Cow

The cow is a large herbivore best known for its milk and tasty meat. Males of the species are referred to as Bulls and can be distinguished by their horns and lack of udders, while females are referred to as Cows and have the opposite features. Babies of either gender are referred to as Calves and have the features of adults of their gender.

Obtaining

Cows don't spawn in the wild and thus cannot be tamed. They can only be obtained via trading or received through the animal self-taming event.

Summary

Cows are pen animals. Once tamed, pen animals cannot and do not need to be trained any further. But if left outside of a pen or caravan hitching spot, pen animals will eventually roam outside your colony. Making a caravan is not required to tie animals to a caravan hitching spot.

A female cow can be milked for up to 14 units of milk per day (depending on your pawn's Animal Gather Yield).

Analysis

Cows are reasonably efficient animals that produce milk, which can be used as a meat substitute for fine meals and lavish meals.

While they are worse for vegetarian food than chickens, cows can be friendlier to your computer (lots of chickens can create lag).

Nutrition

When slaughtered, a cow yields 67 meat and 25 leather as a calf; 168 meat and 48 as a juvenile; or 336 meat and 96 leather as an adult.

Milking

Female cows produce 14 per day, or 0.7 nutrition in milk per day. A cow consumes 0.86 nutrition per day. This results in a nutrition efficiency of 81.4% from milk alone ( 16.28 per day per 1 nutrition consumed).

Cows produce 27% more milk than the next best producer, the yak. However, yaks are also pack animals.

Slaughtering + Milking

Slaughtered as calves, and including the production of milk, the nutrition efficiency of a population of cows varies from 70.3% to 140.5% depending on how many more female cows there are than bulls.

If the calves are allows to grow to adulthood before they are slaughtered, this changes to 38.8%-143.6%.

Cows are reasonably nutritionally efficient, but they are slightly less so than Horses and Ibexs. The increased work required to milk the cows every day further places them behind such competition. As a result, the cow shines best in colonies with the Animal Personhood meme, that want to create fine or lavish meals without slaughtering animals. Even in this regard, cows are inferior to chickens in every respect other than lag-friendliness.

Nutrition in a closed system

Cows can eat simple meals and nutrient paste meals, even out of their own milk. By converting milk into simple meals, cows create 1.26 nutrition per day, assuming you have a sufficiently skilled Animals handler. This results in a nutrition efficiency of 147%; a female cow can sustain itself on its own milk so long as cook can constantly produce it meals.

Using nutrient paste, an efficiency of 244% is reached, enough to feed a cow and bull. However, nutrient paste must be dispensed manually.

Training

This animal can be trained as follows:

Guard:
Attack:
Rescue:
Haul:

*As of version 1.1.2610, all animals can be tamed. The percentage of likelihood of success depends on factors such as the Animals Wildness Percentage, Pawn Handling Skill, and others. More information can be found on the animals page.

Health

Body part	Health
Head	38
Skull	38
Brain	15
Nose	15
Neck	38
Jaw	30
Eye ^[1] (left, right)	15
Ear (left, right)	15
Body	60
Kidney^[2] (left, right)	23
Lung^[2] (left, right)	23
Liver^[2]	30
Heart^[2]	23
Spine^[2]	38
Stomach^[2]	30
Limbs (left, right, fore, hind)	45
Appendage (left, right, fore, hind)	30