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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

Part Name	Health	Quantity	Coverage^[1]	Target Chance^[2]	Subpart of	Capacity^[3]	Effect if Destroyed/Removed
Body	60	1	100%	26%	N/A^[4]	-	Death
Spine	37.5	1	3%	3%	Body	Moving	−100% Moving^[5]
Stomach	30	1	3%	3%	Body	Digestion	−50% Digestion
Heart	22.5	1	3%	3%	Body	Blood Pumping	Death
Lung	22.5	2	3%	3%	Body	Breathing	−50% Breathing. Death if both lost.
Kidney	22.5	2	3%	3%	Body	Blood Filtration	−50% Blood Filtration. Death if both lost.
Liver	30	1	3%	3%	Body	Digestion	Death
Neck	37.5	1	22%	5.5%	Body	Eating Talking Breathing	Death
Head	37.5	1	75%	2.475%	Neck	-	Death
Skull	37.5	1	25%	1.2375%	Head	-	Cannot be destroyed Increasing Pain based on damage.
Brain	15	1	70%	2.8875%	Skull	Consciousness	Death Damage always results in scarring.
Eye	15	2	12%	1.98%	Head	Sight	−25% Sight. −100% if both lost. Damage always results in scarring. 0% Hit Chance against Blunt damage.
Ear	18	2	8%	1.32%	Head	Hearing	−25% Hearing. −100% if both lost.
Nose	15	1	10%	1.65%	Head	-	-
AnimalJaw	15	1	10%	1.65%	Head	Manipulation	−100% Manipulation. Can no longer use Bite attack.
Front Leg	45	2	7%	5.95%	Body	Moving	−25% Moving. −50% if both lost. Can no longer use Hoof attack.^[6]
Front Hoof	15	2	15%	1.05%	Front Leg	Moving	−25% Moving. −50% if both lost.
Rear Leg	45	2	7%	5.95%	Body	Moving	−25% Moving. −50% if both lost.
Rear Hoof	15	2	15%	1.05%	Rear Leg	Moving	−25% Moving. −50% if both lost.

↑ Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It refers to the percentage of the super-part that this part covers, before its own sub-parts claim their own percentage. For example, if the base coverage of the super-part is 100%, and the coverage of the part is 20%, 20% of hits would hit the part, and 80% the super-part. If the part had its own sub-part with 50% coverage, the chances would be 10% sub-part, 10% part, 80% super part.
↑ Target Chance is the actual chance for each part to be be selected as the target when each part's coverage has been taken into account(I.E. Neck covers 7.5% of Torso but Head covers 80% of Neck so it actually has only a 1.5% chance to be selected). This is not pure hit chance, as different damage types propagate damage in different ways. See that page for details.
↑ Note that capacities can affect other capacities in turn. Only the primary effect is listed. See specific pages for details.
↑ This is the part that everything else connects to to be considered 'connected'.
↑ If Moving drops below 16% a pawn cannot move.
↑ A Blunt/Poke attack with cooldown of 2s. The actual Hoof is unrelated