Feeding Cows Properly?

[markothevrba]

After searching all over I still don't know what I need to do to get cows to 100%.
I don't have them yet, but I don't want to invest into them until I know for sure that I can handle keeping them at 100%.

First thing is first. If I use the machine that mixes straw bales, hay bales and sillage, is that enough to get cows to be at 100% productivity or do I need to feed them grass and sillage separately also?

Second question is about sillage. What is the difference between grass and chaff sillage?
About fermenting sillage, I heard it takes over 1 real life hour for it to ferment? Is that dependent on the in-game time scale or does it take over an hour no matter if I play on 1x or 120x?

Another question. How much do cows eat? If anyone has cows can you please post how many cows you have and how long does a certain amount of feed last? I want to be prepared before I get cows because I don't want to run out of certain type of ingredient I need to feed them.

And final question. How much does milk sell for?

Sorry, I know it's a lot of questions, but I am hoping someone that knows this will be kind enough to share the information, so I and any potential people that search this will know once and for all how to maintain cows.
Thanks

[brack]

I'd like to know the answers to some of these as well. A "feeding" tutorial would have been nice to learn some things.

I do know that another user posted in another thread that the fermenting takes 1 hr real time regardless of the game speed, however I have not confirmed this myself.

[WolfDK1984]

Well..

You defo need the basic implement in the feeding class, its to shred straw Bales.

then you need a Mixer-unit, a Straw bale, a Hay bale, and silage for the rest.

The selfpropelled Mixer is easiest to use, as it shows the mixing ratio on a HUD infopanel..

[gearhed502]

you can get away with out the straw shredder. if you only put straw into the mixer, it will empty into the feed trough as straw, same for grass and silage. I put a round bale of straw into the mixer first and then empty half into the barn. then I ad a bale of hay and use the front loader to add silage to get the ratio right. also since I don't have enough money right now to buy a forage wagon, I take the hay bales and use the mixer to empty them into the silage bunker to make silage

[Metz]

Here is my figures for feeding the cows (difficulty: Normal)

50 cows need in a 6 days period.:

Mixed rations: 99.000 - Tip... Use square bales for the mixer. 1 straw bale and 1 hay bale and top up with silage = perfect ratio.
Silage.........: 49.000 - Round bales are bigger (6000) but is reduced to 4800 in the mixer = loss of 1200 material.
Moved grass.: 54.000
Straw.........: 30.000

Twice a day they produce (as far as I've seen)
About 15.000 milk, sold for 12.000

Total material in 6 days: 232.000
Total income in 6 days.: 144.000 + manure

Income pr. material used = 620 pr 1000 units.... Its about the same as a good price for barley, but with much more effort and investments.

[markothevrba]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

But I do have a question for Metz.

So you need to fill up everything, mixed, sillage and grass feeding to get 100%?
I was kind of hoping I could just mix straw bales, hay bales and sillage and just feed them off that mix and get 100%

It doesn't seem like it's worth all the efford, since it looks like they eat A LOT...
Miss the good old 2011, where you would just mow some grass and get rich off milk. I guess this is more realistic, but it doesn't seem worth it to me, since you have to do every step you need manually (mowing, bailing, sillage, mixing).

Sheep seem like a much better investment in this game, even if you have to use the frontloader.
I know you get free fertilizer from cows, but honestly, I don't think that's worth it, the spread isn't great and it's more driving back and forth from field and manure pits, than it is fertilizing, since it uses it up so quickly.

Feel free to post any further tips

[Metz]

You need something of everything to get 100% milk production, yes.
But you don't need to fill them up completly, but if you do it will last for 6 days.

Having cows is OK, but a bad idea early ing the game due to high startup cost and low return.
Its better to do it later in the game when you got cash to spare
Don't use manure for field fertilizing, use it for the greenhouses.

Sheep is a much better deal early on, because they are easy to feed.
They just need some moved grass.


If you just compare the cost of feed and what you get paid for the produce, the figures are approx. like this.

Cows - 1000 feed = milk sold for 620 coins.
Sheep - 1000 feed = wool sold for 2000 coins.
This is not EXACT numbers, but as close as I come without using pen and paper and stare at the every figure ingame.

The downside about sheepfarming is that you need to remove the woolpallet as soon as its full (100%)
The good thing about sheep is that they are almost free and you don't need more than a lawnmover to begin with.
To bad we can't carry the wool in a wheelbarrel or else it would be the perfect lowcost starting buisness.

[csx6245]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

But I do have a question for Metz.

So you need to fill up everything, mixed, silage and grass feeding to get 100%?
I was kind of hoping I could just mix straw bales, hay bales and silage and just feed them off that mix and get 100%

It doesn't seem like it's worth all the effort, since it looks like they eat A LOT...
Miss the good old 2011, where you would just mow some grass and get rich off milk. I guess this is more realistic, but it doesn't seem worth it to me, since you have to do every step you need manually (mowing, bailing, sillage, mixing).

