Is it more efficient to farm more during spring and rely on stockpiles during winter?

I think this pretty much boils down to:
Does the season bonus/penalty apply to both Catnip fields AND farmers or ONLY Catnip fields?

I've been assigning my kittens to farming during spring and other jobs during winter, thinking that it's more efficient that way, but I was wondering if this is really the case.

Solution 1:

The general formula for the different resources is [1]:

perTick = (building output * season modifier + job output * upgrades * happiness) * building % effects + automatic effects - consumption * consumption % effects

The relevant part is the first:

perTick = (building output * season modifier + job output * extra....)

You see that the season modifier is only relevant for the catnip fields or any other buildings you later can build (I don't know, but I can't see why not). So it is not more effective to put farmers to work in the spring, as the season has no influence on the farmers.

This is how I handle my catnip successfully right now (32 kittens):

So 32 kittens, 3 are farmers. 76 catnip fields, 32 pastures and 27 aquaducts. Also 11 unicorn pastures. Happiness is 61%, 71% or 81%, depending on the special goods. Also the mineral and iron hoes upgrade (50% and 30% more effective). But the most important part is just 3 kittens as farmer. The skills are 1x proficient and 2x competent. This all results in a overall positive catnip production, so I don't have to change farmers in a bad season. Good luck!

Solution 2:

The season bonus doesn't apply to farmers, so there's no reason to switch jobs unless your kittens are in danger of starving or you need the resources.

It turns out it's not that difficult to check: increase or decrease the number of farmers during spring or winter and you will notice that the catnip production/second will be modified by 5 (barring other modifiers such as happiness).

Also, to be sure, I checked game.js and here's what I found:

    //SEASON MODIFIERS
    ...
    perTick = perTick * weatherMod;
    ...

    //VILLAGE JOB PRODUCTION
    ...
    perTick += resProduction;

so the season modifiers (including warm/cold) are applied before village job bonuses.

Note that this applies to the current version (v0.9.6.8)