Raising Cattle

Because they produce milk, meat, tallow and leather.

Some Basic Cattle Info

• Male cattle are known as Bulls.
• Female cattle are known as Cows.
• Young are known as Calves.
• On the average, adult males (bull if un-castrated; steer if castrated) weigh between 1,200 and 1,800 pounds, and adult females (cows) weigh between 1,100 and 1,500 pounds.
• Cattle can naturally live to about 20 years, though Cows are generally butchered at 5 years when milk runs out. Most bulls are butchered at maturity.

Cattle Industry Professionals

Ranchers - Ranchers are skilled at raising, breeding, maintaining and caring for a herd of animals. Generally these are food animals but are occasionally for products such as wool. Ranchers are needed to most efficiently manage a herd of animals without them falling to illness, hunger or mismanagement. Ranchers are most valued for their knowledge of veterinary medicine.

Pastoralists - Pastoralists like ranchers are responsible for the well-being of animal herds. Unlike Ranchers they are not quite so knowledgeable and manage herds poorly. They are however quite good at moving the herd and guarding it against predators when grazing. Pastoralists are often needed as assistants to ranchers to help them move and care for the herd as needed.

Milk Maid - A Milk Maid is a professional whose primary work is milking cows. More proficient milk maids are capable of milking cows faster and thus are more efficient. Aside from milking cows, milk maids often regulate feeding of calves and administering simple medical care.

Feeding Your Cattle

Cattle are large animals and eat quite a bit. Adult cattle like cows and bulls require 3 units of feed per month. This is food you must provide in addition to normal grazing. Calves live off of mother's milk and do not require feeding.

Cattle can be feed all kinds of plant material. Generally speaking, hay, fodder, oats, and alfalfa are used. Corn, wheat, barley, beans, lettuce and cabbage even work well if you prefer to use that for cattle rather than for people.

Housing your Cattle

Cattle like all animals are by their nature outside creatures. Domesticated animals however somehow tend to get a little more "soft", and cattle are no exception. Due to this, herds of cattle are somewhat more susceptible to extreme temperatures than their wild cousins. Not to mention when wild cattle freeze to death, nobody tends to notice, when domesticated ones die, that a pretty significant event for their owners. To help the survivability of your herd of cattle, a shelter of some sort is a really good idea to offer shade from the summer sun and warmth from winter's cold. Because cattle are strong animals, and not particularly cautious it's recommended you build their shelter from strong materials which a strong bull won't collapse with a strong bump. Furthermore you're going to want to have 40 square ft of floor space per head of cattle in your heard. Failing to provide this for your heard will increase it's over all mortality rate, but could be disastrous in times of extreme weather.

If you opt not to build barns to keep your cattle, a fenced or walled enclosure to keep cattle in when not grazing is absolutely necessary. Yes, cattle can be lashed to trees to keep them in place in a pinch, but over time, ropes break inter twine and injure cattle. A walled / fenced enclosure is far more humane and efficient. Information about building walls and fences for your enclosure may be found in the Walls and Fences Section. Like placing cattle in a building, each head needs at least 40 Square ft of floor space, but more is highly recommended.

There is a difference between managing and tending cattle. Management is the work of ranchers. It includes tending to injuries and illness as well as selective breeding, feed allocation, health and pregnancy inspection and culling decisions. A rancher managing a herd of 50% or more than he is capable of is too busy to contribute to tending that herd. Tending to a herd is simple grunt work of distributing food, and herding it around from place to place when grazing and being vigilant to keep animals safe and predators away.

First of all, any herd of cattle must ultimately be managed by a Rancher of at least "adept" rank. If not, the herd will not be cared for properly and will suffer in terms of mortality, illness, decreased birth rates, and lower meat and milk yields. A Rancher can effectively manage a herd of up to 50 cattle per his rank as a rancher.

In addition to managing the herd, it will have to be looked after, guided, kept together and protected as it grazes and suns in pasture. This is referred to as "tending a herd" For this, you will need ranchers, pastoralists and herding dogs. Keep in mind that cattle must be looked after 24/7 unless you have them all housed in a building. Herds not adequately tended will lose great numbers to predators, not to mention members wandering of and getting lost / hurt. To accomplish this, those watching the herd will have to work in shifts, which translates into a lower cattle per tender ratio then you might expect. Each rancher may tend a herd of 10 cattle for every rank they have as a rancher. Each pastoralist may tend a herd of 15 cattle for every rank they have as a pastoralists. Herding dogs may be specially trained by animal trainers, and each rancher or pastoralist may effectively utilize one. Each herding dog adds 25 to the total herd size that can effectively be tended. If there is housing for all members of your herd, consider all your ranchers, pastoralists and herd dogs as twice as effective when tending the herd.

