Run A Farm Workers and Automation Guide

Workers are how Run A Farm! stops being a full-time walking simulator. Build the Farm Office, open TAP HIRE WORKERS, and assign specialists so eggs keep selling while you plant, haul, or mine. This guide covers all four roles, slot caps, Walk Speed / Carry upgrades, and a practical hire order. Cross-link it with eggs and stand, crops and farming, and vehicles whenever a role depends on a building you do not own yet.

Unlock hiring: Farm Office

Farm Office costs $500 to build. Until it exists, every egg RESTOCK, every sow, and every harvest is manual. Buy the office after egg prices are climbing and Field 1 is on your roadmap—or already owned. Opening the hire panel too early with $0 leftover helps nobody; opening it too late burns hours on chores a $400–$550 hire would erase.

Walk up to the office prompt labeled like TAP HIRE WORKERS. The panel lists roles with hired / max slot fractions (for example 1/3 Stockers). Those fractions are hard caps per farm.

Worker roster

Worker	Hire cost	What they do	Trip capacity	Max slots
Stocker	$550	Carries eggs from nests to your stand	12 eggs	3
Planter	$400	Sows empty fields with your seeds	1 field	2
Farmhand	$1,020	Harvests ripe fields	15 crops	6
Tractor Driver	Locked	Drives your tractor through ripe fields	Needs Tractor Barn	Unlocks with barn

Stocker — egg automation

Stockers solve the BAG → STAND problem while you are elsewhere. Hire the first Stocker when RESTOCK trips block planting or mining. Add a second or third only when one worker cannot keep STAND healthy against your hen count. Details on meters and Egg Truck overflow sit in the eggs guide.

Planter — sow automation

Planters are the cheapest hire and the best “fields stay empty” fix. You must already own seeds and at least one field—see crops and farming. With only two slots, upgrade Walk Speed early so those two cover more ground as you add plots.

Farmhand — harvest automation

Farmhands cost more than double a Planter and shine when ripe Wheat or Carrot sits ignored. Six slots mean you can scale hard later; start with one. Carry upgrades matter because each trip moves 15 crops toward Storage and truck prep.

Tractor Driver — barn-gated

Tractor Drivers stay locked until you build a Tractor Barn. Do not stare at the locked row confused—fund the barn via egg/crop/mining income, then return. Tractor routes pair with vehicle ownership covered in vehicles.

Walk Speed and Carry upgrades

After hiring, invest in Walk Speed and Carry on workers you intend to keep:

• Walk Speed — shorter trips between coop, fields, stand, and storage. Multiplies every role.
• Carry — more eggs or crops moved per trip (especially Stockers and Farmhands).

Upgrade the role that matches your bottleneck. Empty STAND? Speed + Carry on Stockers. Empty fields? Speed on Planters. Overflowing ripe plots? Carry on Farmhands. Avoid spreading upgrade cash across unused slots.

Recommended hire order

Use this default path unless a quest forces otherwise:

1. Stabilize eggs manually — RESTOCK, price pads, hens (Getting Started).
2. Build Farm Office ($500).
3. Hire Stocker ($550) if you leave the stand often; otherwise briefly delay.
4. Own Field 1 + seeds, then hire Planter ($400).
5. Hire Farmhand ($1,020) once harvest walking hurts more than sow walking.
6. Fill extra Stocker / Farmhand slots as production scales.
7. Build Tractor Barn, unlock Tractor Driver, sync with tractor purchases.

Alternate: if you never leave the stand but hate replanting, Planter can beat Stocker by one purchase—only when Field 1 already exists.

Compare spend efficiency anytime on the tier list. Workers versus Garage is a common fork: if crops pile up with nowhere to haul, vehicles and Storage may outrank a third Farmhand.

Workers and the money stages

• Early — maybe zero hires; learn meters. Redeem RELEASE on codes to rush Office cash.
• Mid — Stocker + Planter unlock true multitasking; Sprinklers make Planter cycles matter more.
• Late — Farmhand stacks, Tractor Driver, mining focus while surface runs itself (make money fast).

Quest payouts still need claiming. Workers do not tap quest UI for you—clear Sell 200 eggs or delivery quests between hire shopping sprees.

Multiplayer notes

Servers hold six players. Your hires belong to your farm progression. Do not expect another player’s Farmhand to clear your fields. Coordinate town traffic if trucks share roads, but treat worker panels as personal.

Mistakes to avoid

• Hiring Farmhands with zero fields.
• Maxing Planter slots before Sprinklers when growth—not sowing—is the bottleneck.
• Ignoring Stocker while living in the mine.
• Upgrading Carry on a worker you plan to replace immediately.
• Forgetting Tractor Barn prerequisites when the Driver row stays locked.

Related guides

• Egg loop partners: Eggs and Stand
• Field prerequisites: Crops and Farming
• Barn, bike, truck: Vehicles
• Spend order: Tier List
• Cash timing: Make Money Fast

Build the office, hire for the chore that hurts, upgrade the workers you keep, and unlock Tractor Drivers only after the barn exists. That is Run A Farm automation without wasting a four-figure hire on the wrong job.