Livestock Farm Expert 2017 Guide

Last update: 11 January 2017

Livestock breeding is very simple, but providing constant and certain income, though not in all cases. The profit is of course not huge, even considering that the whole process is automated to a huge degree, still, it's a good idea to invest in livestock a bit later into the game.

To feed cows, goats or horses, you need straw or silage. Chicken and ducks eat feed. As you might have noticed in the real world, food is incredibly important - it's pretty easy to starve the animals; as little as 2-3 days without fodder is enough to loose all your livestock - remember that when you want to simulate a longer period of time. You can estimate how much fodder will be needed for a given period of time based on these examples: 5 cows, 10 goats and 5 horses eat 65 kg of hay a day, which translates into 450 kg a week (around 3000 euro). 10 chickens and 10 ducks need 4 kg of feed a day, or 28 kg a week (210 euro). Poultry is rather inexpensive; in case of other animals, you should collect residues from fields after harvest (straw and stubble). This is a great way of cutting expenses of livestock upkeep, which is pretty costly in the long run.

There is space for six kinds of animals that can be bred. Cows give milk, obviously enough. 5 cows will yield a profit of 30-50 euro a day (depending on the type of fodder and how well-fed they are). 10 chickens will get you from 25 to 40 euro a day. Goats earn the most money a day - 120-150 euro for their milk. Other animals - ducks and horses - are only profitable if you sell them. Especially horses are valuable - selling them after a year can earn 3-4 times the sum you invested (that's around 3-4 thousand of profit). Ducks are of course less profitable (couple hundred over a year).

Is breeding livestock profitable, then? Let's do the math: If you have 20 chickens, you'll have to pay around 30 euro for 4 kg of feed a day. You can then earn around 80 euro a day on selling eggs. So, in one month, you can make around 1500 euro on 20 chickens, assuming you manage to maximize the egg output.

10 goats and 5 cows devour around 40 kg of hay a day. If you don't have your own processed field residues and have to pay for the hay, the daily maintenance will cost 270 euro. You can then make 200 euro of profit (150 for goats and 50 for cows). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that this isn't extremely profitable.

Also remember that creating new space for more animals generates additional costs. It's a couple thousand for each kind of animal. Buying a livestock farm means an expense of some 120,000 euro. Hence, livestock is only for people who can provide fodder themselves (except the feed for poultry), and who have other sectors of their business already developed.