The Best livestock for production?

[... Off The Bone]

Im trying to figure out which animals are worth keeping around, what animals are best for their respective industry? Like

Best wool producer?
Livestock that provides the most meat?
Best milk producer?
Best egg layer?
Best leather farm?
Best pets?

[[MadTs] Phyrys]

Dunno the best of the best but Yak is a no-brainer, like its real life counterpart. It gives wool and milk on a good basis and eats frankly not much for what it gives. Butchering them returns all types of ivory and even gives far more meat than any other wool producers.

Edit : I said ♥♥♥♥ on the last part, yaks aren't shearable on DF for I don't know whatever reason. The best allrounder be the humble sheep, then.

[Fel]

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Creature#Livestock_and_Domestic_Animals

Llamas are the best for wool, producing stacks of 15 wool compared to 7 for alpaca or sheep.
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Llama

For meat, water buffalo are the best in terms of meat per animal among the domestic animals.
They reach their maximum size at the age of 2 (like most creatures except those growing slowly).
The downside is that they are grazers and those eat grass based on their size (well, volume but it's the same thing in this game).
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Water_buffalo

A good alternative are pigs, they produce a lot less meat per individual but they don't require any grazing so they can be bred indoors.
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Pig

Turkeys are the best for eggs, and unlike most other egg-layers they also give some meat when butchered.
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Turkey

For leather, most animals give 1 raw hide (except if they have scales or chitin) and you can make 1 leather from it, no matter the size of the creature.
They are a side product of the meat and bones for the most part and if you need large amounts you probably are better off buying bins full of leather from traders.

For pets, two-humped camels have the highest pet value among the domestic animals but they are grazers so they are not the best to keep.
Pigs are the best among non-grazers in terms of value.
Dogs have a much lower value but they can be trained for war, doubling as a safety mechanism that will protect the dwarves if anything hostile shows up among your civilians.



Note that all of that is only based on the domestic animals.
For example, a gigantic tortoise or a unicorn are among the best pets but getting them requires some luck (either from elf traders or by capturing, taming and breeding them if they show up in your fort's area.
There are some like cave crcodiles that lay a ridiculous amount of eggs at once (between 20 and 60) and so on.

Quite a few also have a value multiplier for all of their butchering produces, meaning that meat, bones, leather and so on will have their value multiplied.

[... Off The Bone]

Originally posted by Fel:

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Creature#Livestock_and_Domestic_Animals

Llamas are the best for wool, producing stacks of 15 wool compared to 7 for alpaca or sheep.
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Llama

For meat, water buffalo are the best in terms of meat per animal among the domestic animals.
They reach their maximum size at the age of 2 (like most creatures except those growing slowly).
The downside is that they are grazers and those eat grass based on their size (well, volume but it's the same thing in this game).
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Water_buffalo

A good alternative are pigs, they produce a lot less meat per individual but they don't require any grazing so they can be bred indoors.
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Pig

Turkeys are the best for eggs, and unlike most other egg-layers they also give some meat when butchered.
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Turkey

For leather, most animals give 1 raw hide (except if they have scales or chitin) and you can make 1 leather from it, no matter the size of the creature.
They are a side product of the meat and bones for the most part and if you need large amounts you probably are better off buying bins full of leather from traders.

For pets, two-humped camels have the highest pet value among the domestic animals but they are grazers so they are not the best to keep.
Pigs are the best among non-grazers in terms of value.
Dogs have a much lower value but they can be trained for war, doubling as a safety mechanism that will protect the dwarves if anything hostile shows up among your civilians.



Note that all of that is only based on the domestic animals.
For example, a gigantic tortoise or a unicorn are among the best pets but getting them requires some luck (either from elf traders or by capturing, taming and breeding them if they show up in your fort's area.
There are some like cave crcodiles that lay a ridiculous amount of eggs at once (between 20 and 60) and so on.

Quite a few also have a value multiplier for all of their butchering produces, meaning that meat, bones, leather and so on will have their value multiplied.

What about crocs for eggs?

[Loues.S.Cat]

I'm open to correction on this, but....
If you want to pick from what dwarfs can start with...

