Cows | Animal husbandry Farming Simulator 17 Guide
Last update: 23 November 2016
Cows are demanding animals. They require frequent cleaning, water, straw and mixed food. The easiest thing to do at the very beginning is to collect a larger amount of straw in bales and deliver it to the barn, as well as prepare some grass, but a lot of ensilage - at the beginning of the game, when you are not too affluent, you can give up preparing well-balanced food. Cows produce milk that is sold automatically at the end of the day. Therefore, this type of husbandry is time-consuming, but not so much, when you compare it with your profits (if you feed cows with ensilage and grass, 40 animals provide you with $12,000-$13,000 a day from milk that you sell). You should note that, if your cultivation is complex (mainly tuberous plants) and you reduce playing time to make it with everything in time, this line becomes less profitable, because you receive profits in the long run.
Remember that cows also produce manure (which can be used in greenhouses, or sold [at a reasonable price]) as well as liquid manure - it is easier to load (automatically, unlike solid manure with forks/spades) and distribute around the field (higher efficiency of machines).
However, it is time-consuming and costly to keep cows. A single animal will cost you $5,000. A small herd will provide you with too little manure to fertilize even a small field (a single hectare requires 30 cows). Additionally, you have many options to expand your business, which makes your works easier and faster, but the majority of options are costly.
In front of the cowshed, there is a large unloading zone, where you bring cows that you have bought. Feeding of cows takes place either indoors or outdoors, into the troughs by the pasture. Also, remains for cleaning are gathered by the outdoor trough. Next to it, there also is a water trough.
In the outdoor area enclosed with concrete wall, there is a room for manure, whereas liquid manure is collected into the cylindrical silo.