[Daigoro]

The village so far... part 2!

These are the results of (E)'s calculations:

Spoiler:  

Originally Posted by (E)

Orc crunch

The village of 500 orcs will require something like 130 tons of food a year, ideally this will include a lot of fatty meat. 100 families.

Farming systems
Buffalo - meat
Buffalo - dairy
Pork
Water fowl
Eels
Cattails
Flax fiber

Area
3 mile radius, 28 square miles of area, 18,000 acres total.

Land usage breakdown;
Suitable for traditional crops 5%
Suitable for traditional grazing 10%
More fertile 2%
Unsuitable, 25% (lakes and rocks)
Suitable for swamp tolerant agriculture 58%

About half the land suitable for traditional crops is used for growing plants that are mildly toxic, two or three times a year these areas are grazed by the pastoral animals to reduce internal parasites (or worm burden) and introduce more trace elements into their diet.

Grazing techniques combined with the natural conditions produces an average yield of 1.6 stock units per acre. 4.6 stock units are required for each growing or meat producing buffalo, Dairy use water buffalo require 6.3 stock units.

The pigs being a secondary animal in this type of system have a decreased area required per animal. 1.1 stock units per animal, (approximately 1800 pigs could be run before this benefit is lost)

A herd of 600 cows and their replacements (150) is maintained to produce 50 replacement animals and typically 400 calves destined for the meat system each year. Dairy production, requiring 3000 acres of grazing, results in 175,000 gallons of milk. 130 tonnes of dairy products (cheese, butter, yoghurt) are made from the milk.

Meat production
Buffalo
154 tonnes off 3000 acres requiring 10 families to run.

Pork
An average population of 600 animals is maintained. Producing 60 tonnes of pork, requiring 15 families and 410 additional acres.

Water fowl
1600 geese (for calculation purposes), producing 7 tonnes of meat as well as a tonne of eggs and requiring 200 additional acres and 8 families. The orcs involved here are likely to be poorer or have other functions in society, unless the tasks related to managing water fowl are subsumed into other roles.

Eels
16 tonnes of sustainable harvest per year.

Dairy production
130 tonnes requiring 3000 acres and 40 families to run.


Crop
Flax
15 families, production is 260lbs per acre, 300 acres

Managed harvests
Cattails
No specialised families involved, 400 acres.

Timber and forest products
5 families, the workers from these families may also perform other functions

Trade and transport
2 families

5 families performing misc functions, likely at least one family supporting a mason.

While the yield per acre is lower than a human equivalent system the labour required for the yield is less. A human village specialising in wheat production would likely provide enough surplus grain for 250 people in an average year. 368 tonnes of average total production for the orcs would support a surplus of maybe 900 orcs. The presumed higher energy intake required by a larger orc body is mitigated by the increased energy content of fat rich food. It wouldn't be unreasonable to increase the food required per orc. Similarly this example presumes a high level of specialization with local trade supplying some miscellaneous requirements. A more self sufficient village would produce less food but require fewer imported goods.

There was a bit of further discussion in that thread, so you might want to skim through it as some things mentioned there might be brought up here.