Surfent can legitimately choose the Ranch
The acquired v1.0.3 Surfent record has Watering 3 and Ranching 2 and its Ranch pool includes Leather. A Surfent grazing while a crop waits can be following a valid competing job, rather than lacking its old watering ability.
Make the assignment intentional
- Choose whether this individual is covering water work or Leather production for the current cycle.
- Open the Monitoring Stand and disable Ranching for a water specialist.
- Use a fixed assignment where the waiting watering job is the production bottleneck.
- Provide access to the work location, food and storage; test whether the task resumes.
- Re-enable Ranching deliberately when Leather becomes the target, instead of expecting two simultaneous jobs.
When to choose each role
Keep Watering enabled when plantations, mills or crusher inputs hold up food/material production and no replacement covers the job. Choose Ranching for a Leather stock target when the water line is already staffed. Periodic drops need time and transport; grazing does not mean a Leather item must appear immediately.
Normal assignment drift versus an Alpha bug
Official v1.0.3 specifically fixes Alpha Surfent failing to produce Leather at a Ranch. That is a separate issue from a normal Surfent choosing Ranching over Watering. Check build, variant and assignment before reusing an early-access guide that describes Surfent as water-only.