According to the notes for the 1.8 update, farmer villagers will harvest ready crops and replant them. The farmer will hold the produce (wheat, carrots or potatoes) they harvest for up to 6 stacks then it will fall on the ground. Using this information I setup a farm with a hopper minecart running underneath the crops to pick up the items they drop.
I'm having trouble making them harvest crops, even after giving them 6 stacks of each type of crop they can harvest. Am I doing something wrong? Can I make this more efficient?
More info: I made a 4 9×9 field of crops with 2 farmer villagers in it and fenced off.
Best Answer
Throw them two more stacks and try again.
According to the "Villager" page on the wiki they will pick up 8 stacks before their inventory is full, not 6:
After their inventories are full they will stop picking it up:
You should also make sure that you have chosen farmer villagers to do the work. It will not go down well if you have chosen a butcher or a librarian to do the farming work. Make sure you farmer villagers they look like this:
Also, in 1.9 and above, right clicking (trading) with the villager will tell you the profession. This is important because there are other villagers with plain brown robes now.