v0.31 Talk:Meat industry

As far as I can tell, there haven't been dramatic changes for the meat industry, save these:

-slaughtering animals produces loads more 'results' thanks in part to the new tissue system; prepared kidneys, brains etc. And the as of now useless cartilage.

-killing animals through your military has become slightly easier, once you've managed to equip and train your dwarfs, by designating animals to kill for your squads with your cursor, an area designation or from a list.

-On the embark screen, you can select how many female and male creatures you want instead of being stuck with 50%.

Minor changes: Producing soap from tallow has to be done through the manager (u->m->q->'soap'). And: elven traders bring much more exotic pets now, though I haven't got them to breed yet. Elven caravans are bugged anyway (as in: they bring way too much stuff sometimes), so that will probably be fixed.

So far leatherworing, slaughtering animals, cage traps and breeding work the same. I suspect Pens and hunting do too.--Egregius 19:08, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Started the article by copying and editing the old one. I haven't done hunting yet, so someone needs to check that. Also the article could use some editing methinks.--Egregius 01:43, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Opinion: Fat and tallow are now worthless except for making soap and training cooking skill. This is because fat is now converted to tallow one unit at a time, and the tallow doesn't restack.
Soap is very important for healthcare, but you probably will need less than 20 bars over the entire lifespan of your fortress. Training cooking is currently undesirable due to the masterwork meal bug reoccurring.
When I butcher a horse, I end up nearly drowning in meat products. I have no need to process, process, process the fat in order to get yet more single-item foodstuffs that won't lead to large stacks of cooked meals. Worthless globs.
—0x517A5D 01:35, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Rendered fat does get stacked into barrels and is used in cooking, and barrels of prepared meals are a pretty great trade item, I don't really see what the issue here is?FleshForge 19:14, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Well at least in 30.12 it does. FleshForge 10:46, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Breeding pairs

Worth noting that you don't actually need a pair of tame animals for a tamed female to reproduce - just one female will eventually have children if males of the same species are anywhere else on the map. Apparently DF critters reproduce by spores! FleshForge 16:24, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Eugenics

It's possible to breed for certain characteristics such as "Very muscular" or "Gigantic overall" by butchering creatures that are skinny/weak. Should this information be included in the meat industry page or on the Kennel page? I don't know if this changes butchering yields, but there is a definite influence in combat. Creatures that are skinny will be cut through more readily and creatures that are muscular will have less glancing blows, etc--Introprospector 06:28, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Corpse distance

Does anyone need the exact maximum distance allowed for butchering a dead animal? A dragon corpse lying more than 100 tiles away seemed to have been too far. Dragging it to a gargabe dump just 7 tiles away and then un-forbidding worked fine however. Kap 16:32, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

It may be the distance. But it may have something to do with being dragged or being forbidden-unforbidden.--Another 21:07, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

I've found that butchering only triggers once the corpse is in a Refuse stockpile (or was placed directly in the butcher's workshop by a Hunter). Tanning doesn't seem to have this requirement - tanners will take the skins right out of the butcher's shop as long as your refuse stockpile doesn't accept raw hides. --Quietust 21:13, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Milking

Exceptional article. But shouldn't this include milking? Uzu Bash 02:41, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Getting livestock to behave like livestock

Worth noting that placing a restraint (rope or chain) and making it a room will make un-bonded animals congregate around it, rather than milling around and pooping up your well room or dining hall. Some will still hang around in the meeting halls, but not ALL of them at least. FleshForge 03:26, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

Its a lot easier just to use a Pen/Pasture zone. Saves you a chain. Plus you can segregate the different types of animals (those for wool, milk, eggs, meat etc.). --Stinhad Limarezum 04:09, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Complete Rework

Thanks to the "new" update the intire article may as well be completly reworked. I suggest putting in the Grazing Values from suitable Animals somewhere as well...

Especially since there's so many options to take on embark, and at least some of them are completely useless (Like rabbits). -----03:27, 9 March 2011 (UTC)