How To Care For, Feed, And Breed Cattle In Farming Simulator 25

Farming Simulator 25 is a complex game that involves more than just agricultural farming. You’ll have to master it all if you wish to have a successful business. Thus, it is necessary to know about livestock farming.

One of the first animals that comes to mind after thinking of a farm is cows. The bovines are beneficial to have on your farm as they produce a lot of good things. This guide will tell you how you can master cattle rearing to level up your farming journey in the game.

An Outline To Cow Ranching

There are a few basic things that need to be kept in mind when managing cows in Farming Simulator 25. We’ve created this short list to help you keep track and proceed accordingly. These key pointers are as follows:

• Build a holding space for cows and breed them.
• Provide them with water and proper fodder.
• Maintain their health to get produce.
• Selling raw milk or making by-products.
• Planning out sales by understanding the in-game economy and selling products accordingly.

Building A Holding Space For Cattle

You’ll first need to set up a designated area for housing cattle. If you do not have an animal pen for holding cows, you’ll need to build one.

To build it, you’ll have to first open the build mode from the store menu. In this menu, you’ll be able to see your farm from an aerial view, with a few options on the left.

On the left menu bar, navigate to the cow icon to open the Animal Pasture menu. On the very first tab, you’ll be presented with cow pastures and barns. These are the following options you’ll get in the base game:

The holding capacity of animal pens can be increased or decreased by making custom fences. Additionally, you can also add meadow grass to your animal pens to keep cows fed automatically (to some extent).

After placing your animal pen, you won’t have cows from the get-go. For that, you’ll be required to buy animals from Animal Dealers, transporting them manually. You can also buy them directly from your barn interactive menu, paying a delivery fee.

Find a floating green paw icon near your pasture or barn and interact with it. By doing so, you’ll be presented with a new interface that allows you to buy cows and other supported animals.

You can also hold water buffalos in Cow Pastures.

What Do You Serve To Your Bovine Pals?

Grass and hay are standard food choices for cows in Farming Simulator 25; however, they do give different results. The effectiveness of each food is variable in the game, so you’ll have to be a bit strategic. The following are the fodder options for cows, alongside their effectiveness:

• Only Hay: 80 percent Effective.
• Only Silage: 80 percent Effective.
• Only Grass: 40 percent Effective.
• Only Meadow Grass: 40 percent Effective.
• Mixed Ration: 100 percent Effective.

Good fodder effectiveness directly results in the good health of cows. If you wish to get consistent produce, you should feed your cattle with mixed rations.

If you have meadow grass on your barn or pasture, adding in some Hay or Silage would be enough to deliver 100 percent effectiveness.

If your cows haven’t hit puberty, you can feed them one type of fodder, as they won’t produce any product. Cows that have reached puberty need to be kept in the best health to get good produce.

All food types, including mixed rations, can be purchased from the shop if need be.

Supplying Water For Pastures

Unlike the barns, Cow Pastures have to be manually supplied with water as they are not connected to a water delivery system. Luckily, this task isn’t very tedious and can be solved within moments.

First, you need to purchase a transportable barrel from a Vehicle Shop. You’ll be able to purchase one under the Animal category.

After buying a barrel, attach it to a tractor and drive to a nearby water source. After reaching it, make sure the barrel is barely touching the water to get a refill option.

Drive the refilled barrel to your Cow Pasture and place it on the water drop icon. Once the dump option shows up, interact with it to refill your pasture.

Dealing With Waste Products From Cattle

Other than milk, Cattle produce manure and slurry, which can be used to fertilize fields. This gives you access to free fertilizers, so you don’t have to spend a dime buying them from shops.

The two resources are not made the same way, however. To get manure, you need to provide straw bedding to the barn. Slurry, meanwhile, is produced from feeding cows.

To scatter your natural fertilizer, you’ll need to have a Manure Spreader or Slurry Tanker. You can buy these under the Yield Improvement category at the Vehicle Shop.

Manure isn’t stored automatically at the barn, you’ll need to use an extension. Go into build mode, and you’ll find a barn icon on the left side and select it. Browse through the tabs until you find Silo Extensions, and scroll down until you find Manure Heap Extension.

With that selected, place it near your Cow Barn. It automatically stores manure. In order to take manure from your storage extension, take a Manure Spreader and place a trailer next to it. You will get an option to pick it up on your chosen vehicle.

Do not use Manure Heap, as it is there to manually store manure. The Manure Heap Extension connects to a barn and stores the manure there. Both items are different. Keep this in mind.

Both slurry and manure can be sold in Farming Simulator, allowing you to make money out of your cattle waste. However, you’ll need a Slurry Transport to take slurry to buyers. Like all other locomotives, you can find Slurry Transport under the Yield Improvement category at the Vehicle Shop.

Once you purchase a tanker, take it to your barn, and you’ll find an icon with cow dung. Place your tanker on it to get the refill option. You can take this tanker to sellers to make profits.

How Do You Make Cows Produce Milk?

There are four types of cows available in Farming Simulator 25, and only two types can produce milk. While the rest two types are mainly there for reproduction. The four types of cows are as follows:

• Brown-Swiss (Produces milk)
• Holstein (Produces milk)
• Angus (Can be sold for high prices once grown up)
• Limousin (Can be sold for high prices once grown up)

Cows can produce milk in Farming Simulator 25 once they reach 18 months of age (puberty). When they reach puberty, they produce calves after a few months. Additionally, you’ll also require a holding space that allows cows to produce milk. Cow Pastures, for instance, do not allow you to get milk as a product.

To sell milk, you’ll need to have a transportable barrel. Take the barrel and keep it on the milk canister logo near your barn. After you place it on the icon, you’ll get an option to refill it.

You take this tanker to buyers and sell it for profit, or you can take it to a processing facility to get bottled milk or other products. Whatever you choose to do, money is guaranteed here.

Strategies To Improve Your Cattle Business

When you’re selling milk, you need to know that the selling price rates tend to go up and down throughout seasons. The best time to sell milk is from January to March and from September to October. The average price usually stays around $2,096, so you sell when the price is around this point to not make any losses.

Try to process milk after production, as the processed products sell for a better price. This allows you to make the best out of the total milk produced you get from your barns.

Since only two types of cows can produce milk, you’ll need to expand your business by selling cows that don’t produce milk. Angus and Limousin are great breeds to purchase when they are young. Once they grow up, their prices also grow with time. So, you can fill half of your barn with milk-producing and the other half with non-milk-producing cows. Breed them to get different kinds of calves and continue your business. No matter what, they’ll give you a lot of cash once they grow up.