Cattle don't eat silage?

[tom1979]

I put a few hours into FS22 when it first came out but as I have never been a fan of base-game maps I went back to FS19 after about 25 hours and have now moved to 22 following the release of Calmsden Farm.

Playing FS22 previously I did not notice that cattle do not eat silage (only as part of TMR) and they do not graze. I find this quite odd. Grazing I am not really bothered about but I would like to be able to feed my cattle silage. I have found nothing in the XMLs of the map and have poked around a bit in the base-game files but also have not found anything.

Can anyone suggest a way of allowing cattle to be fed silage? Thanks.

[humbe]

I noticed that too when starting FS22.. Assumed it was a base game change, likely because they don't normally eat raw silage in real life? I have no idea.. I would also assume it required a mod to adjust what they can eat.

[this_is_gav]

I noticed that too when starting FS22.. Assumed it was a base game change, likely because they don't normally eat raw silage in real life? I have no idea.. I would also assume it required a mod to adjust what they can eat.

Cattle were fed pure silage historically, but I don't know if that's still the case. Still, you should be able to feed it to them with a reproduction and/or milk efficiency penalty, as in previous games.

I've confirmed it (on Calmsden then Elmcreek with no mods) and neither bale or loose silage can be given to cattle.

I've reported it as a bug to one of the devs on one of the Discord servers I'm on, so let's see if it's changed in the next patches.

[paul_c]

The whole approach to animals is contrived. For example....chickens don't produce chicken ****? Chicken **** is one of the best ferts and is key to an arable-chicken farm. No grazing. No concepts of grassland management or difference in quality of grass, just yield more/less. No grazing. No fencing needed. etc etc

Also, no deadstock or meat - meat industry is an absolutely key part of what farming is about, especially in certain areas of the country. I don't buy the "this is for kids" argument either - kids HAVE to know where meat comes from!!!!!

There's loads of other anomalies, it would need a substantial mod or the next release to even start to properly address it.

[blue_painted]

The whole approach to animals is contrived. For example....chickens don't produce chicken ****? Chicken **** is one of the best ferts and is key to an arable-chicken farm. No grazing. No concepts of grassland management or difference in quality of grass, just yield more/less. No grazing. No fencing needed. etc etc

Also, no deadstock or meat - meat industry is an absolutely key part of what farming is about, especially in certain areas of the country. I don't buy the "this is for kids" argument either - kids HAVE to know where meat comes from!!!!!

There's loads of other anomalies, it would need a substantial mod or the next release to even start to properly address it.

I agree - although the chickens in FS are generally free-range so actually collecting chicken manure would be ... problematic .. at best.

The grazing was solved by Realimus in a Grazing mod for FS17 and with Seasons19 in FS19, and it being missed form FS22 is very disappointing: I haven't run cattle yet but if, as in FS17 and vanilla-19, they make grass chewing noises but don't graze I shall be even more annoyed.

The issue with "for meat" animals has been chewed over on another thread, but I think it comes down to getting the lowest possible PEGI rating and not getting tangled up with PETA, again this was sorted by Seasons19, as far as Realimus could manage.

When the "player built" fencing was mentioned, I had hopes that the whole animals thing would be revised to do away with fixed size placable animal fields and buildings, that need dead flat land to work, replaced by using the fences to contain the animals and pacing the food and water troughs separately ... not in FS22 anyway.

[humbe]

...

When the "player built" fencing was mentioned, I had hopes that the whole animals thing would be revised to do away with fixed size placable animal fields and buildings, that need dead flat land to work, replaced by using the fences to contain the animals and pacing the food and water troughs separately ... not in FS22 anyway.

Have you tested this? I think I read the in game pastures only need flat terrain for building and will follow curved for fences. Theres also free range mods so you can build your own fence. If vaguely similar to original size you may not notice their bounded rectangle.

[Illinois Farmer]

Cattle will eat silage if it is the only thing available. If tmr is present with silage they will eat tmr first. Grazing was done in the seasons mod for fs19. It is unfortunate that wasn't brought over. Irl cows will eat silage. There are different types of silage. Corn, hay, wheat, etc. We feed our beef heifers, cracked high moisture corn, hayliage, and corn silage along with beef mineral, that has distillers mixed in it. When we first get them, we feed hay on top of that mixture.

[this_is_gav]

Cattle will eat silage if it is the only thing available. If tmr is present with silage they will eat tmr first. Grazing was done in the seasons mod for fs19. It is unfortunate that wasn't brought over.

