Meat farm

[DNKTATOR]

I am about to start a new game, and I want to create a nice farm which will provide my colony with meat.

So, which animal in your is the best for this option?

I thought to have a muffalo or cow farm, to gain multiple resources from one type of creatures, however, I don't know when and how many should I kill to gain enough meat.

Also I have read that rabbit farm is a good option, because they breed a lot what means there will be a lot of meat.

[TSense]

Meet is when you find a stranger and tell them hello. You are meeting someone new. Or when a group gets together to talk about something, it's a meeting.

You want a Meat farm, that means flesh of animals to cook and eat.

I would take chicken if you are after meat mostly. Larger animals take up way to much time to grow and your lifestock might not survive problems you face.

Hunting wild is better for meat. I would have recommended the muffalo master race, but you can't milk those anymore and they became less tanky in home defence, on top of less smart.
With less advantages to balance out the size it is a bad idea.

Cows for milk would be good, but same problem with size.
I never tried rabbit, but I saw people use rats. Fast breeding and raider eating.
The animal should really be egg-laying, those are easier to get past a terrible problem. Even if you loose all animals, you can still hide some eggs somewhere and hatch a few batch.

[DNKTATOR]

Originally posted by TSense:

Meet is when you find a stranger and tell them hello. You are meeting someone new. Or when a group gets together to talk about something, it's a meeting.

Haha, will correct that

[DNKTATOR]

Originally posted by TSense:

. Hunting wild is better for meat.

I understand that, however it seems to be a little bit uncivilized way. Besides, it is not good to depend only on wild animals. Maybe there will be a time without animals roaming around on my map at all, so I must have a farm.

[HunterSilver]

That depends if you're feeding them through farming, grazing, or other means.

Ruminants tend to be the best source of non-veggie nutrients early on as you can just section off a grazing area for them, they eat grass, you get milk/eggs/meat from them. For large scale meat production, grass just does not grow back fast enough to support a large herd, so you'll need to feed them with farming/cooking/murdering. Depending on the map and weather, grass growth will be able to sustain different herd sizes per area invested in them.

Caribou produce the most meat per day at 0.53 nutrients from birth until reaching adulthood, with cows behind them at 0.5 nutrients. Technically megaspiders and megascarabs beat them both but they can't be domesticated through standard means, can't reproduce, and produce insect meat.

Meals are incredibly inefficient for feeding adolescent and juvenile animals with because so many nutrients are wasted per feeding. This makes carnivores and omnivores only worth keeping if you're feeding them meat from raiders, raider corpses, or insect meat. The only notable exception is the alphabeaver which you should not keep for meat production purposes under any circumstances.

This makes the hare and monkey the best sources of meat per nutrition invested, with the gazelle being a close third place.

Meanwhile for animal products, the cow is the clear winner in terms of non-veggie nutrition production, nutrition produced per nutrition consumed.

I hope this was somewhat helpful.

[DNKTATOR]

Originally posted by HunterSilver:

This makes the hare and monkey the best sources of meat per nutrition invested.

It is an interesting information, but I am too conservative to let my colonists kill and eat monkeys

[HunterSilver]

Originally posted by DNKTATOR:

It is an interesting information, but I am too conservative to let my colonists kill and eat monkeys

Sure, what other limitations do you have? I'll setup a breakdown for you excluding the animals you would not kill and eat.

Edit: I made some guesses on what you would and would not want to use for meat. Here's a breakdown of raising animals for meat. No animal produces more nutrients than they consume, so this assumes you are butchering the animal immediately after they become an adult to yield the highest returns.

https://i.imgur.com/WrBxx2q.png

[SantaClaus]

Cow is the best imo, don't have to wait until reproduction and keep the mothers healthy, tameness doesn't decay, if you're low on grass you can set up a caravan, and takes very few of them to feed a colonist which means you can sustain a decent sized temperate colony on grazing. Also, one of the few "setup and forget" animals. Caribous are only better with instantaneous reproduction and perfect timing.

[DNKTATOR]

Originally posted by HunterSilver:

For large scale meat production, grass just does not grow back fast enough to support a large herd, so you'll need to feed them with farming/cooking/murdering.

What about hay? Is it difficult to grow?

[HunterSilver]

Originally posted by DNKTATOR:

What about hay? Is it difficult to grow?

Hay is the most efficient raw feed to grow on any soil quality. It's not a huge margin, but there is a slight advantage. Only rice and strawberries grown in hydroponics are more efficient but at the cost of steel, components, repairs, and electricity.

[DNKTATOR]

Originally posted by HunterSilver:

Originally posted by DNKTATOR:

What about hay? Is it difficult to grow?

Hay is the most efficient raw feed to grow on any soil quality. It's not a huge margin, but there is a slight advantage.

So there is a way to hold cattle efficiently. Maybe cows, or horses for meat

By th way, which cattle animal is the best for meat (elephants do not count, too difficult to keep) ?

[HunterSilver]

Sorry, I'm not sure, probably chickens or pigs. I didn't bother to record or calculate wildness for meat production purposes since you won't be keeping the animal for long anyway.

[TSense]

Originally posted by DNKTATOR:

Originally posted by TSense:

. Hunting wild is better for meat.

I understand that, however it seems to be a little bit uncivilized way. Besides, it is not good to depend only on wild animals. Maybe there will be a time without animals roaming around on my map at all, so I must have a farm.

Well, you are on the Rim now. Elephants outnumber humans by 10.000 to 1.
It is a uncivilized, lawless planet where moral doesn't exist.

Yeah I don't like the DLC retcon if you couldn't tell.

Also if you don't like eating monkeys this will be a wild ride.

[DNKTATOR]

Originally posted by TSense:

Well, you are on the Rim now. Elephants outnumber humans by 10.000 to 1.
It is a uncivilized, lawless planet where moral doesn't exist.

Yeah I don't like the DLC retcon if you couldn't tell.

Also if you don't like eating monkeys this will be a wild ride.

What is "DLC retcon"? I haven't bought it if you are asking me about it.

Even though Rim is lawless, I don't want to play barbarously, being maniac or opportunist. I am going to build a commune, where everyone is happy and act morally. So no raids, no tortures of prisoners and etc.

About monkeys, if the situation becomes critical I will use them as a food source.

[Othobrithol]

In general the bigger an animal is, the less efficient it is to grow them for food. Big herd animals only really work well if you have lots of grazing room and a decent growing season.

- Muffalo are hardy, give decent meat and have useful byproducts in addition to being pack animals.
- Cows for milk, but they are rather temperature sensitive. Goats actually beat them out for efficiency but are more labor intensive since you need more goats.
- Geese lay more eggs and give more meat than chickens. They just take longer to hatch which doesn't really matter either way.

As a side note, I suggest using Colony Manager - it can automate you desired population levels.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=715565262

[brian_va]

Maybe don't put all your eggs in 1 basket, so to speak. Spread it out some; cattle, chickens, and so on. Unless you setup your start conditions, you might be waiting a while before finding a breeding pair of your desired protien.

Also, another suggestion for the colony manager mod if you aren't opposed.