Wool is sheep because cheap and don't eat much. Alpacas are also good but not llamas. Never llamas.

most meat: I never focused on meat industry. Generally bigger is better for meat, but keep in mind birth rate and growth time. An animal that produces 100 meat as an adult but takes 10 years to get there and only produces 1 kid in that time isn't going to be worth as much as a flock of birds/reptiles that produce 5 each, grow to adulthood in a year and produce eggs in groups of 3-8. that said... it is probably cows. wait.. 10-14 meat for a year... huh.... ummm... Peacocks 6-9 meat after a year and produce babies in bulk unlike cows. So my emergency fall back animal has been shoring up the weak meat production of my wool flock without me ever realising it... huh. >.>

Milk: umm.. sheep.... okay I never worry about milk either. I am fairly sure all animals are milked at exactly the same rate, but I am not sure if there is a difference in the quantity they make... so.. the answer is whatever mammal you have for meat/wool/bone/ect. production?

Egg: turt... uh peacocks... unless you really want the eggs, in which case chickens.
Peacocks vs Chickens
eggs: 6-8 vs 4-15
but
meat & fat: 6-9 vs 2-6
Bones 4-6 vs 0-4
Peacocks also live longer but.. that has never been a factor for me >.>

Leather: ... I don't actually know. Sheep! just go with sheep and/or peacocks XD
Well.. cows are 10 times the size of sheep so... maybe? Leather is.... a steeping stone so getting it is only as side effect of my yarn clothing industry, and it is used as a stepping stone toward metal armour >.> but hey, it is probably either peacocks or cows XD

You don't need to min-max farming. You are often better off picking a decent all rounder like... sheep and sticking with that since it simply covers all the bases. Mono-species herds/flocks are much easier and more effective overall since you need fewer males. that said, I love sheep as my main and peacocks as my fall back just in case. they cover all the bases, have decent if not exceptional production of everything and you can start with a decent sized group of them at a low cost.

Ignore the prides of Giant lions or other big cats wandering around almost all my fortresses!

Edit: no llamas because they eat too much for me to pasture inside my fortress as the flock sizes I like to maintain >.>
They eat out all the fungus and starve!

[Rat Master Keyser]

I find the best animals for forts very dependent on the embark location and my personal goals for the fort. That said, I tend to like sheep, pigs, and turkeys. Sheep because they don't need very much space for grazing, and can support all livestock related industries - with exception of eggs. I like pigs because they don't need to graze, so they are a good solution for barren types of embarks. Same goes for turkeys, they don't need to graze, and lay a high average of 12 eggs, and still provide meat and leather.

So for example, on a normal/graze able embark I'll be bringing sheep. On a barren one, it will be pigs. Turkeys are usually brought on all types of embarks, especially if I don't believe I will be able to forage on the surface.

For other, non-domestic animals, it is a matter of what I can catch in cage traps. For cavern animals, I like elk birds and crave crocs. Crundles lay alot of eggs but don't provide leather when butchered, so I only use them in a pinch and pretty much just for eggs.

[Fel]

Originally posted by ... Off The Bone:

What about crocs for eggs?

I specifically based my answer on domestic animals.
Saltwater crocodiles lay eggs in batches of 20 to 70 for example, not that you would need that many but that's a different thing entirely.

The page I linked at the top of my previous post has a list of all creatures, not with all data but it tells you which lay eggs so you can open individual pages and see their data on the right for eggs, meat and so on.

Originally posted by Loues.S.Cat:

I'm open to correction on this, but....
If you want to pick from what dwarfs can start with...

Wool is sheep because cheap and don't eat much. Alpacas are also good but not llamas. Never llamas.
Edit: no llamas because they eat too much for me to pasture inside my fortress as the flock sizes I like to maintain >.>
They eat out all the fungus and starve!

They give more than twice the wool per animal, so you need less than half the amount of animals as well.
They end up eating a bit more grass/fungus but not by an overwhelming amount, so it is easy to maintain about 6 to 10 outside and they produce more wool than you need to cloth your population.

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Grazer
A sheep requires 5.95 tiles per entity, a llama requires 15.54.
The amount of tiles per wool ends up as 0.85 for the sheep and 1.036 for llama.
Funny enough, the alpaca that you said are "also good" ends up with 1.09 tiles per wool, so worse than llama.

