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Breeding Reference

Quick lookup table for every breed's breeding window, gestation length, and litter sizes. Use this when planning herds: when you can buy juveniles for breeding, when males retire, how long pregnancy takes, and how many offspring to budget pen space for.

For per-species context (food, prices, fertility-by-age curves, complications) see the species factsheets and the Breeding Guide.

Note: This documentation was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. If you spot an error, please open an issue.

Reference Table

Each breed has two rows - one for females, one for males. Gestation and litter size are female-only stats, so the male row leaves those columns blank.

Species Breed Sex Breeds from Breeds until¹ Gestation Peak litter (max)²
Cattle Swiss Brown Female 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) 10 mo 1 (max 3)
Male 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) - -
Cattle Holstein Female 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) 10 mo 1 (max 3)
Male 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) - -
Cattle Angus Female 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) 10 mo 1 (max 3)
Male 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) - -
Cattle Limousin Female 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) 10 mo 1 (max 3)
Male 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) - -
Cattle Hereford Female 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) 10 mo 1 (max 3)
Male 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) - -
Cattle Highland (DLC) Female 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) 10 mo 1 (max 3)
Male 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) - -
Cattle Water Buffalo³ Female 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) 10 mo 1 (max 3)
Male 12 mo 132 mo (11 yr) - -
Pigs Berkshire Female 6 mo 96 mo (8 yr) 4 mo 12 (max 16)
Male 8 mo 48 mo (4 yr) - -
Pigs Landrace Female 6 mo 96 mo (8 yr) 4 mo 12 (max 16)
Male 8 mo 48 mo (4 yr) - -
Pigs Black Pied Female 6 mo 96 mo (8 yr) 4 mo 12 (max 16)
Male 8 mo 48 mo (4 yr) - -
Sheep Black Welsh Female 8 mo 120 mo (10 yr) 5 mo 2 (max 3)
Male 5 mo 72 mo (6 yr) - -
Sheep Landrace Female 8 mo 120 mo (10 yr) 5 mo 2 (max 3)
Male 5 mo 72 mo (6 yr) - -
Sheep Steinschaf Female 8 mo 120 mo (10 yr) 5 mo 2 (max 3)
Male 5 mo 72 mo (6 yr) - -
Sheep Swiss Mountain Female 8 mo 120 mo (10 yr) 5 mo 2 (max 3)
Male 5 mo 72 mo (6 yr) - -
Goats Goat³ Female (Doe) 8 mo 120 mo (10 yr) 5 mo 2 (max 3)
Male (Ram Goat) 5 mo 72 mo (6 yr) - -
Horses All 8 colour variants Female (Mare) 22 mo 264 mo (22 yr) 11 mo 1 (max 3)
Male (Stallion) 24 mo 300 mo (25 yr) - -
Chickens Chicken Female (Hen) 6 mo 60 mo (5 yr) 2 mo 5 (max 12)
Male (Rooster) 6 mo 72 mo (6 yr) - -

¹ The male upper limit is scaled by individual fertility genetics. A high-fertility bull may breed past 132 months; a low-fertility one retires earlier. Roosters are the exception: their 72-month cap is absolute and not scaled by genetics. The female limit is the hard end of the fertility curve.

² "Peak" is the typical litter size when a mother conceives. "Max" is the upper bound seen with high-fertility mothers. Litter size is driven by the mother's fertility genetics, not her age - age only affects whether she conceives at all (her fertility curve tapers to zero at the "Breeds until" age).

³ Breed-locked: Water Buffalo only breed with Water Buffalo; Goats only breed with Ram Goats. All other breeds within a species can cross-breed (Angus bull x Holstein cow, Berkshire boar x Landrace sow, etc.). See the Breeding Guide.

Health gate: Every species requires the female to be at 75%+ health to conceive. Below 75%, conception fails entirely. A stillborn newborn can occasionally cost the mother her life too, more so with poor health genetics. See the Breeding Guide for full mechanics.

At a Glance

A few patterns worth highlighting:

  • Pigs have the shortest male window. Boars retire at 4 years while sows breed until 8 - replace breeding boars early.
  • Sheep and goats also asymmetric. Rams retire at 6 years, ewes/does breed until 10.
  • Does and ewes now match. Goats breed from 8 months, the same as sheep - goats are no longer the late starter.
  • Horses are the slowest cycle. 11-month gestation and single foals make horse breeding a long-term investment.
  • Pigs are the fastest. 4-month gestation plus 12-piglet litters means a healthy sow produces 30+ piglets per year at prime age.
  • Roosters retire at 6 years. A rooster sires until 72 months, then stops - unlike other males, the cap is fixed, not genetics-scaled.

See Also