Bull

[RasaNova]

Complete, total bull. The animal, I mean. 2 of them wandered into my colony, and I've been raising them but not sure why. I can't use them as pack animals, they can't be trained, they don't give milk (duh,) and they don't fight.

Am I missing the awesomeness of this event, or should I just sell/eat/wear them?

[Monoxide]

Not every animal has a solid use. A bulls specific uses would be breeding and meat. I usually have 2 males and several females. New males get butchered for food.

If you are looking for a tactical use, there isnt one.

[stevasaur]

If it's a white bull, sacrifice it to Posidon or your pawns will start Lovin' it. (source: Classical Mythology)

Nah, Mike Aruba is right: Bulls are mainly a source of meat that's easy to tame/maintain (low wildness) and have a reasonably-fast growing period (IIRC, they're mature in one year, and produce something like 200 meat per Bull) I think that there's also a chance for multple births, so that's another plus.

Another advantage is that Bulls are large enough that a lot of predators won't attack them, so they can graze more freely on temperate maps than, say, Pigs or Alpacas.

[RasaNova]

Hmm... I hadn't considered breeding. Maybe I'll hang on to them, and watch visiting traders for cows.

Followup question: For feeding, I just designated 2 areas for them to graze, and when they eat all the grass from 1 I send them to the other to let it regrow. Is there a better way? I've got bales of hay but not sure what to do with it...

[liosalpha]

raising a bull can be good... you are training the bull to level you pawn handeling... so he can in turn better critters to your colony.

with the hay bales you can make kibble. but that does need meat. (thou human insect etc would be adviced) if stored indoors it does not spoil. and if you have the materials you can craft tons of it in no time.

it depents on your base. i like to have a big forward defencive wall around the base. and all that land it "save" grazing lands. Also if you make an opening in this wall, preditors will targit your weak critters., if you make that small path filled with deadfalltraps (10/ 20 wooden is enough) you get free meat and lether. even a single bunny can net you loads of meat this way.

later when you have stonrger critter like wargs and maybe even trumbos or megasloths. they can roam free. Just keep the kids save and in case of a raid put them in a stable.