Player-owned farm

The player-owned farm (aka POF) is an activity released on 3 September 2018. It allows players to manage their own livestock at Manor Farm north of East Ardougne, similar to managing their own house and port. It was developed by the mods Raven, Rowley, Chaose, and James H.

Players can start maintaining their livestock by speaking to Granny Potterington at the farm north of Ardougne, requiring at least level 17 in Farming and level 20 in Construction. As with farming fields, players see their own livestock (crops) and not other people's, so the player-owned farm is not instanced.

The player-owned farm features the Farming achievements, and four seasonal music tracks at the farm (which are required for completionist cape). These seasonal music tracks are only available during the respective real-world season or can be listened to/unlocked by using the seasonaliser to change the season at the farm.

Location
The main hub of the player-owned farm is the Manor Farm. The Ardougne lodestone is located directly next to the farm, and the Ardougne cloak provides a teleport to the farming patches. Granny Potterington is located at the centre of the farm, in front of her house.

Tutorial
For the tutorial follow the yellow dots on the ground. Players must first start the tutorial by talking with Granny Potterington and completing the following steps:
 * 1) Pick up Jack the yak from behind the farmhouse and talk to to Granny.
 * 2) Sell Jack to Prezleek (yak buyer), located beside the well in front of the house (gain 500 beans).
 * 3) Buy a deed for a small pen from the Farmers' Market (right-click "farmers' market" on Granny, cost 100 beans).
 * 4) Buy two rabbits from the market and check each of them in the inventory (cost 10 beans each).
 * 5) Build the small pen (click "build" on the broken paddock (small)) and place the two rabbits inside (click "check animals" or use the common brown rabbit on small paddock).
 * 6) Check the rabbits by clicking on them in the pen and click "cure disease". Then investigate all options and choose "administer treatment". Click flu.
 * 7) Talk to Granny to get fruity mush and return to pen to 'fill trough', and head back to Granny.
 * 8) Pass the time with her until the rabbits have matured; talk until option to advance time or wait 22 minutes.
 * 9) Take the two rabbits out of the pen. (Optionally "gather produce" for 275 Farming experience each.)
 * 10) Talk to Granny to get more fruity mush.
 * 11) Bring the rabbits to the breeding pen behind the main farmhouse. Click "check animals" on the breeding paddock or use the rabbit on it.
 * 12) Fill trough. Soon a baby bunny will appear (or talk to Granny to advance time until this happens).
 * 13) Talk to Granny to complete the tutorial.

The baby bred during the tutorial can be sold off to Myfi (rabbit buyer) next to the well. Talking to Granny after the tutorial rewards the player with 100 additional beans and gives information on how the farm works, including buying and selling.

Gameplay
After completing the tutorial players may purchase pen deeds from Farmers' Market to unlock more pens. They can then build pens in which to keep their livestock using Construction materials. Players can build a maximum of two pens of each size; small, medium, and large.

Players can place livestock in their pens and raise them. The types of livestock that players can raise includes rabbits, chickens, chinchompas, sheep, spiders, zygomites, cows, yaks, and dragons. Animals have a "checked" and "unchecked" state. Unchecked animals can be banked, and stack in the player's bank. Once an animal is checked it will no longer stack in the bank and will have unique stats and traits. Checked animals are not tradeable on the Grand Exchange, but it is possible to trade them directly with other players.

An animal's stats include its health and happiness levels and its weight, speed, and attractiveness which are measured in grammes, gallopers, and beauty marks, respectively. Animals have names; there are up to 30 possible names for each gender of each different type of animal. Animals advance through the growth stages of egg, baby, adolescent, adult, and elder, although some animals do not have the egg stage. Players must care for the animals by providing them appropriate food. Farming experience is gained for each stage advanced. Animals may be sold at any stage of their development.

Animals
Different livestock can be obtained via hunter, combat or summoning and from the Grand Exchange. Buyers appear corresponding with whichever livestock is present in the paddocks.

