Question about Cows

[Stryder87]

So I finally decided to give raising cows a try (the new Erlengrat map seemed like the perfect map to practice with, and I’ve moved onto having them on Lone Oak and The Valley The Old Farm), and had a question about them.

I read that if you let your cows graze outside, or take them to a pasture, then you don’t need to feed them at the barn. They will eat the grass in the field. However, on the maps I have cows on they only seem to eat the food I put in the barn regardless if they are outside or not. I’m not using Seasons, so would I be correct to conclude that what I heard applies to how cows work using Seasons? Without Seasons they only eat what is available in the barn? I went through the list of things Seasons does to the game but can’t recall seeing this in there.

[Kimpak]

Grazing only works in seasons (and on maps that are specifically compatible with seasons).

[Ritchie]

Yes, the grazing of grass in the enclosure/field only works when using seasons. The animal dialogue screen shows you what each food type counts towards productivity. If you use a mixing wagon to make TMR that's all you need to give them to reach 100%, no need to tip hay and or silage separately in addition to the TMR.

[Stryder87]

Ok, cool. Thanks guys for the reply.

[Drmattymd]

animals eat the best available food so if youre feeding them TMR on the barn they wont graze on grass

[Stryder87]

... no need to tip hay and or silage separately in addition to the TMR.

Does this mean that you can put both Hay and Silage in the barn at the same time to fill the Hay/Silage bar? I was thinking you could only fill it with one or the other (whichever was cheaper to make).

I noticed that when I clean the barn it slowly fills the Hay/Silage bar even though I have TMR in the trough. Interesting...

[Stryder87]

So in my fussing about on one of my farms that I added cows to I was comparing the difference between the one I have 50 cows on to the one I have 16 on in regard to the amount of work it is to make sure they have all the things they need. It made me wonder something, and I was hoping to hear from other, and even more so those who have real farms with cows:

Does there seem to be a certain point in amount of cows you have where the farm goes from having them as an addition to everything else, and they work for the farm, to where the farm now seems to work for them?

On Lone Oak I have about 54 cows. If I didn't have a mod that let me buy TMR and straw from a silo I placed on my farm, I don't know where I would get the time to mow everything and bale some up as silage and the rest turn into hay. Then you have to come up with straw. The cows won't wait until you get it all done, so you have time pressure. Grass only grows so fast. Then you have fields to plant and harvest as well. How on earth do you do all that? It really feels like the farm is now working for the cows, not the other way around. On Erlengrat I only have 16 cows, but even then it can feel like I'm pressed for time to get things done, but it still feels like the cows are working for the farm, but just barely. That's not even bringing in other animals like pigs or sheep (chickens are easy to keep, so I really consider them just a pet). I'm also not even dealing with Seasons. That would make it even more.... interesting.

[Kamoore65536]

@Stryder87:

Welcome to the real world of farming. There are never enough hours in the day to do all that needs to be done when livestock are involved in the operation. That is why there are custom harvesters to provide necessary help for the operation.

[Crazof]

sounds like you need better planning or a change to your game play style

neither of those numbers is a lot of cows

[Eische]

(...) I don't know where I would get the time to mow everything and bale some up as silage and the rest turn into hay. Then you have to come up with straw. The cows won't wait until you get it all done, so you have time pressure. Grass only grows so fast. Then you have fields to plant and harvest as well. How on earth do you do all that? It really feels like the farm is now working for the cows, not the other way around. On Erlengrat I only have 16 cows, but even then it can feel like I'm pressed for time to get things done, but it still feels like the cows are working for the farm, but just barely. That's not even bringing in other animals like pigs or sheep (chickens are easy to keep, so I really consider them just a pet). I'm also not even dealing with Seasons. That would make it even more.... interesting.