Longevity and Reproduction of Your Herd

I have found the following about modern cattle. The average cow (female) has 1 calf (young) per year. Half of all calves born are male, the other half are female. 30% of calves die in the first season. The optimum male to female ratio for mating of cattle is 1 male per 25 females. The average life expectancy for cattle is about 20 years. All calves reach sexual maturity at age two, and they produce milk at age three after calving.

Because this game takes place in a medieval setting with a lower standard of sanitation, nutritional expertise and medical proficiency, we will use the following assumptions instead. The average cow has 1 calf per year. Half of all calves born are male, the other half are female. 40% of calves die in the first season. The optimum male to female ratio for mating of cattle is 1 male per 25 females. The average life expectancy for cattle is about 10 years. Calves reach maturity at age 2. Milk production will be calculated assuming 10% of young adults are not yet lactating.

Here is what this means for a herd of cattle which is properly cared for and is not experiencing extraordinary circumstances. Each month you will get new calves equal to 5% of the number of cows in your herd. Each month 4% of your calves become adults, half cows, half bulls. Each month .8% of your herd (cows, bulls and calves) will die off.

Butchering your Cattle

Each month you get to decide how many, if any, cattle will be slaughtered. You will also choose if these will be cows, bulls or calves (in real life, bulls are most frequently killed). Keep in mind the value of reproduction and the 1 to 25 male to female ratio when making this decision.

When cattle are slaughtered, you will want a butcher and a leather worker in your civilization. A leather worker will be able to remove ½ unit of animal hide from each slaughtered head of cattle. If you do not have an adept ranked or better leather worker you will only be able to get ¼ unit of animal hide. A good butcher can get about 600 pounds of usable meat from each slaughtered head of cattle. Meat weights about 50 lbs per unit, thus 12 units from each bull. If you do not have a butcher, of at least adept rank, you will only get 10 units per slaughtered head of cattle. Additionally 1 unit of tallow will be produced which can be used for candle making and other crafts.

Butchering calves only produces ¼ a unit of animal hide, 4 units of meat and no tallow.

In summary, each slaughtered bull will produce ½ unit of animal hide, 12 units of meat and 1 unit of tallow.

Milking your Cows

Due to the reproduction cycles of cows, it can be assumed that at any given time about 75% of them are producing milk. To detract a bit more form this, we are going to say that 10% of young cows are not yet lactating because we are counting them as adults a year before they have had calves. The average modern milk cow which is specially bread, feed and even medicated with hormones produce about 15,800 pounds of milk per year, the equivalent of 1,837 gallons or 7,349 quarts of milk per month. This equates to about 20 Units of milk per month. In this system I'm going to estimate that cows cared for by medieval standards probably produce about half that, so we will use the magic figure of 10 units of milk per month per milking cow. Because only about 65% of cows are producing milk at any time, we will say each cow produces 6.5 Units per month.

Calves need to feed by suckling milk from their mothers. This means that the more calves you have, the less milk your herd will produce. Each calf will drink an average of 5 units of milk in a single month.

Getting your milk from cows and controlling the consumption of milk by calves is the work of the Milkmaid. Milking cows is not as simple as it may sound. Each cow is often milked up to a dozed separate times a day. Milkmaids also have a minimum of veterinary knowledge and work at treating simple medical problems. A single Milkmaid can effectively milk and care for 10 cows for every rank they have as a milk maid.

Example

The town of Estrel has a very basic cattle ranching operation running at good efficiency. It's run by a master ranked rancher who can manage the 200 animals the ranch has. Tending the herd are 3 adept level pastoralists and 3 herding dogs which is enough to properly care for a bit more cattle than the ranch has. Of the 200 cattle the ranch has, 70 are calves, 6 are bulls, and 124 are cows. The 124 cows are milked by the ranches staff of 5 milkmaids. They produce 806 units of milk, but the 70 calves drink 350 of that, leaving 456 units surplus. Next month we expect to see a mortality rate of 1 cow, and perhaps a second (.8% mortality rate). Of the 70 calves, 3 or 4 will become adults, Lets say 2 male and 2 female. The 2 males will be butchered, producing 1 unit of animal hide, 24 units of meat and 2 units of tallow. We also expect to see 6 calves born and added to the herd. Feeding this herd costs 390 units of silage per month.