I tried my hand at building some new cow pens in the would be agriculture district so that we can get rid of the ones on top of the hill. The new pens were something of an experiment, and after some issues and knowledge gained I took them down. Here's a few thing I learned to more effectively mass produce cow goods:

1. The pen should be at least 2 blocks tall make of solid blocks (not fences).
2. The shape of the pens should be rectangular since its better suited to herding cows during breeding and slaughter. The pen should be no more than 5-6 blocks wide and 10-13 blocks long. Any larger and the cows' range of movement becomes a problem during slaughter.
3. The pens should each be separated by a decent distance. A full pen can lower your frame-rate a bit. Several pens can make it hard to move (learned the hard way).
4. The best measure for a full pen of cows is through breeding them. If the pen is able to consume a stack of wheat or more, then it is at a sustainable capacity for slaughter after breeding. It's important the cows are bred before slaughter.
5. When slaughtering cows, a looting sword is always best since it creates a chance of more drops and killing less cows. If a looting sword is not available, wolves are the best alternative since they derive all the benefits of a sword without necessitating damage to an actual sword.

Neat stuff. On another note, I haven't really seen much of other folks from Amani recently, where is everyone? My trading has been picking up and we still need to get the ball rolling on the city.