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FeldingFields · Jun 10, 2019 11:29 PM

Can we talk about pastures? How many do you have? How do you decide to get another pasture versus cull your existing herd?

I currently have four pastures - my 10 horse pasture is currently 3G, my free pasture is my main 1G/foundations. I have purchased two pastures, one each for Bootstrapping and 2G.

My 1G pasture has been overfilled for a while. My bootstrap pasture is at the point where I'm replacing my purchased red and blue mares with higher blues and golds that I've bred. I just swapped out a dozen mares for next season, I easily have another dozen that are 2yos and another that are yearlings from this season's crop. My 3G is sitting at 4/10 horses, with another 8 underage fillies waiting in barns that will come of age during the next two seasons. My first 4G foals were born this year.

Pastures are on sale for 25% off right now, for the anniversary celebration, which puts me in my current quandary. Do I buy a new pasture for my future 3G breeding. Buy one for bootstrap to get even more show ponies? Both? Or should I just start getting more serious about culling down my lines? How many pastures became too much for you to handle and/or enjoy? I've been getting really good intact rates from my pastures - how hard do you cull on your intacts? At what point should I run my bootstrap fillies through BA? Run the blues now that I'm getting gold fillies and some of my gold colts are passing? Run them all through to get my numbers down? (As a side note, I've profited well from the sale of my Like Minded create, but before that unexpected and appreciated windfall, 8000k a pop for comparison testing was out of the question. I've tested a few of my studs while I've had the funds, but it's still not a sustainable culling method for me yet.)

Looper · Jun 10, 2019 11:48 PM

I did buy a small pasture since they are on sale right now. It will probably be used for 3rd Gen once I know what paper level I tend to breed. I have a large pasture for FDN that will transition to ExPer/ExPro/RS-only in a few seasons. The large pasture I bought will be for 2nd Gen Red until my G2E papers improve.
I think I will wait until mares are 9 before breeding them. Chance to earn points while training and at least delay the population issues from breeding every Gen every season.
If I meet some financial goals before the end of the sales then I will celebrate with one more small pasture for very special breeding like any Closed genes I can buy.

That said I'm not very large yet, simple culling principles get the results I want for now, and I'm still learning what I love. I also don't know what your financial situation is. For me I ask what would be the value or how long did I work to get what I spent. Can I make anything work harder for me to get the best value and improve my game/life or my family's life? Having accomplished a handful of entertainment goals, this game drops in financial priority on that scheme.

SummertreeFarms · Jun 10, 2019 11:59 PM

I just switched out my big pastures for Fourteen 10 acre pastures. I found myself not being able to keep up will all the foals, and it just wasn't any fun! I now have 6 10 acre pastures for foundations, 2 for 2G, and 1 each for 3G through 8G. SO much easier!

AHayesHorses · Jun 11, 2019 1:04 AM

So all my below statistics will include my 100 acre primary barn:

Total: 26
100 Acres: 3
60 Acres: 8
30 Acres: 12
10 Acres: 3

I have several different gene lines so i don't like mixing them. I plan on getting more pastures to accommodate new lines :) I sort pastures each season in order of importance (based on the stud and how badly i want offspring from that particular horse). I usually get them all out before the 28th but i never feel bad if i don't. It just means a little extra cash :)

Haltanny · Jun 11, 2019 2:57 AM

I have 4) 100 acres, 2) 60 acres, 2) 30 acres and 5) 10 acres. My mares are sort of all jumbled up and get sorted into 10 acre pastures to be bred. I have just my favorites in pasture full time, tbe rest rotate through for a week or 2 before being bred. I never cull based on pasture space, i just rotated everyone through until i have room to start keeping a few in full time. I buy pastures only when and if i can, usually when they're on sale.

Cheers · Jun 11, 2019 4:19 AM

I’ve been playing for a while now and buying pastures whenever they are on sale.

I have 32 active pastures and a further handful of empty pastures to split mares out into as I get enough mares in a generation to split them out into lines.

My pastures are all 100 or 60 acre pastures. I was up to about 2000 pastured mares but I’m trying to cut back to less than 1500 because that’s too many for me to be able to manage foals and pasture maintenance without it feeling like a job instead of a game!

I almost exclusively breed in pasture with the full pasture bonus.

Each pasture (except my upper gen ones) will usually contain mares from the same generation and line, with a specific breeding goal and a few dedicated stallions. I try to keep enough of a mix of different expressions of base color and different patterns in a single line so I don’t get bored with it, and I’m working on mixing newer genes into established lines (like mixing Chinchilla and nd1 into my established black based Macchiato W8 satin line).

I strongly recommend buying a pasture or two when they are on sale if you can afford it, but plenty of people have no problem producing excellent herds by hand breeding or rotating groups or mares through a few pastures.

kintara · Jun 11, 2019 6:24 AM

I have 36 pastures on this server, can never have too many pastures LOL!! I keep eras and generations separate for when I want to breed them separate. I also keep a couple of empty 10 horse pastures that I use to put horses in to breed. They then go back to their main pasture. I try and keep most intact mares in pastures in case I want to breed them so they get full breeding bonus. I never cull to fit pastures, but sometimes mares just don't get bred if no room in pastures, it doesn't worry me too much as if not in pasture then they will be showing anyway. Some seasons I only breed some of my favourites depending on what I am working on at the time

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