Pens
There are two pens of each size in your farm and one breeding pen. You cannot have different animal types in the same pen, nor put animals in the incorrect-sized pen.

Feeding
Animals require feeding to grow effectively, and retain higher happiness and health levels. Once an animal has been added to a pen, you can fill their trough with suitable elements, listed under the animal's info in the pen or clicking "get info" for animals in your inventory. Add the appropriate food to the trough, which can hold up to 1,000 produce. Food is eaten approximately every two hours and will raise their health and happiness a bit. Foods can be taken out of the trough as mush in order to reuse with other pens, but the original elements cannot be reclaimed. As all food sources result in the same amount of produce, cheaper sources are better.

For fruit, Dell Monti will give 40 pineapples to anybody who has completed the easy Karamja achievements, with an additional 40 cooking apples for those who have completed the elite Karamja achievements. Also if you have completed sub-parts of Recipe for Disaster you are able to buy cooking apples from the chest. Additionally, Arhein in Catherby sells 40 pineapples for 2 coins each per day. While they take 42 hours to grow Arc berries can also be harvested in big numbers and used as fruit.

Seeds such as sunchoke seeds and fly trap seeds sell on the Grand Exchange cheaply and in large quantities, up to 1,000 every four hours. This makes it easy to stockpile a large amount of food. A Master Farmer is also close to the farm, who can be pickpocketed for a vast variety of seeds.

Mushrooms can easily be obtained in large numbers by harvesting mushroom clusters on The Islands That Once Were Turtles, Goshima or Uncharted Isles.

Cows can be killed to quickly obtain large amounts of raw meat. Stocking up on raw meats is most efficiently done by buying raw bird meat packs daily from the shop in Oo'glog after completing the as a First Resort quest. If you need larger quantities than provided by the packs, the shop also sells a variety of other raw meats and is relatively close to a bank.

Noted items can be used to fill the trough by using the item on the trough and then entering the amount of items that one wants to add.

Disease
There is a chance of animals becoming diseased. There are six different diseases with different symptoms. Players will have to correctly identify the animal's disease and cure it to gain Farming experience. To do this players must examine different parts of the animal (such as the mouth, eyes, legs, and stomach) to gain information about symptoms. From this the player can identify the correct disease and cure the animal, no specific item needed. Animals cannot die from a disease, their stats are lowered instead. Using the incorrect treatment would result in lowering the animals' stats further. Curing an animal increases its stats.

There are common symptoms among the diseases (eg. Smelly breath is present in Flu, Curse and Foot-in-mouth). Common symptoms are underlined in the table below.

Breeding
Mature animals can be added to a breeding pen to create baby animals. Animals can only breed in the adult and elder stages, and the breeding pen has four slots, so only one male and one female should be placed in the breeding pen to leave room for two babies. The breeding chance of a pair of animals will be affected by their stats. If their health and happiness are low, their breeding chance is reduced. Make sure they have food and wait. There are treat items, such as special honeycombs and some kinds of milk (strawberry and vanilla milk), that speed up the process a bit. Diseased animals will not breed. If an animal has the "infertile" trait, it will never breed. Players are able to use the breeding process to create specific baby animals and to have particular traits.

Animals of the same species and same gender may result in offspring as if bred, with the text This has a lower overall chance of offspring than a male and female. The bad luck mitigation does not apply to same gender animals.

Animals are able to have up to three traits. There is a chance for players to receive "shiny" animals from breeding. Glistening, Sparkling, and Radiant traits boost this chance. Shiny animals have a different appearance to regular ones, give more Farming experience as they are raised, and are more valuable when sold. You can boost the breeding chance by using the farming perk totems on small pens with elder rabbits in them. The master farmer outfit gives a better chance of positive traits from breeding. To keep track of all the breeds you have already collected, you can go to Granny's faithful companion, Sam the sheepdog, or take the breeding log book from the table and check the status at any time.

