[Animals 101] How To Breed & Care For Cows

Welcome to your next "Animal 101" lesson of the Farming Simulator Academy! Today, we're focusing on cows. We'll show you how to choose and buy cattle, house and feed them, breed them, and use the products they provide. Let's start!

Tip! Cows are the most complex type of animal to care for in Farming Simulator. If you are just getting started with animal husbandry, you might want to begin with chickens or sheep.

What Is Special About Cows?

Choose the breed according to what you want to do with your cows:

• Brown-Swiss and Holstein: Produce milk and can reproduce.
• Angus and Limousin: Do not produce milk. They are best suited for breeding and selling.

Before you start: Decide whether you want to focus on milk, breeding, or both. Your choice affects the breed, housing, and equipment you need.

Housing Options

Cow housing differs in size, price, capacity, and available products. Check the overview above before choosing your setup.

• Pasture: Requires feed and water and is primarily intended for breeding.
• Barns: Require feed, but no manual water delivery. Depending on the barn, they can also support milk, manure, and slurry production.
• Barn with feeding robot: Automatically mixes and distributes Total Mixed Ration (TMR) when enough ingredients are available.

If you use a barn without a feeding robot, you can prepare TMR yourself with a mixer wagon.

Feeding Options

Feed determines how productive your cows are:

• TMR: 100% productivity
• Hay: 80% productivity
• Silage: 80% productivity
• Grass: 40% productivity

Tip! Meadow can replace grass delivered by you as long as it's available. Check the animal tab in the menu to make sure there is enough supply. For maximum productivity you still have to provide other feed.

TMR consists of straw, hay, silage, and mineral feed. You can produce ingredients such as hay and silage yourself if you have the required crops and machinery. Alternatively, buy straw, hay, and silage bales under "Objects" > "Bales". Mineral feed is available in the "Pallets" section.

We've covered more information about silage in this tutorial.

How to get water: If your pasture requires water, deliver it with a compatible tank trailer. Fill it from a water tank placed through the construction menu or from a suitable river or lake. Natural water sources are free; water from a placed tank costs money.

Breeding Cows

Cows grow through different age stages. They can reproduce when:

• they are at least 18 months old,
• their health is at 100%, and
• there is free space for another animal.

Keep your cows properly fed to maintain their health.

What You Need For Cows

You may not need every machine shown above. The equipment you need depends on your housing and feeding setup.

Basic equipment:

• Tractor with a front loader and loading equipment: Use a bale spike for bales and a pallet fork for pallets such as mineral feed.
• Mixer wagon: Required if you want to prepare TMR yourself. If you chose a barn with a feeding robot, you don't need one.
• Straw blower: Used to distribute straw in barns that support manure production.
• Tank: Used to transport milk or could alternatively be used to deliver water.
• Slurry tank: Used to transport or spread slurry.
• Manure spreader: Required if you want to transport manure or use it to fertilize your fields.
• Manure heap: Required to store manure produced by a compatible barn. Place it near the barn.
• Liquid manure tank: If the barn's built-in storage capacity is not enough.

Optional: Transporting cows yourself

• Use a compatible animal trailer if you want to transport cattle yourself instead of paying for direct delivery.
• Look for the cow icon to make sure a trailer supports cattle.
• Larger trailers may require a truck or dolly. Check the displayed "Combinations" before buying.

Tip! If you do not want to transport the animals yourself, you can save the cost of an animal trailer and use direct delivery instead for a fee.

Let’s Get To Work!

Step 1: Buy cows

• Choose a breed according to your goal.
• Choose the age of the animals.
• Buy them directly at the barn or transport them yourself.

Tip! Don't fill your housing to maximum capacity immediately. Leaving some space gives your cows room to reproduce. You can sell the offspring or use them to expand your herd.

Step 2: Feed the cows

Check the animal screen regularly to see what your cows need. If your pasture requires water, make sure its water supply is filled.

For maximum productivity, use TMR. If you use the barn with a feeding robot, unload straw, hay, silage, and mineral feed at the designated areas shown above. The robot automatically mixes and distributes TMR while enough ingredients are available.

Want to produce TMR with a mixer wagon? We'll show you how!

Step 3: Produce manure and slurry

• Manure: Provide straw in a compatible barn and place a manure heap nearby.
• Slurry: Compatible barns collect it automatically in their built-in storage.
• More slurry storage: Add a compatible slurry storage extension if required.
• Using both: Spread manure and slurry on your fields as fertilizer or transport them to a suitable selling point.

A pasture intended only for breeding does not produce manure or slurry.

Step 4: Sell animals and products or use them

Cows give you several ways to earn or save money:

• Sell cattle: Especially relevant for Angus and Limousin.
• Sell milk: Dairy breeds can produce milk when kept in suitable housing.
• Process milk: Use production chains to create higher-value products.
• Use manure and slurry: Fertilize your fields or sell them to a suitable selling point such as the biogas plant.

Processing Milk: Products

Instead of selling milk directly, you can use it in production chains. The overview above shows processing routes involving facilities such as the dairy, bakery, and cereal factory.

Tip! Processing milk requires more work and may require additional ingredients. In return, finished products can be more valuable than selling raw milk directly.

Well Done!

Congratulations! You now know the basics of keeping cattle in Farming Simulator. When you're ready, continue with the next Farming Simulator Academy lesson!