Ranching and livestock in Project Zomboid

Build 42 added real livestock to Project Zomboid. Build 41 had no farm animals, so ranching advice is Build 42 only. The domestic species are cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and turkeys. Rabbits, rats, mice and raccoons can also be kept inside a livestock zone, but in vanilla they come from the wild and have no hutch of their own. Deer do not tolerate captivity and are a hunting target instead. For a profile of every species, see the animals page; this page is about running the farm.

The two chicken breeds are cosmetic. Holsteins give more milk and less meat than Angus.

There is no trader or shop, so buying animals is not a thing. You find them. Livestock spawns on rural farms, barns and fenced fields outside the towns, and the sandbox option for ranch spawn chance controls how often a farm has animals. Pick a base location near farmland.

• Lead on a rope. Stand next to a cow, sheep or pig, open its menu and attach a rope to walk it home.
• Carry small animals. Chickens, rabbits and other small stock can be picked up and carried in your arms.
• Use a livestock trailer for long trips or several animals. See towing.
• Trap wild ones. Rabbits come from trapping rather than farms.

Timing matters. Animals in areas you have not visited do not age or starve while unloaded, but farm animals in newly generated areas start spawning as corpses after roughly 6 to 12 months (one source).

Animals stay where you tell them through a designated livestock zone, not through fences alone. Open the Designated Zones tool (the sheep icon at the top left), choose Add, drag over the pen and confirm. Put the troughs, shelter and hutch inside it. Fences are optional but stop strays and help defense.

An undersized zone cuts daily weight gain to one eighth, so build bigger than the minimum. Add a roofed section, because rain stresses animals standing in the open. Chickens need a hutch: it holds the egg boxes and protects the birds from the nighttime predator event. One source gives the chicken hutch recipe as Carpentry 4, 18 planks and 30 nails, holding up to 20 birds (one source).

Troughs can be built at Carpentry 1 or found on farms. A trough holds food or water, never both, so empty one completely before switching it. An empty trough with no roof over it fills with rain. Sources disagree on other water: one says animals drink from puddles and open water tiles, another says they only drink from troughs. Opinion keep a filled water trough in every pen and do not rely on puddles. See water.

Grazers eat grass straight off the tile, and grazed grass regrows over time (the sandbox regrow setting is in hours). A scythe cuts a 3 by 3 patch for hay. Troughs accept hay, animal feed, vegetables, fruit and unrotten human food. When hunger or thirst passes 80 percent the animal becomes stressed, and an empty bar drains health until it dies.

Stress is the main thing to manage. It rises from rain on an unroofed animal, hunger or thirst, zombies nearby, gunshots, shouting and running footsteps, being moved in a vehicle above 5 km/h, chickens left outside a hutch at night, and slaughter in view of the herd. Stress falls with calm time in the zone, holding the animal, and petting it when its cooldown allows. Above 80 stress, males and large animals can turn on the player, break doors and even climb stairs.

The Animal Care skill (internally Husbandry) improves what the inspection panel shows, raises yields and lowers the chance an animal breaks away while you milk or shear it. At level 8 you can milk an animal regardless of its stress. You earn XP by milking, shearing, watering, petting and collecting eggs. The Rancher occupation starts at level 4 and Farmer at level 1 (see occupations). Five Animal Care books carry the XP multiplier from level 1 to 10; check the skill books page.

Breeding needs an adult male and an adult female of the same species in the same zone, in breeding season (a sandbox toggle), and both must pass a fertility check. One cockerel can serve several hens. Keep only one adult male per species per zone, because males fight in season and hurt each other. Inbreeding can bring out recessive disorders such as skinny, which divides base weight by three. Opinion bring in an unrelated bull or ram every few generations. No source gave a pregnancy length in days; it scales with the Animal Pregnancy Time setting in sandbox settings. Calves and lambs mature at 180 days, chicks and poults at 126 days, piglets at 140 days (one source).

Milk starts once a cow or ewe is pregnant. Use the Milk Animal option with a bucket, pot or similar container in your inventory. Regular milking raises capacity; a neglected udder dries up, and one held at 85 percent or more hurts the animal. Keep calves in their mother's zone so they can nurse. One source says a lactating cow can be milked about every 2 days (one source). Rabbit does nurse their kits but cannot be milked.

Eggs are laid in hutch egg boxes, or on the ground if no box is free. Fertilized eggs are heavier and hatch into chicks even if moved out of the zone. Wool comes from shearing sheep with shears or electric shears; one source puts the regrowth at 5 to 7 days (one source). Spin it at a spinning wheel for tailoring thread and yarn.

To slaughter, kill the animal first, then butcher the carcass. Small animals you are holding can be killed from your inventory; large stock is killed and then processed. Butcher on the ground, not from inventory, which has been buggy. A sharp knife is required. The butcher hook (crafted from a large hook, a plank and nails) gives better yield and keeps the hide of cows and bulls, which is otherwise lost. A chicken gives one carcass, a head, two feet and 70 to 80 feathers. Full steps are on the butchering and leather pages.

The humane way is the calm way: Opinion lead the animal well away from the pen, out of sight of the herd, and do it quickly. Slaughter in view of other animals spikes their stress and scatters them. Do not cull pregnant females if you want the herd to grow.

Illness mostly comes from a dirty hutch: chickens sicken and can die unless you clean it with water and a stain-cleaning item. Starvation and thirst kill directly. Cows die of old age around day 4,320 and sheep around day 3,600.

Zombies do not attack animals. They are still a problem: their presence stresses the herd, and animal sounds attract zombies by default. A horde at the fence means a stressed, unproductive herd, so wall the farm off and clear the area often. See zombies.