Animal specific breeds
 * Breeding kandarin cows with the touch of vanilla, strawberry scent or chocolatey goodness traits have a chance to result in a vanilla cow, strawberry cow or chocolate cow, respectively.
 * Summerdown sheep, springsheared sheep, winterwold sheep and fallfaced sheep can only be bred during their respective seasons.
 * Black sheep can only be bred between 9pm to 9am game time.

To maximize breeding efficiency :
 * Get the mating pair 100% happiness with Delicious honeycomb.
 * Get the mating pair 100% health with Medicinal honeycomb.
 * Put a mating pair that has Studly trait (Virile would be the second best).
 * Tier 2 rabbit perk: have at least 1 elder rabbit in both small pens with a totem for each.
 * Enough food all the time.

Information:
 * Offspring can inherit traits, although it is not guaranteed. Some traits are more dominant than the others and are more likely to be passed on compared to other traits.
 * Mucking out does not affect the chance of breeding.
 * Attractiveness, weight and speed have no effect on breeding. So no use for corresponding honeycombs.
 * Having a 3rd mature animal in the breeding pen does not increase the breeding chance. It is better to have just 2 for having an extra space for a second baby.
 * Interbreeding of the variants of the same species is possible. For example, a Common rabbit and a Piscatorian rabbit could give a Common rabbit or a Piscatorian rabbit.
 * Breeding variants of different species is also possible. For example, two Rellekkan rabbits could give a Piscatorian rabbit as a baby.
 * The rabbit breeding perk is multiplicative. It would increase the dragons' breeding chance from 80 to 88%.
 * There is bad luck mitigation, which means that if your breed chance fails five times you get a guaranteed success.

Selling
Players may sell their animals for beans. The number of beans depends on the species, stage of growth, traits, etc.

When first starting out, it may be easier and quicker to buy baby animals from the farmers' market for the specific seller. Buy two extra animals (one male and one female). Once all babies are adolescents, keep the best two and sell the others. At adolescent stage, you'll receive more beans than you spent and this will help get the breeding off the ground.

Other bonuses:
 * +5% : Animal farmer outfit
 * +10%: Master farmer outfit
 * +10%: Buyers' preferred breed
 * +10%: Buyers' preferred trait

Players can sell up to 12 small animals, 8 medium, and 6 large, daily, to their respective buyer.

The following table displays an animals' growth stage and its standard selling price, not taking into account the buyers' preferences nor master farmer outfit bonuses.

Buyers
The buyers change daily and will default to the animals that players have in their paddocks or, if the paddock is empty, the lowest level animal type of that size (rabbits, sheep or cows). If you have more than one type of animal of a particular size, the buyer has an equal chance of wanting either of them. If you want a specific buyer to spawn, it is a strategy to remove all the animals you don’t want the buyer for prior to reset, that way, the buyer will spawn according to your desires, providing that it will spawn that day.

Buyers' reset
 * Small buyers reset every day.
 * Medium buyers reset every 2 days, stays for up to 2 days.
 * Large buyers reset every 3 days, stays for up to 3 days.
 * Buyers can be dismissed, however, this does not help you in any way.

[#buyerTimerTable Update table timers] (last updated: (UTC))

Growth stages
Most animals have four growth stages: baby, adolescent, adult, and elder. The exceptions to this are chickens, spiders, and dragons, which start out as eggs and therefore have five stages. Each stage takes a certain length of time and will advance if the animal is in the pen, even if you are logged out. Animals will not advance growth stages while in your inventory or bank.

Baby animals may be born when the player is away from the farm or is not logged in. The baby animals won't grow till you see the message: in the chat once you are on your farm / logged back in on the farm.

Following traits that will speed up the process by % of time for the animals the trait is on.

Virile: 3%

Good Breeding: 5%

Note: The values in this table have not yet been confirmed, therefore they might not be accurate.

Gathered produce
Every time one of your animals grow, you can gather its produce for items and Farming XP. The XP from harvesting is not affected by bonus XP or other XP modifiers, but it will fill Farming urns. This table does not take into account animal traits, nor master farmer outfit bonuses.

