This is for me also a major issue, I can’t even continue playing properly, because half of the food supply is blocked by this. We don’t get meat from the slaughter and they stop giving milk, so the cheese production comes to a halt.
And the hunters? Don’t count on them, they don’t find anything to hunt for a while, so why is the deer jumping in front of their lodge?
The fisher? It fishes some 200 fish, but everything stacks on the shore. Their is already a mountain of spoiled fish over their.
Only the farms are left, it is good that the bread production can hold out. But my villagers complain about the peas, that is now their major food source.
Aghh same issue, tried multiple barns to no avail. Still no solution; cannot get this feature to work and end up with ‘sickly herds’ and more barns… It seems all my herders are hardcore vegetarians and outright refuse to process cows into meet… also then the cheese stops too so maybe they go vegan after that…
I also have an issue with two barns. I relocated one, but the cows revert to the original fenced in pasture no matter what I do, the other cows that made the move are free roaming now and will not return to the barn, herders cannot milk, neither barn will slaughter and even setting the limit on the herd has no impact. If I try to keep them inside to slaughter or milk, they begin to die for there are too many. Even with plenty of grain (1000) in the open storage (and the windmill and bakery off) the barn will not stock a proper amount of grain. I cannot make cheese. buying and placing new cows in the barn does not fix the problem. So, cannot fence in the cows and cannot leave them free to graze. More instructions are necessary if no fences should be used.
I removed the door from the enclosed area I have made with the fences, cows were stuck inside and immediately went back to the barn once the door was removed!
About the herd numbers as I can see people doesn’t get it very clear. You can handle 16 cows, you can check and set that with the “Herd size” button in the barn, keep in mind, your barn only can support 13, but at 13 you have 3 cows birth rate. So, if you set your herd size to 16, and set the Slaughter to 3, with a herd of 13, you will have 3 cows of meat (1500) per year, as 3 cows are born from 13, and 3 cows are slaughtered each year.
PS/PD: I still don’t know at this point where the 3 newborns go when you are at 13/13 and you are not slaughtering??
I took out all fences and that fixed it. I moved one barn back to its original location. I still have issues with the herd size and slaughter but it’s better.
I just confirmed this. My barns stopped butchering and trying to figure out why, I came across this thread and then what BruteForseKill said. I checked my storage and they were all full. Plopped down a bunch more storage and cellars and the barns immediately started to slaughter the cows.
Yes! It works! I built two cellars next to the barn and marked only meat, hides and tallow could be stored there. Slaughter began immediately. It is late sometimes, but the method actually works.
This was my answer as well. Built a few more warehouses and smokers and it fixed the “non butchering” issue. It ended up just being storage management. Build some storehouses/warehouses and uncheck all the small boxes except for meat. I left all boxes checked for things created by the barns. Meat, smoked meat, tallow, hides, milk and cheese. Everything else unchecked. Maxed my herd size to 16 and full steam ahead.