You can't give them silage in any form, except as part of TMR. As I said, I tried it on Calmsden then on Elmcreek with no mods installed - you can neither give them bales nor loose silage.

[Rasping rabbit]

...

When the "player built" fencing was mentioned, I had hopes that the whole animals thing would be revised to do away with fixed size placable animal fields and buildings, that need dead flat land to work, replaced by using the fences to contain the animals and pacing the food and water troughs separately ... not in FS22 anyway.

Have you tested this? I think I read the in game pastures only need flat terrain for building and will follow curved for fences. Theres also free range mods so you can build your own fence. If vaguely similar to original size you may not notice their bounded rectangle.

You are right, the fences and pasture will follow the land, it’s only the buildings that get flattened.

[Rasping rabbit]

Also, no deadstock or meat - meat industry is an absolutely key part of what farming is about, especially in certain areas of the country. I don't buy the "this is for kids" argument either - kids HAVE to know where meat comes from!!!!!

This is linked into the game rating as has been suggested, the same reason why we don’t have an alcohol distillery and can’t plant crops such as tobacco or hemp.

The other reason is Giants had a quite public run in with PETA quite a while ago, maybe around fs15 or even 13 launch. The issue from what I remember wasn’t as simple as kids finding out that Porky the pet pig ends up as tasty sausages, but more to do with the issue of making sure that the message of how the animals were killed and promoting humane practices was the problem. I would imagine it’s not the easiest message to get across so selling the animals to the animal market is easier.

[lawm]

Also, no deadstock or meat - meat industry is an absolutely key part of what farming is about, especially in certain areas of the country. I don't buy the "this is for kids" argument either - kids HAVE to know where meat comes from!!!!!

This is linked into the game rating as has been suggested, the same reason why we don’t have an alcohol distillery and can’t plant crops such as tobacco or hemp.

The other reason is Giants had a quite public run in with PETA quite a while ago, maybe around fs15 or even 13 launch. The issue from what I remember wasn’t as simple as kids finding out that Porky the pet pig ends up as tasty sausages, but more to do with the issue of making sure that the message of how the animals were killed and promoting humane practices was the problem. I would imagine it’s not the easiest message to get across so selling the animals to the animal market is easier.

SMH Lol

Edit for clarification....I'm SMH at the Peta comment not what Paul said. Meant to crop that out and forgot.

[deerefarm]

I bet Porky the Pork Chop tasted delicious ..... And I don't know why cows in this game don't take silage like they did in 19 but they don't. They will take hay and this provided 100% productivity and growth for beef cows. But Dairy cows produce 20% less milk if they are fed hay instead of TMR.

[this_is_gav]

The other reason is Giants had a quite public run in with PETA quite a while ago, maybe around fs15 or even 13 launch. The issue from what I remember wasn’t as simple as kids finding out that Porky the pet pig ends up as tasty sausages, but more to do with the issue of making sure that the message of how the animals were killed and promoting humane practices was the problem. I would imagine it’s not the easiest message to get across so selling the animals to the animal market is easier.

The issue was that PETA (in an open letter to GIANTS) wanted GIANTS to show the gory details in their games to show the perceived cruelty they think all abattoirs are guilty of.

While I'm sure some are guilty of such cruelty (and let's not bring religion into this), GIANTS probably read said letter and threw it straight into the bin, and rightly so.

[Rasping rabbit]

SMH Lol

Edit for clarification....I'm SMH at the Peta comment not what Paul said. Meant to crop that out and forgot.

Personally I think it’s as ridiculous as believing that kids playing GTA will decide to go out, shoot someone with a shotgun and steal their car. But then who knows really

[Rasping rabbit]

The other reason is Giants had a quite public run in with PETA quite a while ago, maybe around fs15 or even 13 launch. The issue from what I remember wasn’t as simple as kids finding out that Porky the pet pig ends up as tasty sausages, but more to do with the issue of making sure that the message of how the animals were killed and promoting humane practices was the problem. I would imagine it’s not the easiest message to get across so selling the animals to the animal market is easier.

The issue was that PETA (in an open letter to GIANTS) wanted GIANTS to show the gory details in their games to show the perceived cruelty they think all abattoirs are guilty of.

While I'm sure some are guilty of such cruelty (and let's not bring religion into this), GIANTS probably read said letter and threw it straight into the bin, and rightly so.

Ah fair enough, I was on the right lines but the wrong side of the argument. It was a good few years ago since I read it. I suppose that had giants implemented an abattoir they could just as easily have been seen as glorifying/promoting the perceived cruelty they believe goes on everywhere. Easier just to stick with selling them to the animal dealer I guess.