The Four Lands - The Colony

[Lou]

I would estimate needing around 1500 head of goats. Anyone have a better guess, or an opinon about this?

[sblock=for Leif]
Amazing what you can find if you start looking:

Interesting link to an article on raising goats sustainably for meat. Looks like an average around 1.25 kids/doe harvest, 45 lbs of meat each, 0.25 kids/doe for herd replacement, 25-150 does per male. Up to 6 goats per acre grazing with no added feed. Main concern on density is internal parasites. 1-2 goats per cow mixes with no loss of cattle meat production as they graze differently.

Milking goats link. Looks like 0.5-1 gal of milk a day being milked once a day after birthing. Can milk from 8-10 months out of the year, with no milk in the winter during gestation. All goats seem to breed in the fall.

Supposedly Fennel, Fenugreek & Dill together increases milk production in goats, cows, etc.

Goats will roam and need fences and pens to sleep in at night.
[/sblock]

 

[Leif]

[sblock=for Leif]
Amazing what you can find if you start looking:

Interesting link to an article on raising goats sustainably for meat. Looks like an average around 1.25 kids/doe harvest, 45 lbs of meat each, 0.25 kids/doe for herd replacement, 25-150 does per male. Up to 6 goats per acre grazing with no added feed. Main concern on density is internal parasites. 1-2 goats per cow mixes with no loss of cattle meat production as they graze differently.

Milking goats link. Looks like 0.5-1 gal of milk a day being milked once a day after birthing. Can milk from 8-10 months out of the year, with no milk in the winter during gestation. All goats seem to breed in the fall.

Supposedly Fennel, Fenugreek & Dill together increases milk production in goats, cows, etc.

Goats will roam and need fences and pens to sleep in at night.
[/sblock]

OOC: Nifty. But I didn't see anything approaching an answer to the question at hand in that article. Did anyone else?

OOC: Oh, and we might want to also consider adding some sheep/rams to our livestock to provide WOOL in addition to meat/milk. Can you even milk a sheep? (shrug)

OOC: That's a good role for Hennett to play in this whole operation -- "Secretary of Agriculture"! He'll start studying up on these things, and try to find some guidance from Druidic wisdom, and he'll also study Druidic texts, looking for hints about anything that we have overlooked in our planning, based on earlier colonizations around the world, as well as how efforts similar to ours have overcome the challenges that we have already considered. He's hoping to learn that we're on the right track, but, if not, the sooner we learn of our mistakes, the better.

 

[Lou]

OOC: Nifty. But I didn't see anything approaching an answer to the question at hand in that article. Did anyone else?

OOC: It looks like 1500 goats should feed about 220 people a pound of goat meat a day indefinitely, until they are sick of goat meat. The goats will also graze over roughly 250 acres.

Milk and meat goat varieites weigh 100-300 pounds as adults, so shipping may be a problem for a herd of 1500 goats. Just mature goats (just over 1 yr) only need 1/3 lb of grain a day until pregnant, and does will kid in yr 2 (some in yr 1). Bucks only need 1 lb/day, while breeding does need just over 2 lbs a day on average for milk production...

44 breeding bucks, 62 established breeding does, 93 kids, 1301 yearling (mature) does (1500 goats) with 90 days of grain will take roughly 97 tons (70 goats/27 grain) to ship.

Goats were easy...and they eat everything but egg shells. Where are the numbers for fowl?
[sblock=for Leif]
The missing number is how many people you want to feed goat meat and for how long. If you want to feed 100 people 1 lb of goat meat each day of the year, then you need roughly 100*365*1=36500 lbs per year. If you get 45 lbs of meat per kid, that requires 812 kids a year. To get that many kids, you need 649 does and from 5-26 bucks, say 21, for a total of 670 goats. You will get an additional 162 kids a year to replace members of the herd and keep the herd numbers relatively constant.[/sblock]

 

[Nightbreeze]

I have plenty of cargo space. 1500 goats would not be a problem, even with the food necessary to keep them alive for 6 months.

Oh, and I have good news and bad news. My divinations has revealed that the D'shai emperor knows this project...but as for now he has taken no steps to damage or halt it.

 

[Leif]

For Lou and Nightbreeze

OOC: Sounds like you two gents have this matter well in-hand, so I defer to your expertise in the matter. Just think of me as your "Consulting Druid."

 

[J. Alexander]

Shopping

NeuroticThe young lord mentioned ports but did not name them specifally..perhaps they will be mentioned at the next meeting.

You can easily find all the books you want in the various bookstores of Brightlaw....as well as writing material and blank books. 100k silver pennies willl get you a modest reference libriary..but you can easily spend 250k in spell componets...

