Farm Types

Farm Types

Farm types are configured in farms.yml under types.

Most farm-type changes should be made while the server is stopped, followed by a restart. Existing placed farms store their current level values and may not update cleanly if a type is removed or heavily restructured while the server is running.

At least one farm type must be enabled and valid. BetterFarming disables itself on startup if no farm types are configured.

Type Key and Name

Each entry under types has a key:

types:
  crop:
    enabled: true
    name: "&eCrop Farm"

The key is used for the generated limit ID, such as player_farms_crop.

The player command uses the display name with spaces replaced by dashes and color removed. For example, name: "&eCrop Farm" is obtained with:

/farm get Crop-Farm

Names are case-insensitive.

The first enabled farm type that loads successfully becomes the default type for /farm get when no type is entered.

Farm Mode

type controls the farm behavior:

Type	Use it for
NORMAL	Crops or blocks that BetterFarming grows by age or interval.
TREE	Saplings and tree-like growth handled through tree growth events.

Item

item sets the material of the farm item given by /farm get and /farm admin give - a plain vanilla material name, for example item: END_ROD.

The item's name, lore, and other display are not configured per farm type. They come from the server's GUI locale (Locale/<lang>_gui.yml), under a single shared physical: block: template used by every farm type - the <v:type> placeholder in that template is what shows the specific farm type's own display name.

Farmland

farmland controls whether BetterFarming replaces the ground around the farm.

Set it to AIR to disable farmland creation.

The replacement filter is configured in config.yml under farm.creation.farm-land.filter.

Cost and Economy

cost is the price of one farm item from /farm get.

The active economy comes from config.yml: Vault, experience, levels, or item currency.

Fuel

Add a fuel section if farms of this type should pause when they run out of time. The section's presence is the opt-in - there is no separate enable switch.

fuel:
  initial-seconds: 6h
  max-seconds: 7d
  items:
    bone_meal:
      material: "BONE_MEAL"
      strict: false
      seconds: 25

initial-seconds is the fuel time a new farm starts with, seeded automatically the moment the farm item is placed. max-seconds is the maximum stored fuel time. Each fuel item adds its own seconds per item used.

If strict is true, the item name and lore must match too. Otherwise, BetterFarming compares the item more loosely.

Shared Fuel Item Presets

If multiple farm types use the same fuel items, define them once under a top-level fuel-items section (a sibling of types) and reference the preset by name instead of repeating the list:

fuel-items:
  default:
    bone_meal:
      material: "BONE_MEAL"
      strict: false
      seconds: 25

types:
  crop:
    fuel:
      items-preset: default

items-preset replaces items entirely for that farm type - a type using items-preset does not also need its own items list.

Buying Fuel

Let players buy fuel time directly with their currency instead of requiring a physical fuel item:

fuel:
  purchase:
    enabled: true
    seconds-per-unit: 1800
    cost: 100.0

When enabled, the fuel menu gets a purchase option that adds seconds-per-unit of fuel time for cost, using the same economy configured in config.yml. Purchases still respect the farm's max-seconds fuel cap.

Low Fuel Warning

fuel:
  warning-threshold-seconds: 300

When a farm's remaining fuel drops below warning-threshold-seconds, the owner gets a one-time warning if they are online. Set this to 0 to disable the warning. Defaults to 300 (5 minutes).

Levels

A farm has one combined level per tier - radius, growth interval, and storage capacity all upgrade together as a single purchase. There is no independent-axis upgrading (buying more radius without also paying for whatever interval/storage change comes with that level).

Each level is a numbered entry under levels, with a display name, the cost to buy that level from the previous one, and an attributes map giving the value each attribute takes at that level:

levels:
  1:
    name: '1'
    cost: 0
    attributes:
      interval:
        value: 120
      radius:
        value: 1
      storage:
        value: 9
  2:
    name: '2'
    cost: 7500.0
    attributes:
      interval:
        value: 60
      radius:
        value: 2
      storage:
        value: 18

The three built-in attributes:

Attribute	What it controls
interval	Seconds between growth cycles. Lower is faster.
radius	Horizontal farm radius.
storage	Internal storage slots (only used if the type also has a storage section - see below).

Level 1 (or whichever level sorts first) is what a newly created farm item starts at. A level doesn't have to change every attribute compared to the one before it - once an attribute reaches its intended maximum, later levels can just repeat its value and only grow the others, so admins aren't forced to keep paying for an attribute that's already done growing.

Growth

growth.visualization.enabled controls whether BetterFarming visually updates block growth stages.

growth.visualization.instant controls whether visual growth updates happen immediately.

growth.stages controls whether crops use multiple growth stages. If enabled, total time until harvest is based on the interval and the crop's stages.

Owner Online Requirement

require-owner-online pauses farms of this type while their owner is offline.

World Blacklist

world-blacklist blocks a specific farm type from being placed in listed worlds.

The global list of worlds where any farm can be created is configured in config.yml under general.worlds_list.

Storage

Add a storage section to give farms of this type internal storage - harvested items go here until collected or drained into a hopper. The section's presence is the opt-in; an empty section is enough:

storage: { }

Storage capacity comes from the type's own storage level attribute (see Levels above), so it already grows with upgrades without any separate config number. A farm type with no storage section can't hold harvested items at all - pair it with auto-sell (see below) if you want harvests to go straight to currency instead.

