hay pointless?

[holdem]

I've been trying to raise many animals like cows and muffalos but they eat way more hay as i can provide....
Then i tryed with kibble but after a while i came short on meat to feed my colonists....
So now i just feed them with simple meals.
But then what the point having hay in this game?
I hope they make hay more nutritious so i can make a farm without the need to kill every single wild animal on the map........

[nibbles]

hay is great. but you need to match growing speed with the amount of animals you have.
with 9x9x3 squares of just hay (with a sunlamp to make it grow) i can have 3-4 cows and some chickens without issue

[holdem]

I know i can have 3-4 cows and some chickens without issue.....
But have you tryed feeding 19 colonist with only breeding animals and using only milk eggs and meat from those animals?
Maybe i'm wrong but i came to the conclusion that you have to put more in then you can get out to provide a foodchain for your colonists......
I have 9 cows and 9 muffalos and the amount hay they eat is just not possible to feed them with hay..... i don't know how many cows i need to have them produce enough milk for my fine meals but i'm pretty sure the amount of hay needed is way to big.......

[Astasia]

Just grow more hay. You can always grow more, the map is huge, you can have several dedicated farmers spending all day working on fields. Yes it takes more effort, but the reward is protein for fine/lavish meals which raises mood. Otherwise just grow corn for your colonists and make simple meals and you can get rid of all the animals. It's up to you how much effort to put into it, better meals are a luxury for colonies that have the extra time to spare to deal with it.

[Ralistu]

a 'trick" i use for feeding large herds is to mark out your animals zone and put hay fields in the zone. let them graze the hay

also, they can eat simple meals and it "consumes" less food somehow. its a math thing and it works.

i never use lavish meals, i use simple and fine

[Mlaaan]

If you want grazing, try flowers... even in pots can provide a nice little snack and grow very fast if you have colonists that can keep up with the replanting... green thumb bliss :)

[holdem]

I still don't see any point using hay......
Potatos grow faster,can be 'grazed' also and can be used for simple meals for the cattle and fine meals for my colonists.

[Mlaaan]

The point to hay is that it stacks better than veggies, and can be used for kibble or just feed. I like to mix insect meat with hay for kibble.
For me I don't grow much hay at first, but as I expand I grow a bit of hay so I'm not using my valuable veggies to feed my animals.

[Ralistu]

Originally posted by holdem:

I still don't see any point using hay......
Potatos grow faster,can be 'grazed' also and can be used for simple meals for the cattle and fine meals for my colonists.

i dont know why i didnt clue into this. I just loaded a save, converted those hay fields to potatoes and let it run for a bit..

way better than hay.

+1 for you and for miaan as well.. ive never used insect meat for anything.

[Henry of Skalitz]

Originally posted by Mlaaan:

The point to hay is that it stacks better than veggies, and can be used for kibble or just feed.

This ^

Hay has also less value than potatoes, thus giving less colony richness and then in results you get smaller raids. Hay also doesn't spoil as fast as potatoes I believe and has the same nutrition value.

[TechFlame75]

One good thing about hay is it last pretty much forever had a run where one stack of hay sat at around 1000 for 4 years because my people kept growing more than what was being lost do to age or being eaten. Also you do not need to freeze it again it last forever to be around exact about a year but still long time. This makes it perfect for just putting in a barn next to your animals who can't go out in winter or just animals that makes a mess where ever they go. As for the whole grazing thing never done it and never want to. To much work just to have animals eat it and send one guy out to fix that one spot in a big field. I tend use a lot of meat animals so hay can make kibble as well so instead of spending my peoples food to make food they can't eat I just use hay and human meat. Hay also makes a lot per harvest compaired to other plants I think.

[Morkonan]

Having a lot of animals is just plain... difficult. There is a definite difficulty curve associated with everything to do with "Food" in Rimworld. That's a main focus of the game, after all.

I didn't have any issues at all with Hay production for my animals with about fifteen or so, maybe? (With around ten colonists and no special attention paid to husbandry.) Then, once I started getting more, the whole cycle just broke down. (Exponential increase run amok)

Now, I'm paring my herds down to no more than two animals per colonist and that seem to be the sweet spot where feeding them is manageable. (Read a tip from someone who posted that, but provided no proof. It seems to be a decent starting point, though, as it is working for me.)

All my animals free-range, with me providing hay and kibble, occasionally, as I pare things down. I have a handful of hauling huskies, the rest are muffalo, deer (which are being phased out), and turkies, which I'm trying to manage. I'd love to get a decent supply of unfertilized eggs, but want to have a stock of turkey's for meat, too. It seems the male turkey will fertilize just about all the females, all the time... Lucky turkey, I guess. :) (I don't want to have to take the space to build a true coop just for the male(s).)

I have taken to planting random haygrass fields for them to graze on if things get tough. I tried flowers, but it wasn't enough unless it was a very large area and I need the space, right now. So far, it's working OK, but there is only rarely any grass near or in my base.

TLDR: A general ratio for at least larger animals seems to be 2:1 animals to colonists at max, without very special provisions. For faster breeding animals like turkies and, from what I have read, chickens, it seems that populations can quickly escalate if you're not actively working to cull them.

[Monoxide]

Supplement your hay production with dandelions for your animals to graze. If you have a farm area that your animals roam, you can plant dandelions there and the animals will eat that once grown.

This may/may not be good for you if you dont have the right colonist skills. I always have a dedicated grower or two, so this helps me a lot.

Another note on this is that dandelions can spread on their own, so if you create a pattern that disallows animals to eat ALL of them, then the grown plants can spread much easier.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by holdem:

I still don't see any point using hay......
Potatos grow faster,can be 'grazed' also and can be used for simple meals for the cattle and fine meals for my colonists.

Never plant anything and let animals graze on it, it's a massive waste of time and resources. You will get so much more out of it by letting the crops finish growing and then harvesting them. A live plant gives a trivial amount of nutrition. If you want animals to graze let them graze on wild grass that spreads automatically without any colonist effort.

The point of hay is it provides 50% more nutrition per day compared to normal crops. It's the most effective food crop in the game in terms of both per tile yields and colonist work.

[Monoxide]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Never plant anything and let animals graze on it, it's a massive waste of time and resources.

Again - Check out dandelions. That's actually what they are there for. Grows fast, feeds well, takes little effort if you have good growing skills.

EDIT: I suppose it is presumptuous to say thats what they are there for. And I cannot find numbers on nutrition amount. But dandelions do grow fast, and feed well for my purposes. I always have a field of them for my livestock.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Chopper Dave:

Originally posted by Astasia:

Never plant anything and let animals graze on it, it's a massive waste of time and resources.

Again - Check out dandelions. That's actually what they are there for. Grows fast, feeds well, takes little effort if you have good growing skills.

EDIT: I suppose it is presumptuous to say thats what they are there for. And I cannot find numbers on nutrition amount. But dandelions do grow fast, and feed well for my purposes. I always have a field of them for my livestock.

Dandelions provide 0.18 nutrition with a base grow time of 2.5 days. Harvested rice provides 0.35 nutrition with a base grow time of 3 days. Harvested hay provides 1.15 nutrition with a base grow time of 7 days, and for comparison's sake unharvested hay only provides 0.20 nutrition, same for unharvested potatoes.

Never let animals eat growing crops. Ever. There is no situation where it's worthwhile.