If you are limited in pasture size, sheep are good, but you will need more of them to get a similar amount of wool.

most meat: I never focused on meat industry. Generally bigger is better for meat, but keep in mind birth rate and growth time. An animal that produces 100 meat as an adult but takes 10 years to get there and only produces 1 kid in that time isn't going to be worth as much as a flock of birds/reptiles that produce 5 each, grow to adulthood in a year and produce eggs in groups of 3-8. that said... it is probably cows. wait.. 10-14 meat for a year... huh.... ummm... Peacocks 6-9 meat after a year and produce babies in bulk unlike cows. So my emergency fall back animal has been shoring up the weak meat production of my wool flock without me ever realising it... huh. >.>

Most domestic animals grow into adults in 1 year and max size (meaning max yield when butchered) in 2.
My preference for meat tends to go towards pigs (if culling the numbers for the other animals is not enough of course) because they don't graze, which is a rather big plus since you can just put them in a relatively small "room" near your butchery.

Blue peafowls (peacocks) do grow twice as fast, reaching their maximum size in 1 year instead of 2 so they can be a surprisingly decent source of meat indeed.

Egg: turt... uh peacocks... unless you really want the eggs, in which case chickens.
Peacocks vs Chickens
eggs: 6-8 vs 4-15
but
meat & fat: 6-9 vs 2-6
Bones 4-6 vs 0-4
Peacocks also live longer but.. that has never been a factor for me >.>

Turkeys take longer to grow to full size (for butchering) but they are adult after 1 year just the same and produce more eggs on average (10-14).
If you intend to use them for butchering then the other two are relevant but for eggs at least they are better by a fair margin.
Not sure why you specifically opted to not point to them.

Leather: ... I don't actually know. Sheep! just go with sheep and/or peacocks XD
Well.. cows are 10 times the size of sheep so... maybe? Leather is.... a steeping stone so getting it is only as side effect of my yarn clothing industry, and it is used as a stepping stone toward metal armour >.> but hey, it is probably either peacocks or cows XD

You get 1 raw skin, so 1 leather per creature, no matter the size.
Fast growing ones, preferably non-grazers like blue peafowls would probably be good but it would be hard to be as good as importing whole bins of it from traders and you would have to handle all of the side products as well (could be a plus but that's a lot of bones and skulls).

You don't need to min-max farming. You are often better off picking a decent all rounder like... sheep and sticking with that since it simply covers all the bases. Mono-species herds/flocks are much easier and more effective overall since you need fewer males. that said, I love sheep as my main and peacocks as my fall back just in case. they cover all the bases, have decent if not exceptional production of everything and you can start with a decent sized group of them at a low cost.

Ignore the prides of Giant lions or other big cats wandering around almost all my fortresses!

It is definitely easier to handle having just a few species than to have the "best" in each category.
My usual picks are sheep (I know, I said llama as "best" but I also prefer sheep), pigs and turkeys, and I often end up having way too much of everything regardless of what is "best" anyway.
Especially since I prefer plant-based clothing since it is more valuable and easier to mass-produce.

Things are also different between using auto butcher fro dfhack or not, huge batches of baby animals can instead be detrimental to your game's performances if you don't regularly take care of their numbers.

[Empath demon]

I start with 4 peahens for quick food but don't need them after a year or two. I bring two sheep, and them plus whatever comes with migrants is more than enough wool (plant cloth is more valuable). And I tend to primarily buy rhino/elephant/giraffe leather (5x value) in bulk from traders rather than farm my own unless there's a high value creature I can trap and tame. See the Multiply Value entry in the wiki for more info.

A common one for me is grizzly bears. They grow pretty fast, breed in good numbers, have a 3x parts multiplier, and can be trained as war animals (warbears, hell yeah). Humans often have them for request if you look for them or luck out.

[... Off The Bone]

Originally posted by Empath demon:

I start with 4 peahens for quick food but don't need them after a year or two. I bring two sheep, and them plus whatever comes with migrants is more than enough wool (plant cloth is more valuable). And I tend to primarily buy rhino/elephant/giraffe leather (5x value) in bulk from traders rather than farm my own unless there's a high value creature I can trap and tame. See the Multiply Value entry in the wiki for more info.

A common one for me is grizzly bears. They grow pretty fast, breed in good numbers, have a 3x parts multiplier, and can be trained as war animals (warbears, hell yeah). Humans often have them for request if you look for them or luck out.

Ill check the entry, thanks so much

[Loues.S.Cat]

Originally posted by Fel:

Originally posted by Loues.S.Cat:

Wool is sheep because cheap and don't eat much. Alpacas are also good but not llamas. Never llamas.
Edit: no llamas because they eat too much for me to pasture inside my fortress as the flock sizes I like to maintain >.>
They eat out all the fungus and starve!