In the recruiting of people you can find 5 young scribes and two young archvists who are willing to join your libriary staff. As for the more exotic character types...they are hard to pin point...to you want to go actively looking for the local thieve's guild

Nightbreeze
[sblock]Actually the cost of the ship is a reflection of how much profit they could turn during the six month process. Remember these ships are like the East Indiamen of old...capable of sailiing around the world with huge cargo's and are designed to turn a substainal profit on each tirp...so the price is in line.......Also take into consideration the cost of the warshpis would be for the warships alone you would eaisly spend another 50k silver each properly manning and outfitting the new ships....and that brings us back to the next point...you can find several ships for sell...not a problem..but they are selling you the hulls, the rigging, and the sails....they are not crewed, no supplies etc..so in order to get them sea worthy in three days time your looking at spending once again about 60k per ship..

Yes you will form a large base of the colonies population

Questions 7,8,9...Meant to reflect that there afre mulitple players involvoed and that there in no one single entitny casuing the trouble at this time.

From Sunbridge you get the answer "Will be in contact in two days time....."

Yes that sounds about right..but money well spent you have a base from which to work....

The question as to who was invovled comes back blank. It is as if a blacn veil clouds your ability to discern who is involved.[/sblock]


Hennett
Sheep can indeed be used for milk production as well as meat and wool..

From your studies you do gather tht one of the problems with early settlements is that they relied on one or two crops or animals and if they did not flourish the colony would die. Also from your reading it is clear that the most succesful settlements had a year sometimes a year and 6 months of food stuff on hand to see them thru in addition to two or even three years of seed stock for crops.

Should a settlement be set up on a hostils shore your research shows that a substianl number of weapons and armor are necessary to have on hand...as they can not be quicly made in the colony. A hostile enviroment can cause a colony to devote sigifiant time to the creation of weapons rather than to the building of the colony.

 

[Leif]

Hennett reports to the group

My research has shown that sheep can indeed be as versatile as I hoped. Plus, I learned this:

One of the problems with early settlements is that they relied on one or two crops or animals and if they did not flourish the colony would die. Also from your reading it is clear that the most succesful settlements had a year sometimes 18 months of food stuffs on hand to see them through, in addition to 2-3 years of seed stock for crops.

Should a settlement be set up on a hostile shore your research shows that a substianl number of weapons and armor are necessary to have on hand, as they can not be quicly made in the colony. A hostile enviroment can cause a colony to devote sigifiant time to the creation of weapons rather than to the building of the colony, so we need to be well-prepared and well-armed when we arrive.

 

[Lou]

OOC:
1. What season is it now?
2. How long will the voyage be? 6 months? 3 months?
3. What climate region are we going to?
4. Which hemisphere are we in?
5. Which hemisphere are we going to?

Gyus:
We will need a plan to defend the ships while in route.
We will also need a plan to establish the base and scout the immediate region to identify local threats.

[sblock=for JA]
Once the fowl preparations are made, Alton and Marc will turn their attention to finding families that want to move to a new area and raise fowl. Look for struggling small farmers in the city to buy supplies. Ask the local merchants about such farmers. Also inquire about medium size farmers interested in expansion, if they are willing to send workers. Advise of possible dangers and need for long-term committment. Alton will use his feat another five times to get answers if inquiries are not successful.
[/sblock]

 

[J. Alexander]

December 11, 1128YL
It is now december, if the fleet sails sometime after Januray 1 it should arrive in the proposed colony area in March or Early April.
The voyabe will take 3 months or so with 6 to seven months for a complete round trip. The climate is suppose to be temperate to moderate. You are in the mid to low northern hempishere and will be going to the high to low southern hemisphere.

Louis
[sblock]Spreading out you can find 10 familes willing to go if you will pay off their debits and give them a grub stake.[/sblock]

 

[Nightbreeze]

[sblock=JA]Hmm..ok then, instead of a warship and cargo, for 75.000 I buy something that is a combaination of both...like a transport ship designed to be capable of defending itself, but mantaining some carrying capacity.

Hmm...that pretty much exhaust my purchase power for now, at least until someone else invests money and I leverage it. By the way, if necessary, I can supply food and water for more than 100 humans each day, if things turn out for the worst.

As Hennet says, we need to buy more food. We have the cargo space with it, but do we have the money? If worst comes, I think that we should propose using the credit line of the company right now and buy them.

By the way, there are many nice spells in the spell compendium, and many of the complete x spells that were revised. Would you allow us to use it?
[/sblock]

The visions are complicated, and in some points, blocked. I fear that we won't be capable of solving the mystery of this ambush in just 3 days, so we shouldn't even try.

I fear that I am out of investing power, however I still have a lot of cargo space. For any additional purchase, my expertise is yours.

Concering the ship defense, I have a mercenary company of 100 or so men. During the voyage, I think that we shall rely on enhanced speed based on our magic, and exploration. We should be able to spot enemy ship and avoid them or sink them before they spot our fleet. Wind walking will be really helpful. As for exploartion when we reach our destination, please feel free too leave that to Hennet, me and the mercenary scouts.