40d Talk:Cow

Husbandry queries

Is it possible to raise cattle? - I have a bull and a cow - will they eventually mate? do i have to cage them or smth? there doesnt seem to be a related workshop (except the butcher 'f course ;)) or skill ? is there an article covering this? --Koltom 17:39, 8 February 2008 (EST)

Yeah the cow will have some calves sooner or later.--Ikkonoishi 17:46, 8 February 2008 (EST)

They should be milkable at a farmers workshop but it seems it is not implemented yet. Do you really want to run a dairy farm, or a dwarven fortress?? ;) GarrieIrons 22:01, 8 February 2008 (EST)

Yes, it is not implemented yet. My question however was aimed at meat. But actually i would love to run a dairy inside a dwarven fortress ;) imagine the happy thoughts of Tobul drinking her first cup of home-made cow milk she so loves.. --Koltom 12:41, 9 February 2008 (EST)

I guess a related question is, does the game follow real-world herd management: 1 bull can mate with about 30 cows, or as the article currently implies do you need "breeding pairs" (which actually makes expanding a herd a quite difficult task).

So far it is hard to monitor this because you don't know which is the mother cow and if you cage animals they just don't breed. And without caging them, it is difficult to keep animals from wandering over the whole map (mine seem to spend most of their time in my dining rooms though... yum yum cat tallow biscuits surrounded by the aroma of cow shit!)GarrieIrons 23:13, 15 February 2008 (EST)

One male is enough. I had twenty cows popping calves almost simultaneously (inn a couple of days), with only one bull.

I bet that bulls will be milkable for few versions after milking cows will be implemented... --Someone-else 00:15, 7 May 2008 (EDT)

Placing a 3x3 grid of chains/ropes and then chaining a bull in the center tile, surrounded by cows, is an excellent husbandry system. I refer to this as my Meat Harem. --RomeoFalling 23:17, 4 November 2008 (EST)

Is proximity important? People have described animals getting pregnant despite being alone behind a locked door. Alhough the rope corral system in general is probably the best way to go.--Maximus 18:42, 5 November 2008 (EST)

I've never actually checked. Although I was using my lone female horse as a chained sentry on the path to my depot (seven squares from the depot), and she's given birth. I'm assuming that's from the caravan horses. *avoids making obvious jokes* --RomeoFalling 19:26, 5 November 2008 (EST)

I started a game with 1 female one-humped camel, and two female + 1 male two-humped camels. After 1.5 years, the two-humped camels have each given birth twice or three times, while I still have only a single one-humped camel. I guess breeding works as soon as you have a male (not necessarily yours) somewhere on the map. Qwertyu 07:44, 6 November 2008 (EST)

It has to be slightly more complex than that. Otherwise a tame female camel on a map with wild camels will give birth. *checks* No, my starting camel is male (I remember reading somewhere that this is always the case). Has anyone tried this? Is anyone willing to try? If I get a female camel, I'll cage my male and stake the female out and see what happens. --RomeoFalling 08:55, 6 November 2008 (EST)

ummm i walled up a puppy. she then grew up and had puppies of her own - and the only exit was up about 5 levels of vertical well-shaft Twiggie

I have had various critters (horses, muskoxen, camels and a dromedary - that's a 1 humped camel, fyi ) all get pregnant by wild critters that never crossed the moat, while the bridge was up. But just in case, I tested this theory by breeding and buying until I had 10 adult female muskoxen, culled /all/ male muskoxen, and then all males born for the next three years. I continued to have wild muskoxen come into the area (but never across the bridge, down three flights of stairs and into the walled up chamber where the females, a butcher and a large food stockpile were kept)... I continued to have muskox calves born in mass, spring and fall, for four more years. It would probably have lasted longer but I got bored with the test. Also, my butcher finally ran out of booze and died of thirst. --jaz ... on this day, at this time.

I haven't tested it yet, but I think the [MILKABLE:33333] tag is what lets the purring maggot be milked. I keep meaning to put it on the other critters and find out but... alas, I am forgetful. Perhaps if someone else could confirm?? --jaz ... on this day, at this time.

