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[Nikov]

Through clever use of chains and genetic culling, only the largest, healthiest, whitest-skinned will be allowed to breed.

By which I mean cows, of course. I've begun a selective breeding program to get cream or white-colored cattle with gigantic musculature and heavy fat, since these traits seem best for the freezing biome and all of its snowy landscapes. I've taken my cream-colored bull and my white-colored gigantic cow and chained them a tile apart, then slaughtered all the russet or weak males and am keeping the females seperate from breeding partners to harvest the milk until my new breed becomes a large enough herd to support the fort's needs, at which point we'll be eating hearty, my lads!

Interestingly, this is the first feature of Dwarf Fortress my mother took an interest in. When she dropped by to pick up her grandbaby I mentioned I was trying to get an all-white herd bred from a mix of russets. Immediately she starts getting that 'you should be focusing on more important things' look, only to my surprise SHE REMINDS ME THAT MUSCULATURE IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE. To which I assured her I had gigantic cattle in the breeding pens and butchered a white bull calf that was described as weak. She then commended my willingness to butcher immature animals that didn't fit the desired genotype; 'you get a better price for veal, after all'.

[Primary]

Your mom is awesome.

[Mr Frog]

Your mother sounds rather interesting
I think animals still breed via spores, so you're going to have to cull all of the russet cows

[SIGVARDR]

I approve of this project.Would like to see what happens.

[jokermatt999]

Personally, I'd suggest asking your mom what the hell happened to your siblings.

Also, do animals no longer breed by spores in this version?

[kotekzot]

he butchered all the inferior males.

[Kagus]

I'm curious to see if genetics actually exist in this version.  I'm highly doubtful of it, but there's really only one way to find out, and you seem to be doing a fantastic job of it.

Keep us posted, brave cattle geneticist!

[kotekzot]

i believe toady confirmed genetics exist in one of the df talks. could be wrong though.

[Nikov]

Possible proof; from a cream-colored average sized bull and a white-colored gigantic cow, I have a gigantic cream-colored cow calf. These two animals were chained close enough together to share a tile and so 'do the deed', as is the purpose of my breeding pit. Were they bred by spores, my russet cows chained over by the dairy barn would be giving birth themselves sometime this season. I'll have to wait a year or so to be certain, but I think genetics are following through my cattle and I look forward to seeing if butchering yields from 'weak' cows are smaller than from 'gigantic' cows. Won't that be a trip!

But milking definately works, and seems to be once a month or season, since eventually the job cancels itself. Unfortunately the cheese is red, but I'm sure that bug will get sorted out.

[Kagus]

Milking can actually be done fairly regularly.  Definitely not a seasonal thing, and I'm somewhat certain I managed to do it multiple times in a month.

As for the red cheese, it's not necessarily a bug, per se...

[Nikov]

Pretty sure thats a bright red wax coating designed to keep the cheese fresh and be clearly visible to remove before eating. Also, anyone think cheese should be 'o' instead of '%'?

[Nikov]

Okay, had a crash but reloaded and the calf was born again, this time male, white and gigantic. Again, all descriptive traits found in the mating couple. With two examples of breeding producing a predictable result, I'm pretty sure I'm onto something. Now the only question; butcher the cream-colored but not gigantic bull and replace it with this one, or let it breed a little more? I don't have a gigantic, white/cream bull to replace it, only a bull calf.

[Vieto]

...

now I totally want to breed dwarves...

[Kagus]

Let the big guy breed for a while longer in the hopes of getting more gigantic-gene results from the mother.  Then once the youngun has matured, you can replace the father.

[Retro]

I think this is where the DF-players-are-Hitler jokes go from being just jokes to still jokes but lose some of their irony.

Still. Someone has to open up a chain of McUrist's sooner or later.