Are animal farming worth it? Share your thoughts

[Maverik]

I get the impression in my games that most of the animals are not really worth it, the only ones that I think are profitable are the pigs fed by human corpses, because its free and easy to feed them, dogs just for hauling items (Easy to train and useful in big late game bases) and obviously the muffalos for caravans (plus the extra wool and milk). But that's it. I feel that anything else beyond these 3 animals responds more to a whim of the player than to a real utility.

In my last game I have chickens for food and chichillas for their valuable skin, but I feel they take too long to grow and eat too much, it does not feel like a profitable investment.

[mlzovozlm]

in a way, that's actually what reality is like LUL
even more so in RW where you can just go hunting spree for meats to make larvish meals instead of waiting for milk or egg & whatnot
and if the biome is cold, or have no land for hay grass then it totally not beneficial because anything other than insect meat, hay, wild grass is unprofitable as animal feed

[Shurp]

As I see it the key problem is food size.  In order to maximize food efficiency you need to use prepared food.  But feeding meat to any herd animal is hugely wasteful, and the only prepared food that doesn't use meat is the simple meal which is far too large for any animal except dogs and pigs.

Exception: if you're in a temperate climate and you can just let your animals graze that still works fine.  Chickens don't breed as explosively as they used to but you can still get a good flock within a year.

But if you live in North Korea (ie: tundra mountains indoor farming), dogs are your meal of choice.

[5thHorseman]

In my experience, there are 2 types of animals worth keeping: Those that can be trained to haul and those that can survive on whatever the world produces for free.

So grazing animals if you have the (non-wheat) grass for it, and a few dogs to haul stuff. And maybe pigs for eating dead bodies but I've had limited success (and experience I'll admit) with that.

[cyberian]

I feel animals are important to reduce the giant stacks of meat so it doesn't flood your base.
Gets made into kibble for storage with hay then someone has to nibble away the kibble.
More important if you have cannibals and human meat but even with normal ones I often have too much meat. Guess I love Leather and Manhunter packs maybe other peoples play a different playstyle.

[Scavenger]

several predators, like big cats, feed themselves on small game and eat kibble when needed, and are great in a fight. Big cats in particular are damn fast, and can catch raiders with ease.

[B@R5uk]

...because anything other than insect meat, hay, wild grass is unprofitable as animal feed

Corn + NPD = profit!

As I see it the key problem is food size.  In order to maximize food efficiency you need to use prepared food.

See! Man is moving in right direction. But he has forgot about such wonderful thing as Nutrien Paste Dispenser, which has a nutrition conversion factor as large as 3.00. Basic arithmetic: haygrass has growing time 7 days and harvest yield 18 whereas corn's growing time is 11.3 days and havest yield is 22:

18 / 7 = 2.57
22 / 11.3 = 1.95

If one uses them to feed as is, then corn of course loses to hay, but lets apply conversion factor:

22 / 11.3 * 3.00 = 5.84

Now corn is more then 2 times more profittable! Also there is such things as fertility sensivity, unification of crops, hauling efficiency through the same conversion factor, longer growing period that also reduces work and increases efficiency. And all that need to be done is to dispatch hungry colonist to the dedicated freezer with NPD and spam "R" button.

I personally see hay only as ingredient in kibble to train cooking and utilize human and insect meat.

I feel animals are important to reduce the giant stacks of meat so it doesn't flood your base.
...
More important if you have cannibals and human meat but even with normal ones I often have too much meat...

Same here! I sometimes even feed my colony's herd of dromedaries with elephant meat paste!

Also with big herd it is very convenient to hold them very close at hand so colonists do not spend time runing rounds on the map trying to harvest then to collect animal products, as well as training them. It's better to place barn next to production/artists/tailor room/rooms and enjoy efficient production with pawns doing two works at the same time.

[Crow_T]

I lean more on the no animals side, but I do like having 1-2 boomalopes, alpacas, camels and/or Muffalo for the resources, if they breed I sell off the new ones asap, I hate dealing with their food over cold months. Dogs are OK as labor. I generally don't use combat animals, they get beat up pretty quickly.

[B@R5uk]

Boomalops especially indispensable in biomes with next to no wood for supplying base with power, as chemfuel generator is cheap, efficient and do not depends on what not.

But most animal would yield much more silver if they are slaughtered and butchered before being sold. The same goes for buying meat, it's cheaper to buy it while it still alive. And it will not spoil while in transport. Well, that actually requires skillful cook or at least cook with enhanced hands.

[asanbr]

I tried chickens a few times but they mostly annoyed me and then got killed by a cold snap or some raid.

I have had good use of alpacas that I would let roam free mostly outside my base, eating grass and bushes. The idea is that they will be low maintenance, free food, and provide wool and alpaca babies. I'll sell the wool or make clothes from it when needed. The babies are kept in the base and fed kibble when needed, otherwise they'll get killed by predators.

Also dogs for hauling and wargs for some fighting.

And boomalopes for fun, trying to run them into raids and sieges (often not successful, but fun to try).

Just don't let boomalopes sleep with the other animals. I had one die and it took several baby animals down because they went on fire and I couldnt rescue them in time.

In pure economic terms, I think the alpacas were profitable, but not the others. But it's also a matter of risk reduction, esp being able to send combat animals in as meat shields and to absorb fire.

This colony had something like 10-20 alpacas depending on the season and traders, 5-10 dogs, 3 wargs.

[b0rsuk]

Since when can animals use Nutrient Paste Dispenser in an unmodded game?

Animals have a thing going for them: monstrous storage efficiency. Eggs can have 75 units per square, each worth 5 meat. That's 375 food per square, 5x improvement. Corpses of big animals - same thing. Also, animals are meat that doesn't spoil in warm biomes.

[Canute]

They can't.
But you can micromanage a pawn to create alot of nutri meals and store them at the freezer for animal use.

[YokoZar]

Since when can animals use Nutrient Paste Dispenser in an unmodded game?

They can eat the nutrient paste meals unmodded.  I'm not sure how to produce them in bulk, though you can sometimes buy them from merchants.

Note that only larger animals can eat a whole meal without wasting food -- while you can feed a chicken or cat a simple/nutrient paste meal, it'll more than max out their nutrition bar even if they were starving.

[Shurp]

So in short, NPD produces more food value than simple meals, and takes less pawn time, but requires more micromanagement and still does nothing to make chickens viable in grass-free climates.

I'll stick with dogs.  My colonies resemble a North Korean penal colony anyway.  All captives are indoctrinated into the cult of the Glorious Eternal Dear Leader Kim Jong Un, who led humanity to the stars!

[b0rsuk]

I'd rather watch paint dry.