrots, potatoes, beetroot
- Products: Raw porkchop
Sheep:
- For breeding: Wheat
- Products: Raw mutton, wool (also possible without killing, using shears)
Chickens:
- For breeding: Any seeds
- Products: Raw chicken, feathers, eggs (laid naturally)
Conclusion
Your first farm will likely also be your very first permanent home in Minecraft, providing you with a solid foundation to expand and explore the world. With a well-stocked field and livestock, you’ll have a good basis for food production and some other resources needed later on. You can also build your farm with others. Imagine building your farm on your own server, where you set the rules and collaborate with friends. Rent your Minecraft server now and get the most out of your game!