It helps to stock up your hay/silage/straw before you get into cows. As you already play without Seasons it is very easy to feed large amount of cows. But it sure takes a lot of time depending on equipment you are using.
A few things to help you plan out better the next time:
- each cow uses 350L food, 80L water and 95L straw per day.
- cows only eat the higher grade food if you provide different sorts
- all troughs have capacity for 10 days.
- grass fully grown (dark orange) and 100% fertilized gives you 87400L per hectare
- straw yield depends on the crop status at harvest. For a perfect field, maximum yield is 73600L straw per hectare.

[Stryder87]

@Stryder87:

Welcome to the real world of farming. There are never enough hours in the day to do all that needs to be done when livestock are involved in the operation. That is why there are custom harvesters to provide necessary help for the operation.

So I'm learning!

sounds like you need better planning or a change to your game play style
neither of those numbers is a lot of cows

Probably not, but as this is my first real attempt at anything other than chickens, the learning curve is expected.

It helps to stock up your hay/silage/straw before you get into cows. As you already play without Seasons it is very easy to feed large amount of cows. But it sure takes a lot of time depending on equipment you are using.
A few things to help you plan out better the next time:
- each cow uses 350L food, 80L water and 95L straw per day.
- cows only eat the higher grade food if you provide different sorts
- all troughs have capacity for 10 days.
- grass fully grown (dark orange) and 100% fertilized gives you 87400L per hectare
- straw yield depends on the crop status at harvest. For a perfect field, maximum yield is 73600L straw per hectare.

I wish there was something in the game Help menu with that info. I found those numbers out by filling everything to the max, then dividing by the amount of animals I had. All my numbers were 10x higher than yours, but I didn't know the troughs held 10 days worth of food. That makes sense. I figured out that they eat the best food first by watching what they did on Erlengrat while I was waiting for them to empty the trough.

I also brought some sheep into the mix as well (never done them either), so that will be interesting. Still haven't tried pigs yet.

I know you get straw from Wheat/Oats/Barley, but do you also get it from using a forage harvester with corn? I know I read something about that, but I'm not sure if it was straw.

I never realized how huge a part of the game animals were. Why did I wait so long to try them out?!?

[AndOnTheDrums]

So in my fussing about on one of my farms that I added cows to I was comparing the difference between the one I have 50 cows on to the one I have 16 on in regard to the amount of work it is to make sure they have all the things they need. It made me wonder something, and I was hoping to hear from other, and even more so those who have real farms with cows:

Does there seem to be a certain point in amount of cows you have where the farm goes from having them as an addition to everything else, and they work for the farm, to where the farm now seems to work for them?

On Lone Oak I have about 54 cows. If I didn't have a mod that let me buy TMR and straw from a silo I placed on my farm, I don't know where I would get the time to mow everything and bale some up as silage and the rest turn into hay. Then you have to come up with straw. The cows won't wait until you get it all done, so you have time pressure. Grass only grows so fast. Then you have fields to plant and harvest as well. How on earth do you do all that? It really feels like the farm is now working for the cows, not the other way around. On Erlengrat I only have 16 cows, but even then it can feel like I'm pressed for time to get things done, but it still feels like the cows are working for the farm, but just barely. That's not even bringing in other animals like pigs or sheep (chickens are easy to keep, so I really consider them just a pet). I'm also not even dealing with Seasons. That would make it even more.... interesting.

Seasons tends to balance things - it takes longer for animals to turn a profit, but summer gives you some good days to mow, bale, chop, etc while waiting for crops to grow, so it’s a trade off.

[Bryan83]

I know you get straw from Wheat/Oats/Barley, but do you also get it from using a forage harvester with corn? I know I read something about that, but I'm not sure if it was straw.

In the vanilla game without seasons, you get chaff from corn for silage, but no straw.

[CowsGoMoo]

sounds like you need better planning or a change to your game play style

neither of those numbers is a lot of cows

50 cows is easy to maintain but starting off with no materials can be difficult and a lot of work. I can start off cows on just hay and work up to tmr but never feed them grass. Personally haven't used something like buy anything mod or buy point built into a map to start off. I have bought bales from the store to do as much tho.