Simulate fields, fertility and yield before you farm
Farming is the most-asked-about system in Manor Lords, and it is hard to plan in your head: every harvest drains a field’s soil fertility, a fallow year lets it recover, and the right crop rotation keeps a field productive year after year. This crop rotation planner lets you lay out a multi-year rotation per field and see fertility recover or deplete across the cycle, along with rough yield and food estimates — before you commit fields in-game.
How crop rotation works in Manor Lords
Each field is farmed one crop at a time. Harvesting lowers fertility; resting the field (Fallow) raises it back up. The classic answer is a three-field rotation — Wheat one year, Barley the next, Fallow the third — so every field rests once per cycle and never runs itself into the ground. Planting the same crop family two years running on a field drains fertility faster than it recovers — and Wheat and Rye count as the same family, so the planner flags Wheat-then-Rye as a repeat too.
Wheat, Barley, Rye and Flax
Wheat and Rye feed the grain → flour → bread chain that keeps your people fed; Wheat yields more, while Rye yields less but is available once you unlock Rye Cultivation. The two deplete the soil the same and count as one fertility family, so treat Rye as a swap for Wheat rather than a partner to it in the same field. Both are fertility-hungry, long-season crops; Barley (malt and ale for your tavern) and Flax (linen and clothing for trade) have shorter seasons and are gentler on the soil. The planner colour-codes each crop and lets you compare rotations side by side, with the output split into grain, ale-barley and flax.
Fertility, fields, families and oxen
Per field you can set the size in morgen, the number of farming families, the number of oxen, and the starting soil fertility. Bigger fields need more labour to plough, sow and harvest inside the season; if the crew is too thin for the field size, the planner warns you and trims the projected yield. Around 0.6 morgen per family is the community-tested sweet spot for a single farmhouse.
How to use the crop rotation planner
- Start from the pre-loaded three-field Wheat / Barley / Fallow rotation.
- Adjust each field’s size, families, oxen and starting fertility in the sidebar.
- Click any cell to change the crop for that field and year; colours update instantly.
- Watch the fertility chart, per-field table and output totals recalculate live.
- Open Rye Cultivation to unlock Rye, or the Advanced panel to tune the estimates.
- Hit “Copy share link” to share your whole plan as a URL.
A note on the numbers
Crop names come straight from the Manor Lords game files, but the game does not publish the underlying farming numbers — base yields, how much each crop depletes fertility, or how fast a fallow year restores it. Those values come from community research — players who measured the mechanic in-game (notably honey_102b’s cell-level fallow study and Born-Ask4016’s multi-year fertility tests) — and all of them are editable in the Advanced panel so you can match the current patch. The numbers are now triangulated from agreeing sources rather than guessed, but treat the simulation as a directional planning aid, not exact game maths.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Manor Lords crop rotation planner?
Yes — this is a free, browser-based Manor Lords crop rotation planner. You assign a crop or Fallow to each field for each year of the rotation, set field size, families and oxen, and instantly see how soil fertility recovers or depletes and roughly how much grain, ale-barley and flax each field produces. Nothing to download, no account.
What is the best crop rotation in Manor Lords?
A reliable starting point is a three-crop rotation like Wheat → Barley → Flax. You do NOT necessarily need a fallow year: community testing (Born-Ask4016) found that growing a different crop family lets the rested family recover, so Wheat → Barley → Flax holds fertility steady on its own. A fallow year recovers fertility faster, so it's a good way to rescue a worn-out field or save on labour, but it isn't mandatory. The one combination to avoid is Wheat and Rye in the same field — they share a fertility family, so it behaves like planting wheat twice. Use the planner to project a rotation across several years and confirm fertility holds before you commit.
How does fertility work in Manor Lords farming?
Fertility is tracked per crop family. Growing a crop draws down its own family's fertility, while every other family rests and recovers — so rotating between Wheat, Barley and Flax lets each one regain what it lost during the years you grow the others (it never recovers above the field's starting fertility). Lower fertility at planting means a smaller harvest. Planting the same family two years running drains fertility faster than it can recover, and Wheat and Rye count as the same family, so Wheat-then-Rye behaves like Wheat-then-Wheat. Wheat and Rye are also the heaviest depleters (a long growing season); Barley and Flax are lighter, shorter-season crops that recover quickly.
Why does my fallow field grow a different crop the next year?
Because Manor Lords auto-rotates crops across your fields: each year the whole assignment shifts by one, so the field that rested (fallow) this year takes the next crop in the sequence next year. If you set three fields to wheat-fallow-wheat, year two reads fallow-wheat-wheat — the same crops, shifted. A lot of new players miss this and think each field keeps its own crop. The planner's Auto-rotation mode mirrors the game exactly: set each field's Year 1 crop and it staggers the rest for you, so you can see what every field grows each year before you build. (Auto-rotation was suggested by community tester Born-Ask4016.) Turn it off if you'd rather plan each field-year by hand.
How many fields do I need in Manor Lords?
It depends on field size, soil fertility and how many families and oxen work each field. As a rough guide, around 0.6 morgen per family is the community-tested sweet spot. Use the 'families fed' estimate in the planner to size your fields against your population, then adjust.
Should I plant wheat, barley or rye?
Wheat is the high-yield food workhorse but is fertility-hungry. Barley feeds the malt-and-ale chain for your tavern and is gentler on the soil. Rye yields less than wheat but depletes fertility just the same — community testing finds Rye and Wheat behave as one crop family, so use Rye as an alternative to wheat (e.g. once you unlock Rye Cultivation), not alongside it in the same field's rotation. Flax feeds linen and trade rather than food. The planner lets you compare them side by side.
Are the crop and fertility numbers accurate?
Crop names are extracted from the Manor Lords game files; the farming constants — base yields, fertility depletion and recovery — are NOT published by the game, so they come from community research (current to v0.8.065). The fertility model is based on measured player testing — notably honey_102b's cell-level fallow research and Born-Ask4016's multi-year fertility tests — which agree that Wheat and Rye share one fertility family and that fields cannot recover above their starting fertility. Every value is still editable in the Advanced panel so you can tune it to the current patch; treat the output as directional, not exact. This is a fan-made planner, not affiliated with Slavic Magic or Hooded Horse.