What are the best Minecraft farms? There’s nothing quite like reaching the depths of a dark and gloomy cave before realizing you’ve forgotten to bring food with you, or trying to breed your favorite animals but having to wait ages for one wheat crop to grow. That’s why one of the first things your Minecraft base should have is a farm or two.
There are a variety of Minecraft farms, from simple, manual farms that you can create on day one of your new Minecraft world.
The best Minecraft farms to build in your survival world are:
Starter wheat farm
To start with, the easiest crop to farm is wheat. Seeds drop from breaking grass blocks, and can then be placed in the ground near a water source using a simple wooden hoe. Not only is bread a fantastic starter food, crafted from just three wheat, but wheat is also required for breeding cows and sheep, and thus getting yourself some more filling meat.
Wheat grows when you’re near, and drops seeds and wheat when broken, so it’s an infinite resource. Pop a few seeds down where you’re building your base, and they’ll grow while you’re toiling away.
Tree farm
Like the wheat farm, a tree farm is another essential farm to get up and running as soon as possible, especially if you’re planning a build with wood. As you explore to find the perfect place to build a home, be sure to chop down trees and wait for a sapling or two from any variants you like or are planning to use. Then simply, chuck them all around you, preferably build yourself an iron axe or better, and get ready to have all the wood you could ever need. All saplings can be placed together in any biome.
Minecraft animal farm
No, not the George Orwell type. Once you have plenty of wheat coming in from your wheat farm, the next step up is pastoral farm. You can keep it simple to start with, popping your cattle in a fenced-off area, but you may eventually want to something a little more homely. This simple and easy-to-build animal pen design can be scaled up for any of your farmyard friends, from rabbits to cows, it’s a wonderful addition to any Minecraft farm, complete with a sleeping area, food, water trough, and storage. We like to plonk our animal farm on top of a hill outside a Minecraft village and spend hours tending to our cattle and watching the world go by.
Iron farm
While you might only be thinking about finding your first diamonds, iron is an essential resource, both when starting out in your Minecraft world and as you progress towards The End. A requirement in a surprising amount of crafting recipes, iron comes in handier than you might imagine, and is harder than ever to find since the ore distribution change of the Caves and Cliffs update. As such, it’s always handy to have an automated iron farm on the go, and this 1.21 iron farm tutorial by Voltrox is by far one of the simplest we’ve seen.
Cobblestone farm
Sure, if you’ve spent a lot of time down in the mines, you might have stacks upon stacks of the stuff, and you might be wondering, “why on earth would I want a cobblestone farm?” However, if you’ve ever built with cobble or stone, you’ll know how quickly you can also go through it. Plus, what about those times when you desperately need some and don’t want to go hunting for a cave entrance or hole?
Well, this is one of the simplest and smallest Minecraft farms out there, so there’s really no harm in having one tucked away at your base for emergencies. Maybe pop it in a cute cave-inspired room or blacksmith’s building. It’s manual, though there are more complex automated ones out there, and if you’re looking to harvest lots of stone, you might want to build a giant smelter like the one below. But, for now, just copy the image above, replacing the trapdoors with blocks if you prefer, or digging it one block down, and don’t forget that all important one block dip for the water to flow into. Cobblestone acquired.
Minecraft resin farm
This one’s certainly not essential, but if you’re anything like us, you prioritize gathering new, exciting materials over anything useful. Resin was released to Minecraft in late 2024 with the Winter Drop and the addition of the Pale Garden biome. The unique orange family of blocks not only looks great in a wide range of building palettes, but resin clumps are a novel new way of decorating your builds. If you want plenty of it, you’re going to need a farm. The above Resin farm from silentwhisperer was made during the early experimentation of the update, but still seems to work today – just be sure to check that pinned comment for information regarding a common bug.
Super Smelter
In complete contrast to some of the simple starter farms above, this is quite a complex build. It’s also not technically a farm, but since you can use it in conjunction with some of the other farms in this list to make gathering resources easier, we’re going with it.
The blurred lines here come from the fact that the smelter doesn’t actually produce anything on its own. However, it’s a great way to smelt loads of materials, like cobblestone, iron ore, or food, in one go, automatically, and fast.
There are loads of great and complex designs to follow, but we love this one from Taffy which works for 1.21. It’s actually pretty simple, not too big, and works like a charm. Just fill up your chests, and go on your way. Your smelted goods will be waiting for you when you get home.
Automated fish farm
This fishing hut is the perfect way to complete any Minecraft farm space or to complement a riverside build, it’s small and compact and doesn’t require too many resources to create. To get the best from this fishing shack, upgrade or enchant your fishing rod, and you can even store chests, a Minecraft grindstone in the hut, adding flowers for a finishing touch. The basement can be expanded however you want, so you can squeeze as much in as you want.
This AFK fishing farm used to be able to fill your chests with treasure, enchanted books, and other items too, but the more valuable fishing loot table now requires a larger body of water, so if you’re expecting more goodies than just tasty fish, you’ll be left disappointed. For that, you need to take to the open seas with your fishing rod and do it the old-fashioned way.
Automated wool farm
If you love to create a colorful world, then this automatic wool farm is a great way to stock up on the different wool colors available. You don’t need to build the full building, but it looks much better for it. Either way, you just need a single sheep of each color and some fairly simple redstone. Your only task is to replenish shears once in a while and collect all that fluffy fabric. Wool is used for decorative purposes such as making beds, carpets, and paintings.
Automated crop farm
This Minecraft crop farm is built with the bee update in mind, creating a grand glasshouse powered by the sweet little critters. As well as looking the part, this innovative Minecraft farm design uses flowers, campfires, and beehives to produce honey and use bees to ferry pollen between the crops to help them grow.
Minecraft Shulker shell farm
Once you reach The End, it’s not actually the end. Elytra, shulkers, and a huge range of new materials and building blocks are yours for the taking once you reach distant End Cities. While Elytras might be considered one of the most valuable resources in the end, Shulkers make your life a lot easier, especially if you’re going back to build and mine more in your base world. They’re also a valuable commodity when playing on a multiplayer server, so corner the market with your own Shulker farm.
If you do need stacks upon stacks of Shulker boxes, whether just for yourself or you and your friends, the best way to get them is with another automatic farm. Shulker farms are quite tough to build, but once you’ve got one, you’ll never have to worry about inventory space again, and this Shulker farm tutorial from Blazedude is nice and easy to follow.
These Minecraft farm ideas are sure to keep you busy, but you can always try out these cool best PC games to see where your next adventure lies.