Rust Livestock Guide: Farming and Breeding Cows and Sheep
How livestock farming works in Rust since the Livestock Update: taming, feeding, pens, breeding and selling cows and sheep. This page covers the shared system; the cow and sheep pages cover each animal in detail.
On this page
What is livestock in Rust?
Livestock are animals you tame, keep at your base and farm for renewable resources. They were added in the Livestock Update on 1 October 2026.
Unlike wild animals, livestock only grow up, age, breed and produce once they're tame. Each one carries genes that decide how much it produces and how well it breeds, and adults can be sold to the Livestock Vendor.
Which animals are livestock?
Cows (with bulls and calves) and sheep (with lambs). Both arrived in the Livestock Update.
Horses were in Rust before this update and aren't covered on this site yet.
How to start a livestock farm
- Build a pen first. Use the Animal Fence and Animal Gate, near your Tool Cupboard. Leave room: animals get crowded with more than 8 others within 20 m.
- Add a Hitch & Trough for food and water, or build next to fresh water.
- Get animals. Tame wild ones (about 5 minutes each) or buy young from the Livestock Vendor at the Ranch or Large Barn: calves 300 scrap, lambs 150 scrap.
- Lead them home. Keep within 7 m or the lead breaks.
- Keep them fed, watered and uncrowded. Condition drives output.
- Collect: milk cows, shear sheep, pick up dung.
- Breed the best ones and sell the weak ones.
How to tame livestock
Stay within 20 m of the animal for about 5 minutes without hurting it or its herd. It becomes Bonded, which means tame.
| Trust level | Time within 20 m | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Known | 5s | Curious animals follow you |
| Tolerated | 30s | Adult males and mothers stop threatening you |
| Bonded | 5m | Tame: can be led, milked or shorn, uses your Tool Cupboard as its home, grows up, ages, breeds and drops dung |
| Herd | 15m | Adult males defend you (listed for sheep) |
- Hurting the animal costs 60s of trust; hurting its herd costs 30s.
- Trust below Bonded fades when you leave. Bonded trust never does.
- Curious animals trust you twice as fast.
- Eating Shepherd's Pie builds trust faster, and livestock treat you as at least Tolerated.
- Newborns inherit the bonded players and home of their mother.
How to move livestock
Bonded animals can be led. The lead breaks if the animal gets more than 7 m away.
Walk slowly and avoid rocks, cliffs and tight gaps. A broken lead doesn't undo taming. With the new navigation system enabled, animals can walk into player structures and respect doors.
Animal needs
Condition follows the lowest of three needs: food, water and space. Wild animals never drop below 50% condition. Tame animals can die of neglect.
| Need | Details |
|---|---|
| Food | Grazes grass or forest ground. After 2 grazes, a 5 m patch is overgrazed for 30 minutes. Eats food from a trough within 25 m. Trough food only fills an animal to 80% fullness. |
| Water | Drinks fresh water 0.05–0.5 m deep at rivers and lakes, or from a water container. One drink from a container uses up to 200 ml. |
| Space | Comfortable with up to 8 herd mates within 20 m; crowded at 12. Packing animals tightly together also lowers this need. |
The Hardiness gene sets how far a need can fall before condition drops: 71% (Bad), 50% (OK) or 33% (Good). Dung slows in poor condition and stops below 15%.
Food and water
Livestock graze on their own and eat from a Hitch & Trough within 25 m. Trough food only fills them to 80%. They drink from rivers, lakes and water containers.
| Trough food | Calories | Fullness per item |
|---|---|---|
| Brioche Bread | 190 | 45.6% |
| Bread Loaf | 150 | 36% |
| Potato | 125 | 30% |
| Pumpkin | 80 | 19.2% |
| Corn | 75 | 18% |
| Wheat | 75 | 18% |
| Granola Bar | 60 | 14.4% |
| Black Raspberries | 40 | 9.6% |
| Apple | 30 | 7.2% |
| Blueberries | 30 | 7.2% |
| Any berry (black, blue, green, red, white, yellow) | 5 | 1.2% |
| Honeycomb | 5 | 1.2% |
| Grub | 3 | 0.7% |
| Worm | 1 | 0.2% |
Water containers they drink from: Hitch & Trough, Water Barrel, Small Water Catcher, Large Water Catcher, Water Purifier, Powered Water Purifier, Water Pump, Paddling Pool, Above Ground Pool.
Keeping animals in a pen or base
- When an animal becomes Bonded, your Tool Cupboard becomes its home.
- Grass in a small pen runs out: a 5 m patch is overgrazed for 30 minutes after 2 grazes. Plan on a trough.
- Split big herds; crowding is a need like food and water.
- Other players can kill animals through fences. Wall in valuable stock.
