Minecraft is not all about combat and exploring. Sometimes it is good to settle down and try testing out how green your thumbs are with farming.
Making a farm in Minecraft is the easiest and most resourceful way to get a continuous source of food. There are several different types of crops you can grow on your farm and the easiest of them all is wheat.
There are also many uses for wheat and different ways to get it if you do not have the chance to cultivate it.
So let’s see how we can get our hands on wheat in Minecraft and how to use it effectively.
Finding Wheat in Minecraft
Wheat does not need to always be grown on a farm. It can actually be found in Minecraft’s overworld in several places.
The most abundant place you can find wheat in are usually Villages.
Each Village can be found with several piles of hay bales throughout it; on the side of the path, near houses and stables, or just laying around. Breaking a hay bale allows you to pick it up.
There are no consequences for doing so, so you can freely stock up on as many hay bales as you’d like.
To get wheat out of a hay bale you simply have to put it into your crafting space or a crafting table and it’ll grant you 9 wheat.
Wheat can also be found in chests in many of Minecraft’s lootable structures, such as igloos, dungeons, underwater ruins, shipwrecks and many others.
Growing Wheat in Minecraft
To grow wheat in Minecraft, just like with any other crop, you first have to get its seed.
Luckily, getting the seeds for wheat is the easiest things you can do in Minecraft. Simply walk around and break grass (with an empty hand or any non-enchanted tool) until it drops seeds. The chance of grass dropping seeds is usually very high and you’ll get them easily.
A single wheat seed is all you need to start off a very basic farm, at the very least.
Once you have your wheat seeds, you will need to prepare the land for farming. To do so, firstly dig a hole in the dirt where you are planning to make your farm and fill it in water. This is very important.
Then make a hoe (preferably of iron quality or higher) and start right clicking on the dirt around the block of water to till it.
You will see all the tilled blocks of dirt slowly grow darker if they are within 4 blocks of the water block. A single water block allows for a 4 by 4 block area of farmland that you can work on.
Tilled blocks have to be kept “wet” in order for seeds to grow and to prevent them from turning back into dirt blocks.
Now that your dirt is ready simply right click on it with the wheat seeds equipped in your hand and you will plant them. The first time you plant a seed you will also earn the “A seedy place” achievement!
Once the seed has been planted you need to wait for your wheat to grow out.
In total there are 7 stages to wheat growing, but you will know it is ready when it is a block tall and completely yellowed, just like you can see in the image below.
Hitting the wheat will break it, dropping both wheat and seeds for you to collect. Then you can replant the seeds and easily expand your farm while collecting the wheat.
You can hasten the growing process using bonemeal if you need to.
What to do With Extra Seeds
If you are farming wheat you will easily find yourself having far too many seeds than you have farming space. So what can you do with all those extra seeds?
Well, seeds can be used to make bonemeal in a composter. If you are ever in a pinch and need to quickly grow a crop or plant, bonemeal can be used to hasten the process. Simply stack your extra seeds into the composter.
Seeds can also be used to tame parrots in the jungle as well as breed them and chickens.
Clicking on the animals while the seeds are equipped to your main hand will allow you to feed them and thus tame and breed both animals.
How to Use Wheat in Minecraft
The main thing wheat can be used for in the early game is for taming and breeding certain mobs.
Sheep, cows, horses, and llamas are all mobs that can be tamed and/or bred with the use of wheat. This is very important as sheep and cows are needed for resources.
Taming a horse allows you to also ride it, aiding you in exploration.
Wheat can also be used in a variety of recipes; from food items to actual building blocks. Wheat will be useful to you throughout the game
The easiest recipe that includes wheat is likely bread. This is a great food item in the game that replenishes quite a bit of hunger and you can make a large stock of it with wheat alone. The recipe only requires 3 wheat in order to be made!
Of course, there’s more. You can use wheat to make cookies by combining 2 wheat and cocoa beans.
Then, there is the most complex food recipe in Minecraft: cake.
Putting together eggs, wheat, milk, and sugar, you can make a whole cake that can be placed into the world and then shared with friends!
Finally, there is the ability to make building blocks. Just like you can use hay bales to get a good number of wheat, you can also use wheat to make hay bales.
These can be placed into the world for decoration and detail in various builds.
There’s also the ability of making packed mud with the use of wheat, which can then be further used to make mud brick blocks.
