A hoe can be made from any one of the four materials, wooden hoes can be crafted with planks, stone hoes can be formed with cobblestone blocks, iron hoes are obviously made with smelted iron blocks (iron ingots). The most durable hoe is the diamond hoe, but it isn't very resourceful or necessary to make a hoe from one of the most valued/desired resources in the game. Farming tools are meant to be cheap.
Designating an area for the planted wheat is crucial if you want to farm immediately after entering a world. It's not going to be enough to plant a handful of seeds because it won't be sufficient when you starve. Collect around fifteen wheat seeds, (these are the most common of the seedlings) this will be a roughly decent quantity for you to sustain yourself initially...
Replant, when your crops are ripe and ready to be gathered, it would be wise to not let them dwindle in the daylight. Make sure you take the spare seeds from harvesting and right click on the hoed ground to replant for the next annual collection. To disregard the importance of replanting is an error, the reasoning behind this is that your main source of food for energy will have gone.
Defend the perimeter of the farmland, a productive farmland must also have a means of protection from players/mobs that trample on your livelihood. Place fencing around the edges of the farm and consider constructing a farmhouse in the middle of farm, as a place of storage.
A barn will also act as a deterrent to anyone/anything wanting to ruin your agriculture/farming.
Breed animals whenever you can, livestock, such as cows, if nurtured, can become a bountiful source of meat and leather (both useful items to acquire). Ranchers and shepherds understand that experience levels/points can be obtained with ease if you have amassed a humongous herd at your disposal.
Feeding cattle and sheep with wheat causes the animals in the segregated area to become inbred, a infant/baby lamb or cow is born from the feed of wheat to each of it's parents. Don't get an emotional attachment to the livestock, naming them with name-tags will make the task of slaughtering it more pain staking when you're hungry.
Although sheep don't drop edible substances, they do eat grass and have a tendency of dropping wool (the colour of the wool depends on the sheep's coat) which can be used for crafting a bed. This is done when they are killed or during the right click of sheers on them.
Piglets are fed with carrots, these animals offer an alternative form of meat called pork. If this certain meat is cooked it has an equal nutritional value as beef, thus replacing the exact same amount of hunger bars, located at the bottom of your screen when your online (logged in).
Live in a rural location, often heading to a remote landscape, by the company of a hillside can be the best place to cultivate a farmland of sorts. Wild animals may roam here, so it can be a prime spot to attempt taming them. Chickens or cows can be seen wandering almost anywhere in the world's dimensions, so be assured you'll find a couple to breed together once captured.