Haygrass

Haygrass is a player-growable food crop that is normally inedible for humans, but with a high yield. Haygrass can't be sown in hydroponics. Mature haygrass yields 18 hay.

Growing

Haygrass has a base growing time of 8 days, needs a minimum soil fertility of 70%, and has a fertility sensitivity rating of 60%. The following table details how long it takes for haygrass to grow in each growable ground type, factoring in the plant resting time and being in ideal growing conditions:

Ground Type	Gravel	Soil	Rich Soil	Hydroponics
Fertility (%)	70	100	140	280
Real Grow Time (days)^[1]	15.76	12.92	10.42	N/A
Base Yield/day^[2]	1.14	1.39	1.73	N/A

↑ Actual days to grow, taking into account rest time.
↑ Per plant, assuming Crop Yield Multiplier of 1.0.
Note that Difficulty settings change the Crop Yield Multiplier.

Food production

The following table shows much haygrass it takes to sustain one baseline hunger rate animal, but only factors in the nutritional value of the yield, and the yield per day:

Ground Type	Gravel	Soil	Rich Soil	Hydroponics
Raw	20.52	16.83	13.57	-
Kibble	8.21	6.73	5.43	-

For the variable nature of animal hunger rates, figures in this table have been rounded up to two decimal places. For a list of animals and their nutrition needs, see: List of animals.

Analysis

In ordinary or rich soil, haygrass has the highest yield per day per tile, and therefore highest nutrition output (per tile) out of any player-growable plant. Rice in hydroponics provides more, but hydroponics basins are expensive and rice takes a lot of work. The disadvantage is that hay cannot be eaten by humans.

If animals can graze, it's usually better to let them graze. In a year-round growing area, you can make their pen bigger instead of growing haygrass. Therefore, hay is best used to feed animals during the winter, or to feed animals in a small space.

Compared to corn

Corn is often a better choice of animal feed. Haygrass' yield per work is high, but not as high as corn. If growing space isn't an issue, then hay's higher yield per day is almost meaningless as you could plant more tiles of corn to compensate. Also, corn can be converted into simple meals or fine meals, which are more efficient than kibble. If animals wouldn't be overeating, then simple meal corn actually gives a greater yield per day. Animals don't treat hay differently from any other food.

Haygrass does have a notable advantage - it grows faster. If you need to grow animal feed, then your biome most likely has a winter. Hay grows faster than corn, so you may be able to get a harvest when you wouldn't have corn. In addition, humans with a rancher ideoligion receive a −4 mood penalty for sowing non-hay crops.

Hay and carnivores

For carnivorous animals, you can convert hay into kibble, which will be consumed by anything other than wargs. If you're feeding animals that are being reared for meat, it's better to feed them raw hay instead. It's counter-productive to feed animals meat, just to get less meat out of them - though in a desperate situation, it may be necessary to make kibble to keep your herbivorous animals fed. This has the advantage of using insect meat or human meat with no penalties to the animal.

Economy

Haygrass' raw product is hay, which has a market value of 0.9 silver. The refined product with the largest profit margin is kibble, having a 12.07% profit margin.^[1] The following table details silver per day, per plant. It only factors in the 50% selling markdown, the market value of the products, and the yield per day:

Ground Type	Gravel	Soil	Rich Soil	Hydroponics
Raw	0.7	0.86	1.06	-
Refined^[2]	2.54	3.09	3.83	-

↑ Using standard value meat. Human meat increases this to 91.18%
↑ Assuming a vegetarian ingredient bottleneck. Your mileage may vary.

Haygrass is generally lackluster when it comes to economy, due to hay's remarkably low market value. Even kibble underperforms when compared to other food crops with fine meals.

Version history

0.12.906 - Added
1.3.3066 - Nutrition increased from 0.2 -> 0.3

Plants

Domesticated plants: Cocoa tree • Corn plant • Cotton plant • Devilstrand mushroom • Haygrass • Healroot • Hop plant • Potato plant • Psychoid plant • Rice plant • Smokeleaf plant • Strawberry plant • Tinctoria • Fibercorn • Gauranlen pod • Nutrifungus • Toxipotato plant
Decorative plants: Dandelions • Daylily • Rose • Bonsai tree
Wild plants: Agarilux • Agave • Alocasia • Ambrosia bush • Astragalus • Berry bush • Brambles • Bryolux • Bush • Chokevine • Clivia • Giant rafflesia • Glowstool • Grass • Low shrubs • Moss • Pincushion cactus • Tall grass • Wild healroot • Anima grass • Gauranlen moss
Trees: Bamboo tree • Birch tree • Cecropia tree • Cypress tree • Drago tree • Maple tree • Oak tree • Palm tree • Pine tree • Poplar tree • Saguaro cactus • Teak tree • Willow tree • Timbershroom • Gray pine tree • Pebble cactus • Rat palm tree • Witchwood tree
Special: Anima tree • Gauranlen tree • Polux tree • Harbinger tree
Tree stumps: Burned stump • Chopped stump (Gauranlen , Anima , Polux , Harbinger ) • Smashed stump (Gauranlen , Anima , Polux , Harbinger )

[1] Actual days to grow, taking into account rest time.

[2] Per plant, assuming Crop Yield Multiplier of 1.0.
Note that Difficulty settings change the Crop Yield Multiplier.

[3] Using standard value meat. Human meat increases this to 91.18%

[4] Assuming a vegetarian ingredient bottleneck. Your mileage may vary.

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