Hopper

Add a hopper section to let a connected UpgradeableHoppers hopper drain this farm type's storage automatically:

hopper:
  y-range: 1

y-range is how many blocks below the farm's own position to look for a hopper. The section's presence is the opt-in - a type without it never queries UpgradeableHoppers at all, even if the integration is installed and enabled in config.yml.

Auto-Sell

Instead of storing harvested items or draining them into a hopper, a player can toggle their farm to automatically sell eligible harvested items for currency. This is a per-farm toggle in the storage menu, not a per-type config option - the toggle only appears if at least one of the type's harvest items has a configured sell-price (see Harvestable Blocks below).

Auto-sell and hopper output are mutually exclusive per farm - a farm with auto-sell enabled is skipped by the hopper-drain task. How often auto-sell runs and whether owners are notified are configured in config.yml under farm.auto-sell. See Admin Flags for the AUTO_SELL flag and its permission.

Stacking

Add a stacking section to let players stack multiple farm items of this type into one farm, instead of every farm needing its own separate spot:

stacking:
  max: 10
  scale-attributes: [ storage, interval ]

Placing a compatible farm item (same type, same level) anywhere inside an existing farm's own protected area merges it into that farm - not just right next to the farm's own block - instead of being rejected as an overlap. max caps how many can stack at one farm, on top of config.yml's own global stacking.max-stack cap (the lower of the two applies).

scale-attributes lists which of the type's level attributes grow with the stack amount:

• storage scales up normally - a stack of 10 has 10x the storage capacity of a single farm at that level.

• interval scales down instead (growth gets faster, not slower) - a stack of 10 completes growth cycles roughly 10x faster on the same set of blocks. This is a farm-specific inversion of how stacking normally works, because a shorter interval is the better outcome for this attribute.

• radius is not meant to be listed here - stacking multiple farms at one point doesn't grow the protected area, only what happens inside the single area the level already grants.

Fuel isn't separately affected by stacking - because interval scales down while the farm consumes fuel each completed cycle, more frequent (but proportionally cheaper) fuel use roughly cancels out, so a stacked farm runs out of fuel in about the same real time as an unstacked one, just gets far more done in that time.

The main farm menu shows a Stacked item with the current/maximum stack amount once stacking is enabled for the server (config.yml's stacking.merge-radius above 0) - see Farm Menu.

Recipe

Use recipe to allow players to craft a farm item.

recipe:
  - "IRON_INGOT,CHEST,IRON_INGOT"
  - "IRON_INGOT,REDSTONE,IRON_INGOT"
  - "AIR,IRON_INGOT,AIR"

Use an empty list to disable crafting.

Armor Stand Representation

Add an armor-stand section to represent this farm type with a decorative armor stand instead of a real placed block. The section's presence is the opt-in - a custom item provider (Nexo/ItemsAdder) block or furniture configured on item above still takes priority over this if set.

armor-stand:
  helmet: "skin:925a32560831c295b00527926255e608a039776f3523b92edf788149aae67d6a"
  chestplate: "LEATHER_CHESTPLATE"
  leggings: "LEATHER_LEGGINGS"
  boots: "LEATHER_BOOTS"
  tool: "IRON_HOE"

Every slot is optional. Off by default - the real vanilla item's own block (the material set on item above) represents the farm instead.

Harvestable Blocks

blocks defines what the farm can track, grow, and harvest.

The section key is used as the material unless you set block.

blocks:
  carrots:
    item:
      name: ""
      material: "CARROT"
    harvest:
      carrot:
        name: ""
        material: "CARROT"
        data:
          min: 1
          max: 1
          chance: 100
          sell-price: 0

item is the item players place or plant. harvest is the list of item drops the farm adds to storage when the block is harvested.

min and max randomize the drop amount. chance controls the drop chance.

Set a harvest item to enabled: false to disable that drop. For enabled harvest items, chance values are treated as percentages.

sell-price is the per-unit amount auto-sell pays for this item. It defaults to 0, meaning the item cannot be auto-sold and is only ever collected manually or moved through a hopper. Set it above 0 to make the item sellable - see Auto-Sell above.

Custom Items and Model Data

You can apply custom model data, names, lore, enchantments, and custom heads to farm items, fuel items, planted items, and harvest drops.

Example custom head harvest:

blocks:
  somehead:
    block: "PLAYER_HEAD"
    item:
      name: "Pineapple"
      material: "eyJ0ZXh0dXJlcyI6eyJTS0lOIjp7InVybCI6Imh0dHA6Ly90ZXh0dXJlcy5taW5lY3JhZnQubmV0L3RleHR1cmUvNTdjNWU5MjVhOTQ5ZTU1ZGIyYzI1ZWZhYWQ2NDUxMmViNmRhYjc0YWZmYjJlOWYzMDRjMzg1YjRmNGIzMGJhNSJ9fX0="
    harvest:
      pineapple_slice:
        name: "Pineapple Slice"
        material: "PAPER"
        model-data: 1000
        data:
          min: 1
          max: 4

General item options are documented in GUI Menus.