Why are cows so good?

[Squirting Elephant]

They give a little bit of milk, but they eat TONS of kibble. I'm growing some hay now because kibble is just too expensive (meat) to feed them (winter now).

I suppose their value is in breeding them? Also they don't die from hot/cold temperatures right? So I can make their sleeping spots outside or only underneath a roof?

[Brassqund]

Originally posted by Squirting Elephant:

They give a little bit of milk, but they eat TONS of kibble. I'm growing some hay now because kibble is just too expensive (meat) to feed them (winter now).

I suppose their value is in breeding them? Also they don't die from hot/cold temperatures right? So I can make their sleeping spots outside or only underneath a roof?

If there is grass, you don't actually need to feed them.
Make an allow area with grass big enough for them.
After that, grow some hay and store them somewhere where cow can't go.
Once grass stop growing, allow the hay stockpile for the cow
so they can eat.

I don't remember the temperature for them but you can check
using the "I" near the name to get extra description.

[Squirting Elephant]

I bought 5 cows & 2 dogs during winter and 600 kibble. Kibble was all gone in a few days...

I guess my fault:
- ONLY feed them hay.
- Do NOT buy them during winter in large amounts unless you got a lot of hay stockpiled.
- Again, don't bother with kibble (meat too hard to get in those quantities).

I guess dogs don't eat hay though.

[Brassqund]

Originally posted by Squirting Elephant:

I bought 5 cows & 2 dogs during winter and 600 kibble. Kibble was all gone in a few days...

I guess my fault:
- ONLY feed them hay.
- Do NOT buy them during winter in large amounts unless you got a lot of hay stockpiled.
- Again, don't bother with kibble (meat too hard to get in those quantities).

I guess dogs don't eat hay though.

Yeah, dogs don't eat hay.

[Squirting Elephant]

So for the dogs, I let them roam so they can hunt their own food and disable medkits on them?

[Brassqund]

Originally posted by Squirting Elephant:

So for the dogs, I let them roam so they can hunt their own food and disable medkits on them?

Dogs are not set as predators so they are not going to hunt by their own.
You can always hunt some animal and combine the meat you have with
the hay to make kibble (or let them eat raw meat). Pemmcan is better but you can't use hay...
and you should keep your vegetable for your colonist.
You can also eat vegetable... but that's not the best if you didn't have
a lot of it.

[GZstar]

Kibble made out of hay is quite fast produced. But you really need lots of it for dogs, chicken, muffaloes etc. if no grass is available. I think all animals only are worth having if you have the time to produce kibble outside grass season. But I think this is realistic. In real live you also have to feed an animal more stuff than you get out of it by slaughtering it. On a map without grass or on a map with short growing season no animal is worth keeping it for food production in my opinion.

[Peanutslol]

Originally posted by GZstar:

Kibble made out of hay is quite fast produced. But you really need lots of it for dogs, chicken, muffaloes etc. if no grass is available. I think all animals only are worth having if you have the time to produce kibble outside grass season. But I think this is realistic. In real live you also have to feed an animal more stuff than you get out of it by slaughtering it. On a map without grass or on a map with short growing season no animal is worth keeping it for food production in my opinion.

^ this guy +1
just don't let chickens near your base

[Ashardalon]

feed your cows hay
get milk from cows
make kibble from milk

but yes buying cows mid winter without large foodstores is a bad idea

if you restrict your dogs to an area where you dump the bodies of raiders they will eat the corpses
then if they die you can eat the dogmeat, meat recycling!
i suggest a closed room that is not homezoned so your colonists don go in there to clean and see the mass grave, they get sad from seeing their glorious work
sinse its winter if you keep it seperate from the main base it will stay frozen and roofed so the bodies wont spoil till summer
i disadvise butchering the human corpses for kibble, while the leather is nice the moral hit will hurt

[Daffy]

Originally posted by Squirting Elephant:

I bought 5 cows & 2 dogs during winter and 600 kibble. Kibble was all gone in a few days...
.
- Again, don't bother with kibble (meat too hard to get in those quantities).

I guess dogs don't eat hay though.

This is when 2 things help you out a ton ...

1: a pawn that does not mind butchring humans (psykopat) free meat from all thise raids just remember not to use it in normal food :)

2: bug infestations again free meat that your pawns do not way anyway .... lots of kiddle.

[Ashardalon]

Originally posted by Daffy:

Originally posted by Squirting Elephant:

I bought 5 cows & 2 dogs during winter and 600 kibble. Kibble was all gone in a few days...
.
- Again, don't bother with kibble (meat too hard to get in those quantities).

I guess dogs don't eat hay though.

This is when 2 things help you out a ton ...

1: a pawn that does not mind butchring humans (psykopat) free meat from all thise raids just remember not to use it in normal food :)

2: bug infestations again free meat that your pawns do not way anyway .... lots of kiddle.

butchering humans is a colony wide mood hit
worse for the person doing it but everyone gets effected
unless that has changed, havnt needed to do it yet

[Daffy]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

Originally posted by Daffy:

This is when 2 things help you out a ton ...

1: a pawn that does not mind butchring humans (psykopat) free meat from all thise raids just remember not to use it in normal food :)

2: bug infestations again free meat that your pawns do not way anyway .... lots of kiddle.

butchering humans is a colony wide mood hit
worse for the person doing it but everyone gets effected
unless that has changed, havnt needed to do it yet

debuff is not bad for the others and go over rather fast, can not remember the numbers but i have a town atm with 8 pawns running on year 6, 4 of those are canibals and the rest is pretty ok with all the raiders being killed off for food.

ill check the numbers when i get home :)

[Daffy]

ok mood penelty for other pawns then butcher is -6 for 6 days but does not seem to stack so that is like nothing

[Ashardalon]

thanks for the info
still prefer my method of meat recycling
i usually get some form of randomly joining animal anyway

[Mytheos]

@OP

You can search around for more info...

But the quick summary is, dont keep animals unless you have a good reason...the concept isnt if you can care for them, you get a bonus.

The concept is if you have a specific need for them, then put in the effort.

Examples are cold biomes you raise animals for wool so you can make clothing, or in a desert where there is year round growing but few animals, you can keep chickens to convert easily grown hay to meat/eggs.

However if you just wanted money, its cheaper to grow things beside hay and sell it for more profit overall.


If you do keep animals, yes you can let them roam and graze around your map, and at night they fall asleep...so if you dont keep constantly switching their zones, they will get left out in the middle of nowhere at night, and then when raiders eventually come, your animals are toast.

Again they are a burden you really dont want unless you have a reason.

[ambi]

Animals like cows and muffalos are only worth it if you have grass pastures in your colony, which only exist in temperate and jungle biomes. Grass is free, so anything your animals produce while eating grass = pure profit.

If you need to feed your animals hay or kibble, then they're actually costing you money (you could make more money just selling the hay/kibble to traders). I think the only animal that still produces a profit from hay or kibble are llamas, whose wool is worth quite a bit. If you need protein for fine meals, then I believe chickens are breakeven, or slightly below breakeven. Cows, though, eat a tonne and you'll lose money if you need to feed them hay/kibble.