How livestock breeding works
A tame male and a tame adult female breed. Pregnancy lasts 10 minutes. The young grows up in about 1 hour while tame and inherits one random copy of each gene from each parent.
| Stage | Time at OK genes |
|---|---|
| Pregnancy | 10m |
| Young grows up | 1h (±10%), only while tame |
| Mother's cooldown after birth | 1h 6m |
| Male cooldown | 10m |
| Adult lifespan | 48h (±10%) |
Fertility changes the cooldowns and gives a 60% chance of twins at Good. Plan pairings with the breeding calculator.
Livestock genetics and inbreeding
Every animal has five genes (Dung, Longevity, Yield, Fertility, Hardiness), each with two copies rated Bad, OK or Good. The animal uses the better copy. Breeding close relatives can produce inbred young with weaker genes.
The full explanation, with worked examples, odds and how to breed toward a god clone, is in the livestock genetics guide.
Cows vs sheep
| Cow | Sheep | |
|---|---|---|
| Main resource | Milk: 1 every 5m | Wool: 10 every 5m |
| Per hour (OK → Good Yield) | 12 → 38.4 milk | 120 → 307.2 wool |
| What the resource is for | Drinking, milky and creamy teas | Selling to the vendor, recycling into cloth |
| Young costs | 300 scrap (calf) | 150 scrap (lamb) |
| Adult sale value | 373–700 scrap | 224–436 scrap |
| Health | 450 HP | 150 HP |
| Herd size in the wild | 1–4 | 2–6 |
| Harvest (skinning knife) | 100 leather, 100 bone, 20 beef | 20 leather, 50 bone, 12 mutton |
| Needs tool to collect | No | Yes (knife, hatchet, axe or sickle) |
| Must be tame to collect | Yes | No, wild sheep can be shorn |
| Breeding, genes, needs, lifespan | Same system | Same system |
| Best for | Tea buffs, bigger harvests, higher sale prices | Steady tradeable income, cloth, cheap start |
Livestock resources
| Resource | From | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | Cows | Tame adult females. Drink it, use it in teas, or skim into Cream. |
| Wool | Sheep | Shear wild or tame adults. Sell or recycle into Cloth. |
| Dung | Any tame livestock | 1 Low Grade Fuel per Dung in the Biofuel Generator. |
| Meat, leather, bone, fat, cloth | Harvesting adults | Cows give about double what sheep do. |
Selling livestock
Lead a healthy, non-pregnant adult into the pen by the Livestock Vendor at the Ranch or Large Barn. You get up to 3 offers; reject them all and he won't take that animal for 15 minutes.
- Only adult animals that are not pregnant can be sold.
- Lead the animal into the pen next to the vendor. He lists at most 4 animals at a time.
- Each animal gets up to 3 offers. Rejecting one shows the next. Reject all three and he refuses that animal for 15 minutes.
- Offers are paid in a mix of items and scrap, picked at random up to the offer value.
- About 5% of offers are generous, adding 10–25% extra value.
| Animal | Wild, OK genes | Wild, Good genes | Bred, OK genes | Bred, Good genes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cow | 373 scrap | 582 scrap | 466 scrap | 700 scrap |
| Bull | 373 scrap | 582 scrap | 466 scrap | 700 scrap |
| Sheep | 224 scrap | 349 scrap | 280 scrap | 436 scrap |
Common livestock problems
| Problem | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Animal won't follow me | It isn't Bonded yet (5 minutes nearby), or the lead broke because it fell more than 7 m behind. |
| Animal not growing up | It isn't tame. Wild young never grow up. Tame young take about 1 hour. |
| Cow not giving milk | Not tame, a bull, a calf, or still on cooldown (5m at OK Yield). |
| Sheep not growing wool | Recently shorn (5m at OK Yield), or still a lamb. |
| No dung | Animal isn't tame, is starving, or is below 15% condition. Dung also despawns after an hour. |
| Animals won't breed | Not both Bonded, not both adult, same sex, or one is pregnant or on cooldown. |
| Animal not eating from the trough | The trough is more than 25 m away, or the animal is already at 80% fullness (trough food's cap). |
| Animal died | Tame animals can die of neglect, or of old age after about 48h (OK Longevity). |
| Vendor won't buy | Animal is young or pregnant, or you rejected all 3 offers in the last 15 minutes. |
Livestock FAQ
What animals can you farm in Rust?
Cows and sheep, added in the Livestock Update on 1 October 2026.
How do you tame animals in Rust?
Stay within 20 m of a cow or sheep for about 5 minutes without hurting it until it becomes Bonded.
Do livestock need water?
Yes. Food, water and space are their three needs.
How long do livestock live?
About 48 hours at OK Longevity, 72 hours at Good. Only tame animals age.
Where is the Livestock Vendor?
At the Ranch and the Large Barn.
Can you sell wool?
Yes, to the Livestock Vendor, in lots of at least 100.