I’ve had an issue, where my cows were not able to graze or feed while the herd size was bigger than the set limit.
I had set my Herd size to 7 or so, then at the beginning of the year some (two or three) more livestock were born, which caused me to increase the herd size to 8. As long as the population was over the limit (showing 9/8) my cows were not grazing, although I had grazing enabled and the area was reachable. There was also food stored inside the barn, but my herd’s health started to decrease none the less.
Because the slaughtering did not happen on it’s own, I manually slaughtered one cow and as soon as the population was within the limit (8/8) my herd started grazing immediately.
I suffered from unhealthy cows and barns issues a lot, until I found the sweet spot for me. I have 3 barns with 13 population each, but I keep 10 in each barn at all time by slaughtering the excess at the beginning of each year. Milking is enabled (make sure to re-enable milking if you move your barn). I have also set all 3 barns grazing area at the same spot, away from any road/building, and added few trees. I am not getting any issue with this setting.
But I agree, we should have automatic slaughtering option.
Thank you for your reply. But the issue I encountered was not about the management of livestock, this usually works ok for me. Also the game has auto slaughtering and I think this works too.
The problem was, that during the time my herd was bigger than the herd-size i set at the barn, the livestock was not grazing or consuming food stored inside the barn, which caused the herd to become unhealthy.
Im not entirely sure this IS a bug but it sure felt like one.
No enough food for winter / your livestock is starving (even with lots of wheat and veggies in storage), I fixed it by resetting all barns by relocating them and setting the above configuration. Also maybe because when I initially set my barn it was v.0.7.3, and when I moved them I had the 0.7.4, maybe that have something to do. I hope you find a way to fix your issue
But the issue I encountered was not about the management of livestock, this usually works ok for me. Also the game has auto slaughtering and I think this works too.