Perks
Once an animal reaches the elder growth level the player will receive less for selling them. However, elder animals may be added to a pen with a farm totem (bought from Farmers' Market) for a chance to gain a perk that affects gameplay outside of the area. Possible perks include a chance to gain a clue scroll from harvesting; increased damage to all spiders including Araxxor/Araxxi; and a chance to save skillchompas. There will be a total of 12 animal perks: 1 per gender for cows, chickens, and sheep; and one each for the other animal types.

By adding an elder animal to a pen equipped with a farm totem, players receive a Tier 1 perk. By putting the same species of animal in the second pen that is also equipped with a farm totem, players instead receive the Tier 2 perk. Animals that have male/female perks that differ but occupy the same pen (equipped with a farm totem) will receive both the male and female version of the perk.

Traits
Any animal may have up to three different traits. The amount and nature of these traits is random but can be influenced by various traits. Traits can also be re-rolled by using a trait re-roller, though only one trait can be re-rolled at a time. The master farmer outfit gives a better chance of positive traits from breeding.

Mucking out
Each animal produces different types of muck in their paddock. When you "muck out", you gain Farming experience depending on the type of muck that you attempt to clear. The amount of muck in each pile varies (minimum = 1, maximum = 20).

Mucking out for cows 20 times is needed for I Hardly Manure achievement. It is not important if you do it in a large pen or while they are in the breeding pen.

Muck does not affect animal stats or breeding chance, so its only use would be for XP/master farmer fragments or if you need them for composting, but for each of these uses there are better methods (except for Dragon manure).

You can collect all 3 kinds of manure (Manure, Green or Dragon) if you have an empty bucket in your inventory, but you cannot collect droppings (Mammal or Bird).

Manure is used for regular compost. Green manure is used for supercompost. Dragon manure is used for Ultra Compost, which increases yield of Farming patches and dramatically decreases disease chance.

Manure mound
The manure mound can be found north-east of Granny Potterington's house. It may be continuously turned for Farming experience. Strange rocks, golden rocks, and master farmer fragments can be obtained from turning the manure. Mod Daze's homework and Mod Dolan's rubber duck can also be obtained here.

Pickle the cat
Pickle the cat may be talked to using a catspeak amulet or a cramulet. If he has caught 10 or more mice, talking to him will complete the In a Pickle achievement.

Beehives and Milk
Players can interact with the beehives behind the large pen on the east side of the farm. Certain types of plants may be added to a beehive which can result in a variety of different honeycombs. Unlike the food troughs, the plants must be un-noted. Each beehive produces one honeycomb from one flower on the hour, provided flowers have been added, and insect repellent is required to harvest honeycombs. Honeycombs can only be used at certain animal growth stages. Beehives can hold up to 27 flowers per type of flower per full load. Although different flowers can be placed in a single hive, it is probably better to use one type per hive for organizational purposes. If different flowers are put into a single hive, the production of special honey will be in the same order as the flowers were put in.

Given that the price of Marigolds in the Grand Exchange is high at the moment due to high demand, a viable option is to buy the 10 marigold seeds from Olivia in Draynor Village or Coeden in Priffdinas and farm them in the flower patches since they only take around 18 minutes to fully grow.

There are only 2 kinds of milk that can improve the stats of any animal. Chocolatey milk and plain Milk have no effect. In the long run it would be a less reliable source of stat boosters comparing to beehives as their production is limited by the cows' growth stages.

Farmers' Market
The Farmers' Market is the shop operated by Granny Potterington. Various farm upgrades and other Farming-related items can be purchased using beans.

Music unlocked

 * Autumn Breeze
 * Ms Granny Potterington
 * The Sight Of Spring
 * Summer Lovin'
 * Winter Workin' Night and Day

Trivia

 * The animal stats for Weight, Attractiveness, and Speed are currently purely cosmetic. There were plans for shows for the animals to compare your animals with other players' that would provide a prize for the heaviest, prettiest, or fastest animals entered. These plans were placed on hold for the moment.