Sheep seem like a much better investment in this game, even if you have to use the frontloader.
I know you get free fertilizer from cows, but honestly, I don't think that's worth it, the spread isn't great and it's more driving back and forth from field and manure pits, than it is fertilizing, since it uses it up so quickly.

Feel free to post any further tips

Honestly I wouldn't bother using the spreader for the manure I would just use the manure to supply the green houses this also makes working on getting the cow industry up and running worth while because you can bank from the greenhouses if u have enough of them and keep them close to the manure pit.

[markothevrba]

Maybe I will try and have cows later on then, or at least as soon as conola high demand comes, AKA when I get rich

I will probably start to fill the sillage pit and save all my straw bales right now, so I can hopefully have a good head start for when I do get cows.
The thing is, I do want cows and I don't want cows, I want a little something do to apart from sowing , fertilizing and harvesting and mixing food seems like a fun thing, it's just that the sheer amount of resources I need kind of makes me not want them.

Sheep would be the best thing ever if only a "normal" frontloader would cost less.

Another question about cows, you said you have 50 right? I am wondering, where do you get grass so you have enough, is the little field next to the cow pasture enough or do I need to get the giant one SW from it (field no. 40)?

[sasiti]

To have 100% cow productivity you need to have to create perfect mix of straw , hay and silage throuh feed mixer (perfect combination is 1 straw bale, 1 hay bale and rest silage). As long you have "mixed food" provided that is enough for 100% even without silage, grass or straw.

But for me this is too much for work with bales, so I just poure in mowed grass, provide straw from fields with forage trailer and silage and productivity comes to 80%. The loss of 20% productivty simple insnt enough compesation for me since you have to bale straw , produce hay from grass and also bale, then pick that bales up fith the fork, transport it... too much time consuming for that lost 20%.

Total material in 6 days: 232.000
Total income in 6 days.: 144.000 + manure

Income pr. material used = 620 pr 1000 units.... Its about the same as a good price for barley, but with much more effort and investments.

You cant compare used material to income and make that kind of comparison. Basically all input materials are free (eliminating the cost of machinery) so yield of cows is roughly speaken about 8% per day. Told in differend words: every cow is paid off with milk in about 12-13 days.

In my book cows are great in P/E ratio, thats why i have them 600 of them accumulating about 150.000 coins per day (80% prioductivity).

[HDtheEighth]

I bought the bale shredder and sold it immediately. It was a huge pain to try and fit the bales in there to be shredded. Its a million times easier to fill up a forage wagon with straw and unload it into your cow pen.

I'd suggest checking out some of the videos in http://forum.farming-simulator.com/view ... 28&t=45510
Basically to get 100% all you need is 3-in-1 mixed food and straw

[Metz]

You cant compare used material to income and make that kind of comparison. Basically all input materials are free (eliminating the cost of machinery) so yield of cows is roughly speaken about 8% per day. Told in differend words: every cow is paid off with milk in about 12-13 days.

In my book cows are great in P/E ratio, thats why i have them 600 of them accumulating about 150.000 coins per day (80% prioductivity).

Of course I can compare it that way.
I never mentioned that the input material cost anything, wich it does.

What I speak of there, is what you get from producing that material.

I could have used my time, fields and equiptment on producing barley instead and sold that for etc. 620 pr 1000 units, the same amount you get from producing all materials needed for milkproduction.

Yes, as you say, every COW is paid off in 12-13 days. As long as you don't think about all the equiptment, fields and time needed to create such amounts of feed the cows need, then its a great P/E ratio.
Thats why I also said that cows is a bad idea early in the game, because it cost so much to start up.

If you want to talk about a great P/E and a great paycheck every day, try feeding the biogas plant with corn-chaff, ferment it and put it in the shredder.
Then you get 800 pr 1000 units.
I do that with corn from field # 7 and it gives me roughly 440.000 coins everytime I choose to do so
That equals the milk sold, with your 80% production, from 1.200 cows. And that is a 2.400.000 coin investment

Cows for fun and manure, and biogas plant for cash (and incredible amounts of liquid manure)

[markothevrba]

Wait, so the whole biogas thing. So I get chaff, ferment it, then what? Where do I dump it? What shredder are you talking about?

BTW, sorry for the noob question

[Metz]

Here is a video already posted on this forum.
Its from the DLC biogas plant in FS 2011 but its the same as in FS 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IXYvU3DKKE

[markothevrba]

Thanks for the video, I totally didn't see any grinders... However, I wasn't really at the biogas plant much either