Raising a Herd of Cattle

Because they produce milk, meat, tallow and animal hide for leather.

• 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.

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.

Herdsman- Herdsman work at moving herd animals such as sheep and cattle from place to place to feed. They watch over them and keep them safe from natural hazards and predators.

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.

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 when you can not put them out to pasture, such as during the winter months. 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 those for your cattle rather than for your people. Assuming the hex you have cattle in has natural sources of water such as streams, rivers, ponds or lake access, we assume your pasture land does as well. As such, the cattle will drink all they need as they graze. If you do not have natural water access, some means will have to be found to water your cattle. Cattle will also have to the watered during the cold winter months if they are kept in a barn and are not put out to pasture.

• 3 unit of fodder (hay, oats, alfalfa or other vegetables) per month per cattle when not at pasture such as winter.
• Calves need only mother's milk.
• 60 units of water per month per head of cattle. (Not a consideration when they have access to natural water sources.)

To put animals into pasture to graze, you must have pasture land. Pasture land is generally just open land with natural grasses growing. As domesticated herds get larger and farmers cultivate more land, a balance between land used for farming and land used for ranching must be reached. Every hex of land only has so many arable acres. How many of these arable acres are used for pasture land or cultivated for farms will have to be kept track of. Arable land can be found in woods, forests, hills and the plains. All of these can be cultivated for farmland, but only arable acreage on the plains is suitable for grazing herds (without a considerable increase to the herd's mortality rate that is). For grazing land, you will need to dedicate 1 acre for every 2 cattle in your herd.

• 1 acre of arable land dedicated to grazing per 2 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's 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 forceful bump. Furthermore you're going to want to have 30 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 or 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 30 Square ft of floor space, but more is highly recommended.

• 30 square ft of building floor space per head of cattle (precautionary for winter , not a necessity)

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. Tending to a herd is simple grunt work of distributing food, moving the herd 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 be poorly cared for 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, herdsman and herding dogs. Keep in mind that cattle must be looked after 24/7. 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 herdsman may tend a herd of 25 cattle for every rank they have. Herding dogs may be specially trained by animal trainers, and each rancher or herdsman may effectively utilize one. Each herding dog adds 25 to the total herd size that can effectively be tended.

• Herd Management- 50 cattle per rank of Rancher. (a single rancher can both manage and tend a herd)
• Herd Tending- 10 per rank of Rancher and 25 per rank of Herdsman. (25 more per person with a Herding dog)

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 adults are too young and 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 1% of your herd (cows, bulls and calves) will die off.

• Mortality - 1% of the herd will die per month from natural circumstances.
• At least 1 bull per 25 cows required for normal replacement.
• 1 new calf will be born each month for every 20 cows.
• 1 in 25 calves mature and become cows or bulls each month.

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 if possible. A leather worker will be able to remove 40 units of animal hide from each slaughtered head of cattle. If you do not have an adept ranked or better leather worker, hunter or trapper you will only be able to get 25 units 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 (10 from cows). 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 10 units of animal hide, 4 units of meat and no tallow.

• Bulls produce 10 units of meat, 25 units of hide and 1 unit of tallow (12 meat with a butcher and 40 units of hide with a Leather Worker, Hunter or Trapper)
• Cows produce 9 units of meat, 25 units of hide and 1 unit of tallow (10 meat with a butcher and 40 units of hide with a Leather Worker, Hunter or Trapper)
• Calves produce 4 units of meat and 10 units of hide.

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 from 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. A milkmaid can milk 10 units of milk per month per rank.

• 6.5 units of milk are produced per cow per month.
• 5 units of milk are used per calf per month.
• Milkmaids can milk 10 units of milk per rank per month.

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 2 adept level herdsmen and 2 herding dogs which is enough to properly care for a bit more cattle than the ranch has (75 per adept herder, 25 per dog and 40 for the master rancher). Estrel has allocated 150 acres of arable land for the cattle to pasture in, which is more than the 100 acres currently required. Of the 200 cattle the ranch has, 70 are calves, 6 are bulls, and 124 are cows. The 124 cows produce 806 units of milk per month.350 units of milk are consumed by the calves and the remaining 456 are milked by the 16 adept milkmaids. Next month we expect to see a mortality rate of 1 cow, and perhaps a second (1% mortality rate). Of the 70 calves, 2 will become adults, 1 male and 1 female. The male will be butchered, producing 40 unit of animal hide, 12 units of meat and 1unit of tallow. We also expect to see 6 calves born and added to the herd. During spring, summer and fall, the herd gets all it needs from grazing in pasture. In the winter months the herd will have to be feed and watered. This will take 390 units of fodder and 7800 units of water each winter month.