When you start your game of Farming Simulator 17, around twenty laying hens make up your farm. But cows, pigs and sheep are also part of the game.
Raising chickens in the open air does not require anything, neither food nor water… They manage, they are like that the hens in Farming. Their eggs, to be collected by hand, will bring you your first euros. But, except for fun, or to keep the children busy hunting for eggs, it is better not to dwell on this production.
The animals are complementary to the cultures, it is difficult to raise its animals without taking care of its grounds because you would have to buy the whole of the feed, whereas it is at hand… well of tractor.
The Cattle Trader
To manage the livestock, a single address, the local livestock trader. You just have to go there with a cattle truck to buy (or sell) cows, pigs or sheep. If you do not have the necessary equipment, the dealer can deliver it to you, moreover it is more interesting to have the animals dropped off than to invest in a livestock trailer which remains in a shed most of the time.
Animal welfare is emerging. Also to have animals which reproduce, it is necessary to respect the cycle "food, drink, clean litter". And when it comes to food, know that the game offers many possibilities on ration mixes. Of course you are guided when, for example, you fill your mixer. A series of 3 “hay, silage, straw” gauges appear and give you the ranges to respect when feeding your cows.
If everything is respected, the cows produce a maximum of milk.
Pigs eat almost everything. All you have to do is pour everything that is lying around in your silos into the trough: corn, wheat, barley, rapeseed, sunflower, soybeans, potatoes, beets. There is also a special pork mix available for purchase.
Sheep are surely the easiest to breed. They produce their wool in exchange for grass and hay.
Slurry and manure
But the interest of breeding is also, and above all, being able to remove the spreaders and slurry tankers from the hangar. To obtain a good manure, it is enough simply to regularly mulch the barn. The pile of organic fertilizer climbs up on its own. The slurry pit fills up as soon as you have animals (obviously well fed).
It only remains to spread all this to see, on the map, the areas fertilized and ready to receive crops.