How to Farm Crops and Livestock in Minecraft

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A beginner’s guide to getting started farming

Written by Travis Boylls

Last Updated: October 22, 2025 Fact Checked

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Farming Crops

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Farming Livestock

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Video

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

In Minecraft, farming is a way to gather a lot of resources in a short amount of time without having to hunt around with them. You can easily build a farm to grow crops or farm livestock. This wikiHow article teaches you how to build basic farms for crops and livestock in Minecraft.

Quickly Make a Farm

Dig canals for water using a shovel.
Fill the canals with water using a bucket.
Use a hoe to till the dirt next to the canals.
Plant seeds or plants in the tilled soil.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Farming Crops

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1
Decide what you want to grow and gather the resources. See what you can find in nearby biomes. You can grow the following items in Minecraft:^{[1]
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- Pumpkin: Pumpkins grow in patches and can be found in most biomes. A whole pumpkin can be converted into seeds using a crafting table.^{[2]
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- Watermelon: Watermelon can be found in jungle biomes. A watermelon slice can be converted into seeds using a crafting table.^{[3]
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- Wheat: You can find wheat seeds by breaking tall grass or harvesting wheat.^{[4]
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- Carrots: You can find carrots in some village farm plots. Plant carrots to grow more carrots.^{[5]
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- Potatoes: Potatoes can be found in some village farm plots. Plant potatoes to grow more potatoes.^{[6]
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- Sugarcane: Sugarcane can be found in nearly any biome growing next to water. It can be planted next to water to grow more sugarcane.^{[7]
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- Beetroot: Beetroot can be found in some village farm plots. Harvesting beetroot produces seeds that can be planted.^{[8]
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- Torchflower: Torchflower seeds have a chance of being dropped by sniffers when they finish digging. Sniffers hatch from sniffer eggs that are found in suspicious sand or warm water ruins.^{[9]
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- Pitcher Crop: Pitcher pods have a chance of being dropped by sniffers when they finish digging. You can plant pitcher pods to grow pitcher crop.^{[10]
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- Nether wart: Nether wart can be found in nether fortresses or bastion remnants. It can only be grown in Soul Sand.^{[11]
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Craft the items you will need. Items can be crafted using a crafting table. You will need the following items to build a farm:
- A shovel.
- A hoe.
- A bucket.
- Torches.
- Fences or a building material.
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Choose your farm land. This is where we will build the farm. Your farm can be as large or small as you want it to be. 26 by 24 is a good size to start with.
- Remember, the larger the farm, the more supplies it will take, but the more it will produce.
- It is recommended that your land be flat, though this isn't mandatory.
- It’s helpful if your farm is near a source of water.
- If you can, build a farm inside. This will keep mobs away from your farm. An indoor farm should have a glass ceiling to allow plenty of sunlight in. This will take more resources to build.
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Build a perimeter around your farm. This helps to keep mobs out. You can build a parameter out of fences or any building material.^{[12]
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- Fences can be crafted from four wooden plank blocks and 2 sticks using a crafting table.
- You can build a wall around your farm out of any building material. Just make sure it is 2 blocks tall. You may also want to build a door so that you can get in and out.
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Light up your land with torches. This will keep mobs from spawning in your farm at night. Make sure your farm is well lit with no shadowy areas around where mobs can spawn.^{[13]
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- Torches can be crafted from sticks and charcoal or coal using a crafting table.
- Alternatively, you can use glowstone, which is much brighter.
6
Dig water canals. These will water your crops. Use a shovel to dig water canals one block deep and however long you want.^{[14]
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- Keep in mind that the water will irrigate crops 4 blocks in each direction, so leave 8 blocks or dirt in between the canals where your crops will go.
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Fill the canals with water. Use the bucket to scoop up water from a nearby water source and then dump it in the canals. Keep repeating until the canals are full and level, with no water flowing in any direction.
- Alternatively, you can build your farm adjacent to a water source. That way, you can dig the canals from there and let the water source fill them up. Keep in mind that if you do this, the number of blocks you can use in your canals will be limited.
Use a hoe to till the dirt next to your water canals. Crops will only grow in dirt that has been tilled.
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Plant the crops. Equip the seeds you want to plant and right-click on the spot where you want to plant them. Different crops take different amounts of time to grow. Generally, crops take between 10 and 30 minutes to grow. When they are fully mature, you can harvest them.
- Be sure to use some of the crops or seeds you harvest to plant the next set of crops.
- You can get crops to grow faster by sprinkling bone meal on top of them. Bone meal can be crafted from bones that skeletons drop when they are slain.^{[15]
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  Research source} Alternatively, you can craft a composter to recycle food and plant items into bone meal. Composters can be crafted from 7 wooden slabs using a crafting table.^{[16]
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Farming Livestock

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1
Build an enclosure for your livestock. Use fences to build an enclosure. Make sure it has plenty of room for multiple animals.
- Fences can be crafted from four wooden plank blocks and 2 sticks using a crafting table.
- If you want to farm different types of animals, you should create a separate enclosure for each type of animal you want to farm.
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Place a gate as the entryway. Crafting a gate will allow you to get in and out of the enclosure and close it so your livestock can escape.
- Gates can be crafted from two wooden plank blocks and four sticks.
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Lure two animals of the same type into the enclosure. You can get animals to follow by equipping the feed of their choice. If you are having a hard time getting animals to follow you through the gate, you can remove some of the fence to create a larger opening. Just make sure you close it before they escape. The following are the types of food each animal prefers:^{[17]
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- Cows, goats, sheep, mooshrooms: Wheat
- Pigs: Carrots, potatoes, or beetroot.
- Chickens: Any type of seed.
- Rabbit: Carrots, dandelions.
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Feed both animals to breed them. Feeding animals puts them in breeding mode. Feed both animals until you see hearts over their head. Then they will produce offspring. Keep breeding them until you have an adequate number of animals.
- In Minecraft, all animals are gender neutral. There are no male or female animals. You just need two animals of the same type.
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Harvest mature animals. It takes most animals approximately 20 minutes to fully mature. Wait until the animals are fully mature before you harvest them. Make sure you leave at least 2 fully mature animals so that you can breed more animals.
- All animals can be slaughtered for raw meat.
- Cows drop raw beef as well as leather when slaughtered.
- Chickens lay eggs. They also drop feathers as well as raw meat when slain.
- You can use shears to get wool from sheep or mushrooms from mooshrooms.

Community Q&A

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Question

I can only plant wheat. How can I find any other things to plant?

Community Answer

Find some sugarcane. It looks like bamboo, and will be next to water. You have to plant it next to water, otherwise it won't plant. Also, go to a village. They usually have a full range of things to plant in their farms

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What can I do to make sure it is zombie proof?

Community Answer

Build fences, and put torches inside it to make sure they don't spawn inside it.

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How long does it take for melons and pumpkins to grow?

Community Answer

The stem takes awhile to grow. The more squares around the stem that are available for pumpkins to grow (up to 4), the faster the pumpkin will grow. You need an air block above the block that the pumpkin would occupy if it grew there. You need water (this one should be obvious) 4 blocks away from the pumpkin at most (diagonals count as 1 block, not 2).

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Tips

When you get more comfortable playing Minecraft, you can build mechanical farms to automate your farming process. You can build an automatic chicken farm, mushroom farm, sugarcane farm, wool farm, and an iron farm.

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