Pastures for livestock?

[DeanF]

I'm new, so sorry if this is a dead issue....

So if I understand the wiki correctly you have to feed livestock from a trough, and there is no pasturage.  It seems like the sheep and goats at the very least could somehow be pastured.  (Though technically goats are browsers, not grazers.)  And pigs traditionally have been released into forests to forage things like acorns, and they get rounded up later.

Edited April 12 by DeanF

[Emeal]

6 hours ago, DeanF said:

So if I understand the wiki correctly you have to feed livestock from a trough, and there is no pasturage.  It seems like the sheep and goats at the very least could somehow be pastured.  (Though technically goats are browsers, not grazers.)  And pigs traditionally have been released into forests to forage things like acorns, and they get rounded up later.

Livestock is missing a couple of mechanics to make them uncompromising and real. as of right now you can just keep them in a pen and nothing matters for them.
They will live forever.

I do believe Tyron and crew will reign in the systems and update at some point.

[DeanF]

On 4/12/2026 at 2:27 AM, Emeal said:

Livestock is missing a couple of mechanics to make them uncompromising and real. as of right now you can just keep them in a pen and nothing matters for them.
They will live forever.

I do believe Tyron and crew will reign in the systems and update at some point.

Fair enough.

So is the feeding trough just to get them to breed or something?

Edited April 15 by DeanF

[Tabbot95]

At the very least make sure they stop autoclimbing up ladders..

 

[Facethief]

On 4/13/2026 at 10:43 AM, DeanF said:

Fair enough.

So is the feeding trough just to get them to breed or something?

I’m 90% sure most animals can eat food dropped on the ground.

[DeanF]

The Animal Unit Month (AUM) is used in North America to represent the carrying capacity of grazing livestock on pastureland.  It is roughly equivalent to what is needed to support one 1000-pound (454kg) cow and her calf for one month.  A larger animal might rate 1.2 AUs, and smaller ones a fraction of an AU.  For instance a nanny goat is rated at about 0.16 AU, so they only need 1.92 AUMs for a whole year.

A similar system could be used in the game.  Give each animal a rating on how much pasturage it needs, and give each type of ground-cover block a pasturage rating.  This need not reflect reality.  For instance, say an animal has a pasturage need of 100 blocks of tall grass.  Well, that's only 10x10 blocks.  Make medium-high grass only count as 0.75 blocks, short grass as 0.5 blocks, and grassy block as 0.25 blocks.  Or somesuch.  Then have the game recognize pasturage when it is enclosed in a fence, much like how it recognizes "rooms".  Animals with inadequate pasture wouldn't be as well-fed (which the game tracks, apparently, since fat drops depend upon how well fed an animal is).

Then if you don't have enough pasture, you need to give supplemental feed with a trough.