Trading

Is it possible to trade for a bull? The liaison screen only lets you request "cow", so I assume this will also (randomly) include bulls? I started with one female cow, and managed to trade for another. Then one of my cows gave birth (mated with a caravan bull perhaps?) - to two happy, healthy... female calves. Now I've just traded for another female cow. At the moment all I can do is keep them tied up in my paddock, and enjoy their haunting moos... --Raumkraut 22:36, 20 June 2008 (EDT)

I think it says in one of the tutorials, and I've found it to be the case, that animals selected at embark alternate gender. So, if you get two cows, one will be a bull. If you get four, two will be, and so on. --Zombiejustice 22:57, 20 June 2008 (EDT)

Yes, but embarkation cows are expensive! I was operating under the assumption that animals alternated gender throughout the game, not just during initial selection, which from memory seemed to be the case - until that particular game! --Raumkraut 19:23, 21 June 2008 (EDT)

When traders come through, you can use the unit screen to look and see if they've brought any non-verminous pets for you to purchase. They should show up just like they would if they belonged to you "Stray bull (tame)" or "stray dog (tame)" except that instead of saying "tame" in the far right collumn, it says "merchant". Those are the creatures the merchant has for sale, as opposed to the ones they're using to haul their stuff. Unfortunately, you can't (z)oom in on a caged creature to determine it's gender.

Alternatively, in the trade window, when you look at the Cow cage(tin), and examine it the way you would to see if the trader is selling red dyed cloth or emerald, it will show if it is a cow or a bull. Sadly, things like cats, which have the same name for both genders... well, it's pot's luck. You can always turn around and sell it again if it's not what you wanted. Or, you know, slaughter it. By year 3 I usually have a cage with 6 or 7 female cats in it just waiting to be traded. --jaz ... on this day, at this time.

Cow ages?

What's the age a calf must become to grow into a cow or bull? I've read the .txt but I can't find a [CHILD] or [BABY] token.

They have the [CHILD:1] token, so I think they go straight from calves to adults when they turn 1 year old. --BahamutZERO 01:50, 17 August 2008 (EDT)

Smelting Cows?

I've heard the phrase tossed about, can you actually pop cows out of the smelter? How does that work? Rkyeun 21:55, 4 October 2008 (EDT)

I think that's only meant to be humorous, but there are a number of things you can pop out of the smelter with a bit of editing (See the stone-to-logs cheat for more details). I want to say that cows, being living beings, are unsmeltable... although again, could be wrong. I'm not at a computer with DF installed at the moment. -Fuzzy 08:56, 6 October 2008 (EDT)

They come out as vermin, because you make a cow item. Vermin are items, that can teleport.--Zchris13 17:37, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Even Earlier than Autumn

My cows popped out babies in late summer. Seems my bulls have been busy. Worthy of a page update? --LucienSadi 19:38, 11 December 2008 (EST)

Farming Advice

Hopefully I'll find a better page to put this but for now, I'll just leave it here.

Only one bull is necessary for breeding, regardless of how many females you have. Which means any males beyond the first serve no purpose (but read the second to last paragraph). Therefore it would be a great idea to slaughter all males, but keep the females around for breeding. No more wondering which cows to kill and which to keep alive!

Also, the male doesn't need to be anywhere near the females to impregnate them. You could lock them in a vault (see the below paragraph) and they will still impregnate the females anyway. NOTE: While distance and/or walls will not prevent pregnancy, putting either the female in question or all available males into a cage WILL prevent it.

While multiple males may not have any (non food related) use, you may not want to slaughter them if they are an immigrant's pet, or just in case the designated male dies. To prevent the latter, I would suggest locking him in an vault far below your fortress, then wall him in, make an underground moat around him, just do whatever you can to make him unreachable.

I'm going to go check on all of this to make sure I got it right. Will edit this once I do. Also, should I make a Livestock page with this on it? After all, this applies to all tamed animals, and not just cows.

EDIT: silly me, I forgot to sign it. --Smartmo 01:40, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Well I can't seem to find where I found this information, but I know it's around here somewhere. If someone else can confirm (or deny) it, I would be most appreciative. --Smartmo 02:35, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Which information? You have quite a lot there. I do believe you have it all correct.--Zchris13 17:39, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Oh, good. I just know eventually I'm gonna post something like this and get it all wrong. It's just a matter of time. Anyway, like I said, this applies to more than cows, so there must be somewhere I can put this that's more appropriate. Are there any pages about breeding in general?--Smartmo 21:59, 19 May 2009 (UTC)