If you’ve spent any time building a farm in Enshrouded’s post-apocalyptic open world, you’ve probably run into the common headache of keeping your goat herd fed without draining all your foraging supplies. Figuring out how to feed goats enshrouded doesn’t have to be a guessing game, though. I’ve spent over 40 hours testing different feeding strategies across three playthroughs, and I’ve landed on a system that works for both small starter bases and large endgame farms. You won’t have to spend half your play session scrounging for berries once you nail this routine.
What Do Goats in Enshrouded Prefer to Eat?
First off, you don’t have to overcomplicate goat diets in Enshrouded, but you do need to know which foods give you the best return on investment. Goats will eat three main forage types, but not all are equal when it comes to effort vs. benefit. Wild berries are the easiest option for new players, as they spawn everywhere in the starting meadow areas, but they give the lowest nutrition per item. Hay bales are the mid-tier option, crafted from grass you harvest with a scythe, and they last twice as long as berries per feeding. Alfalfa sprouts are the highest tier option, grown from seeds you can find in abandoned farm chests, and they give a 30% boost to milk and wool production when used consistently.
I used to rely exclusively on berries for my first herd, and I was spending 20 minutes every play session picking them just to keep three goats alive. Switching to hay cut my feeding time down by 75% almost immediately. You can unlock the hay bale crafting recipe as soon as you build your first farm station, so there’s no reason to stick to berries once you get past the first few hours of gameplay.
How to Feed Goats in Enshrouded Without Wasting Resources
Once you know your food options, setting up an efficient feeding routine is easy if you follow a few simple rules. The biggest mistake new players make is dumping all their forage into the goat trough at once, which leads to spoilage if you’re away from your base for more than a few in-game days. Follow these steps to cut waste and keep your herd fed even when you’re off exploring the Shroud:
- Fill troughs only to 50% capacity if you’re leaving base for less than 3 in-game days, and 75% max if you’re gone for a full week. Any more than that will lead to 20% or more of the food spoiling before goats can eat it.
- Prioritize hay bales for daily feeding, and save alfalfa sprouts for days when you plan to harvest wool or milk right after feeding to get the full production boost.
- Add one handful of wild berries per goat per day only if you have extra stock lying around – don’t go out of your way to forage them once you can craft hay.
You don’t need to feed goats every single real-time minute, either. The game only checks trough levels once every in-game 12 hours, so you can top them off once per play session and be fine. I’ve forgotten to feed my herd for up to two real hours while clearing a Shroud dungeon, and none of them got sick or stopped producing as long as the trough had at least a little hay left when I left.
Common Goat Feeding Mistakes to Avoid
Even with a basic routine down, there are a few easy mistakes that can derail your goat farm if you’re not paying attention. The most common one I see new players make is feeding goats the same food they use for sheep or cows. Goats have different nutritional needs, so feeding them cattle feed will cut their production by 40% and make them more likely to get sick if you don’t supplement with forage.
Another mistake is placing troughs too close to Shroud areas. If the trough is even partially covered by Shroud mist, the food inside will spoil three times faster, even if you’re using long-lasting hay bales. Always place your goat pen and troughs at least 20 meters away from any Shroud border to avoid this issue. I learned this the hard way when I built my first farm near a small Shroud patch, and I lost three full hay bales to spoilage in less than two in-game days. You also don’t need to buy expensive feed from wandering traders unless you’re in a real pinch. Most traders charge 10 coins per hay bale, which is a huge waste of currency you could be using for better tools or building materials.
Long-Term Feeding Setups for Large Goat Herds
Once you get to mid-game and have 10 or more goats, a basic daily feeding routine won’t cut it anymore. You’ll need a scalable setup that lets you go weeks without having to tend to the troughs if you’re busy with main quests or base upgrades. The first step is to plant a dedicated alfalfa field next to your goat pen. One 8x8 plot of alfalfa will produce enough sprouts to feed 15 goats full-time, plus give you the extra production boost for every harvest.
Pair your alfalfa field with an automated thresher to turn excess grass into hay bales without any manual work on your end. I have my thresher set up to pull grass from my storage chests automatically, and it produces 20 hay bales a day without me lifting a finger. You can also add a second trough for excess berries if you have a foraging follower assigned to collect wild resources. This way, you never run out of backup food if your alfalfa harvest is delayed by bad weather or a Shroud incursion. The only downside to this setup is that it takes around 200 stone and 50 wood to build the thresher and alfalfa planters, but it pays for itself in less than 10 hours of playtime.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to feed goats enshrouded is way simpler than most players make it out to be. You don’t need fancy upgrades or rare resources to keep your herd happy and productive, just a little planning and a routine that fits your playstyle. If you’re just starting out, stick to hay bales and avoid the common mistakes we covered, and you’ll have a steady supply of wool and milk for all your crafting needs in no time. Don’t be afraid to tweak the routine to fit your base size and how often you log on, either – the best feeding setup is the one that works for you, not the one you see in some endgame build guide.