Ranch

Ranch
(Building)
Requirements
	Ranching 1 (Technology); Animal Husbandry 1 (Skill) ;

Building a Ranch

Right-click the ground -> Farming... -> Ranch

50 Boards ✓
200 Wood ✓
30 Rope ✓

- Not in a construction site.

Upgrades

Food Trough

100 Boards ✓
100 Straw ✓
20 Nails ✓

Water Trough (Holds max of 500 water)

100 Boards ✓
10 Tar ✓
1 Tin Sheeting ✓
20 Nails ✓

Water Trough (Holds max of 1000 water)

20 Treated Boards - Black, Termite-resistant, Nontoxic Boards ✓

Market Upgrade

Allows selling pigs/cattle:

Trading 2 (Technology)
2 Small Barrels ✓
300 Boards ✓
20 Rope ✓
50 Linen ✓

Water Well

Click Utility->Connect to a nearby water source on the Ranch. Needs a Water Well within 256ft of the ranch. Needs Pipe Segments to connect the Ranch to the Well, with more Pipe Segments needed the further away the Well is from the Ranch. Multiple Ranches can be connected to the same Well.

Bulls, Cows, Calves & Milk

Wild Bull:

Can be fed a pepper and might give a Cattle Dung (appears below the bull). The Cattle Dung can be dried on a Flax Hammock to make Dried Cattle Dung. After putting the Cattle Dung in your Inventory, click Self -> Skills -> Search Cattle Dung for Pepper Seeds. Perception might be needed to find the pepper seeds. Grilled carrots and certain cheeses give Perception.

Wild Cow:

Can be Milked if you have empty Jugs or Canvas Bags in your Inventory. The first time you milk a cow, you will acquire the Milking Techniques 0 (Skill).
If no milk is given then the cow had not given birth recently and the udders are dry.

Wild Heifer:

A heifer is a cow that has never given birth. You can milk a wild heifer, but it vanishes after milking.

Wild Calf:

Calves don't spawn in the wild. Results from tearing down a ranch with a calf in it.
Can be whipped to move like a regular cow/bull and can be added to the ranch with a lasso.

Bull in a Ranch:

Eats peppers from a Food Trough at the rate of ? peppers per hour per bull. Does not give Cattle Dung.
Drinks water from a Water Trough at the rate of ? water per hour per bull.
You can use the option Remove from Ranch to revert to wild status if you have a Lasso in Inventory.
Use Remove from Ranch option then Whip option to move to another Ranch.
- Note if a plough is attached, the plough will fall to the ground. This needs to be picked up or it will be taken by the sweeper
Can be used for Ploughing to grow Vegetables
- The position of the bull in the ranch seems to be used when calculating distance to the location you try to plow. So you can try to move it closer to the edge of the ranch to plough further away.

Cow or Heifer in a Ranch:

Eats peppers from a Food Trough at the rate of 1 pepper per hour per cow.
Drinks water from a Water Trough at the rate of 1.5 water per hour per cow.
Cows give birth after 10 cycles (recently pregnant cows do not give birth right away again). After doing so, they can be milked in a consistent time interval of 6 ducky hours.
After being milked for a certain period, they dry up as in real life. "The udders have no milk."
Milking Technique can be learned from a cow in a Ranch or in the wild.
Higher Milking Techniques skill increases milk yield.
You can use the option Remove from Ranch to revert to wild status if you have a Lasso in Inventory.
Use Remove from Ranch option, then Whip option to move cattle.

Calves

Chance of being born after 10 feeding cycles.
Calves can be Slaughtered. They give Calfskin rather than Leather.
Calves cannot be removed from ranches. The only way to remove a calf is to tear down the ranch or wait for it to grow up.

Milk

Higher levels of Milking Tech increases the average amount of milk per milking.
According to Malard (Discord, #general, Nov 15 2018), milk will sour in approximately three days real time. Spatulus (talk) 21:09, 15 November 2018 (UTC) [Unknown if same for T9]
Not all milk sours at the same time.

Ownership

Cattle placed in a privately owned ranch will keep ownership of the owning user when transferring ownership to a guild or person. This is to facilitate loaning cattle to bootstrap other ranches. If the cattle is to be owned by the receiving guild or person, the cattle should be added after transferring ownership; or, if ownership is already transferred, the cattle should be removed from the ranch and added back in.

Ranching Tips

Getting Cattle Dung

Have a lasso / stock whip and pepper in inventory
Using a lasso remove an excess bull from the ranch

If the bull exits onto terrain that's difficult use the stock whip to move it to a flatter area

Once the bull has exited the ranch there will be an option to Feed a Pepper
After the bull eats the pepper there is a chance it will drop "cattle dung". The bull may also "seem to enjoy the pepper" but not consume it.
After being offered a pepper, the bull will disappear.

Getting a Pepper Seed from Cattle Dung

Dry the Cattle Dung in a Flax Hammock. It will take 2–3 days to dry.

There is no option to dry Cattle Dung on a Drying Rack.
After it dries it is called: Dried Cattle Dung

When held in your inventory, the Dried Cattle Dung has an option to check for a seed.

Self / Skills / Look for Seeds in Dried Dung
If successful you get the message: You found an odd seed in the dung
along with one of the pepper seed types in your inventory

Slaughter

Slaughter requires a Flint knife or better, and causes significant knife wear.

Population Control

The maximum is 10 cattle per ranch. Cattle will continue to consume any feed in their feed troughs.
You can move excess cattle between ranches with a lasso and a stock whip.
Cattle in ranch require both food and water to reproduce.
Cattle in ranch will never die from lack of food or water.
Note: You cannot remove peppers once they are added to the feed bin (they become Cattle Feed, which you can remove).

Moving Cattle

When moving cattle, avoid carrying equipped knives, peppers (for bulls), or empty jugs (for cows).
The farther you are away from the cow when you whip it, the farther it will move.
If you whip a cow again while it's still moving, the game will act as if it had already gotten to the spot that it's walking to, when deciding where it should move next. With practice, you can learn to guess where the cow will end up, and not have to wait for it to walk there.
When whipping repeatedly, if the distance between the cow's animation and its destination gets too far, the cow will teleport there.
Be careful of adding cattle to ranches if you are near another persons ranch, you may lose your bull/cow to the other player.

Production

Further information: Cow Milk, Butter, Buttermilk, and Cheese