So 2.5% of their body weight is what they should eat a day. To do this we take the body weight of the animal, so for example a 1200lbs cow and multiply that by 2.5% for example. Dry matter is the food an animal consumes with the moisture weight taken out of the total weight of the food. This formula usually only calculates the dry matter intake but a step was added to calculate the amounts on an “as is” basis. This percentage depends on the breed, age and the type of cattle discussed. To calculate the required feed consumption of an animal, a calculation is done based on the bodyweight of the cow. Currently Holsteins will produce 10,756 kg of milk per year in game and Ayrshire’s will produce 8,077 kg. In late lactation (over 200 days of milking), cows will the least amount of milk per day. In early lactation for a Holstein for example (Under 100 days of milking), cows will produce the most milk per day. Milking will also continue during gestation.
Currently, 3 months after the birth of a calf, the cow will be artificially inseminated again automatically. You can start to milk them for 10 months after the birth of a calf and then the cattle will have to be rested for 2 months during their dry period. Cattle now are already artificially inseminated at purchase and will give birth at the end of gestation. With Dairy cattle we really wanted to make things more realistic and add new aspects of owning dairy animals that were not possible before now. And finally the Brahman is a heat tolerant specific breed that grows fast and performs well on marginal feed.
The Saler on the other hand is not quite as feed efficient as the Limousin but can be bought for cheap and is a great for starting beef farmers on a budget. This means they can consume the same amount of feed than other animals of the same size but grow quicker. Limousins are known as the carcass breed and are have a natural efficiency in converting feed to meat. For beef cattle we have three choices Limousins, Salers and Brahman as seen above. With this method, no breeding is necessary and the way to profit is straight forward. The player can keep the cattle for longer, but selling at 1,200lbs to 1,400 lbs will be the most cost efficient method due to the cattle having the best lean meat ratio over older and heavier animals which would have more fat content. What a feeder operation is, is buying weaned calves at around 650lbs and feeding them until they are around 1,200lbs to 1,400lbs and then selling them. So instead of buying breeding stock and breeding the cattle out to produce calves to be later sold as beef, we decided that we wanted to simulate a feeder operation. With Beef cattle what we wanted to do is try something a little different. BreedsĬattle were separated into two groups. Each breed we chose had to fit the category they were filling and introduce their unique natural characteristics into the game. By doing this, the player can now take their own route with animals and really pinpoint what they want to do.įor cattle, tremendous work was done to simulate a variety of different systems such as realistic milk production, beef production, feed consumption etc based on breed, age, weight and health. Some breeds within a species have a different use than others such as dairy versus beef with cattle. As some of you may notice, now each species has their own individual breeds that they are based off of.Įach breed was chosen carefully based on a variety of factors that cemented their purpose in the game and made sure they were a perfect fit for our purposes. We thought this was very boring, bland and most importantly unrealistic. In the base game, all we had was a base animal with the same stats and the only difference was the variations in color we got to choose from. This data have been gathered from industry professionals, studies and knowledgeable individuals alike and have allowed us to truly represent how animals should have been represented in the game in the first place. From Cattle to Pigs and Horses to Chickens, every single species in the game has been worked from the ground up to operate more realistically, based on real life data and specially designed systems. The new version of Seasons for FS19 brings a plethora of new features and a new way of looking at animals in the game. Note that all numbers in this post are prone to change for rebalancing. In this post he will be explaining more about the animals, their breeds and their design. Together with him and his knowledge we created a system that we think is interesting, challenging and close enough to real life. He has helped us with the new animal system in Seasons 19 for Farming Simulator 19.Īdam has contacted countless sources, such as farmers, nutritionists, veterinarians and agri-governments, to gather the best data possible. This is a guest post written by Adam, also known as Zugs.