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[Imp]

My biome consists of roughly half mountain and half shrubland.  Seeing that the mountain area was purely grass and stone, it seemed ideal for pasturage.  I noticed that my pastured animals, after being ignored for a few months, ate about half their 10x10 pasture down to dirt.  So I moved them again when I saw the pasture about half gone, and moved them again...

It's been slightly over a year since I moved them the first time.  Yet almost all of the bare pasture areas remain bare.  What little grass has regrown for the most part remains sparce.

http://postimage.org/image/24i9gxt2c/

Does this happen where trees and shrubs can grow too?  Does turning an area into a pasture ruin it for other organic purposes?  Are we supposed to move our grazers every few days to prevent overgrazing?  I'm noticing that areas which had been farms, then had the farm removed remain furrowed clay well over a year later as well.  Guessing that these areas wont recover either?

[Brian]

Well I thought I'd open with a joke about degrazing the pan with some port and then get to business.

It depends on what you have grazing. Animals eat different quantities.  I have around 50 animals surviving on a max-sized pasture at the moment.

I also figured out that I had a lot more grazing land than I had thought. If you dig into all that yummy dirt to the east on your map, such that you have a dirt floor, grass will grow indoors too. That also awards your animals some protection against stray giant eagles.

[Supercharazad]

There is only one cure for over-grazing.


Slaughter.

[Akura]

There is only one cure for over-grazing.


Slaughter. Magma.

It will also solve that grass problem you're having.

[L3TUC3]

Stick with goats/sheep/pigs as they seem to have a pretty good grazing to milking/shearing/butchery ratio. Kill all the buffaloes/yaks, as they tend to gorge grass faster than they yield milk or meat.

Chickens and turkeys etc don't require grazing, but they yield loads and loads of eggs, so they're a pretty good bet for mountainous or soil-less biomes.

I think I just might start an outdoor farm fortress next time.

[slink]

One of my .19 fortresses started with lots of grazing on a sandy portion that does not seem to grow back even years later after being grazed (or walked) down to sand.  Farm plots constructed on this portion of the map will not grow anything at all.  The forested portion of that map will support farm plots, and also grows back the vegetation.  Unfortunately, I have little forested area on that map.  I am guessing that world generation puts grass on places where growth of plants is not supported, and therefore neither is regrowth of the original grass.  Either that, or it is a part of the general bugginess of grass regrowth as already reported elsewhere.

[Cotes]

You do realize that rooms dug into soil grow grass on their own? I'm not sure how muddied rock works and if the moss growing in caverns can also be used, but at least in maps with multiple layers of soil you can easily multiply the amount of grassy squares with a simple and quick mining operation, so you really shouldn't run out of pastures unless you are keeping far too large herds.

[ral]

Slaughter all of your animals except for a few egg-laying birds, then make tons of egg biscuits, roasts, etc. Birds currently seem to pop out more than their mass in eggs every week or so. Raising animals for meat is, right now, the most annoying way to generate food.

[UristMcDwarf]

I don't know why,  but I love grazing my cows on Eyeballs and Tendrils.

[Assassinfox]

I don't know why,  but I love grazing my cows on Eyeballs and Tendrils.

Trying to create something like this?

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Carnivorous-cow-gobbles-up-48.3352497.jp

[PopeRichardCorey]

Slaughter all of your animals except for a few egg-laying birds, then make tons of egg biscuits, roasts, etc. Birds currently seem to pop out more than their mass in eggs every week or so. Raising animals for meat is, right now, the most annoying way to generate food.

I know what you mean, but I actually enjoy the meat industry.  It is kind of sometimes a hassle, but there's something just deeply satisfying about it.

Now excuse me, I need to build another kitchen.

[BigD145]

A 10x10 pasture is tiny. Your animals, which you haven't said how many or what types, are likely walking all over and not really allowing the grass to regrow.

[Valguris]

In the picture you seem to have a lot of animals. They can eat or trample grass quicker than grass regrow.
I'm not sure what triggers grass regrowth. Grass tile nearby? Rain? Or nothing is required but time? How long?

[Khift]

While I can't rule out rain encouraging grass growth I can say for certain that it isn't necessary for it. Neither is light. If you have a soil layer, you can easily carve out rooms to act as pastures for your flock. Haven't tried muddy stone, though. Also, unlike trees grass has no qualms about growing in a square with an item on it; therefore, if you're like me and you have the majority of your stockpiles in soil layers you can double purpose those stockpiles as pastures.

That said, the issue you're having OP is trampling. Whenever a creature walks on a tile with grass on it it has a chance (determined by size) to damage the grass on it. In a 10x10 area with any appreciable amount of animals on it they will trample any new grass that grows before they even get the chance to eat it. Try massively increasing the size of the pasture. Also, slaughter anything larger than a goat or sheep; compared to goats & sheep, horses eat about 8x as much, cows about 10x as much, yaks about 15x as much and water buffaloes almost 20x as much. It's pretty damned silly if you ask me. And don't even think about keeping elephants; from what I've read they can't even eat fast enough to stay alive even with infinite grass. Which is actually quite hilarious.

[Oneir]

And don't even think about keeping elephants; from what I've read they can't even eat fast enough to stay alive even with infinite grass. Which is actually quite hilarious.

Solution: make elephants carnivorous.