They give more than twice the wool per animal, so you need less than half the amount of animals as well.
They end up eating a bit more grass/fungus but not by an overwhelming amount, so it is easy to maintain about 6 to 10 outside and they produce more wool than you need to cloth your population.

100% prepared to accept this as true. Still going sheep. I /used/ to go with alpacas religiously, but... I also love starting fortresses on the side of volcanoes, in the shadow of a necromancers tower, in evil biomes and on young worlds. So. when I say Sheep because cheap... cheap means I start with extra wood in case none grows on the map. an extra pick so I can burrow down to the caverns extra quick so I can get fungus growing because there is no grass. and sink multiple boar holes seeking out the aquafer I know is somewhere but could very well be below the first cavern layer (as I found from experience) because I need mud desperately to keep my flock alive and get farming going. Not to mention that extra wood and material I got because sheep=cheap sets up my surface wall, trade post and the bridge that covers my entrance so I can hide from the evil weather and wandering undead hoards that will end up on my doorstep. in my case, eats less is a dramatic increase in the odds of making it to sustainability ohh and if you are going to suggest sticking with birds and buying sheep after... see the wandering undead hoards.. like 90% chance of any given trader not surviving to reach trade post and I aint going up there to get their stuff... certainly not before I have a self refreshing bath or steam decontamination tunnel to wash off anything and everything that has been on the surface.
And a magma pit to dispose of rabbits in... We are NOT having a repeat of the zombie bunny incident.

Originally posted by Fel:

My preference for meat tends to go towards pigs (if culling the numbers for the other animals is not enough of course) because they don't graze, which is a rather big plus since you can just put them in a relatively small "room" near your butchery.

This is good to know. Never tried pigs personally meat is just a side effect of wool & leather for me. I'll keep the option for essentially free meat in my back pocket in case it shows up as a possibility post embark.

Originally posted by Fel:

Not sure why you specifically opted to not point to them.

Probably because my style of play punishes specialisation without flexibility... sometimes my meat, bone and leather industries do end up 100% dependant on my poultry... Gosh those poor alpacas... they did not deserve that flock of thrall giant vultures did to them.

Originally posted by Fel:

You get 1 raw skin, so 1 leather per creature, no matter the size.

so best option is... Sheep! Hey I was technically right on this one! (technicly I guess it was actualy turkies but... I'll just ignore them)

Originally posted by Fel:

It is definitely easier to handle having just a few species than to have the "best" in each category.
My usual picks are sheep (I know, I said llama as "best" but I also prefer sheep), pigs and turkeys, and I often end up having way too much of everything regardless of what is "best" anyway.
Especially since I prefer plant-based clothing since it is more valuable and easier to mass-produce.

Things are also different between using auto butcher fro dfhack or not, huge batches of baby animals can instead be detrimental to your game's performances if you don't regularly take care of their numbers.

I swapped from chickens to Peacocks because before I knew DFHace was a thing, and before Steam DF I had to manage my flocks and peafowl were just clearly out breeding the chickens.
and yes, auto nestbox and auto butcher are the life micromanagement saver I can't do without now!
but... plant based clothing hey... hmmm.... when I can grab a spot on the surface I always go for rope reed for paper making with pigtails as my fallback in case of.... surface problems. I suppose pigtails could be used in conjunction for cloth... I could try this. see if I can kill off my sheep industry entirely... that would also reduce bone and leather though... but I could dial up poultry!
I used to do pigtail cloth... why did I ever stop.... was rope reed more valuable? It is. It was 100% resale value driven. For a while I had both which was for easy segragation of fabric / paper as well but clearly I gave up on that... because sheep.. my sheep survived embark more often so I got wool. hah. It all makes sense now.
If only you could shear Giant War Lions. This would solve so many of my fortress problems.

[Lamp]

Domesticated unicorns on one run, got rich off various unicorn goods. Was a long time ago now but I recall the value being pretty huge.

[Fel]

Originally posted by Loues.S.Cat:

Originally posted by Fel:

You get 1 raw skin, so 1 leather per creature, no matter the size.

so best option is... Sheep! Hey I was technically right on this one! (technicly I guess it was actualy turkies but... I'll just ignore them)

Well, if you really want to go for a lot of leather, you would want an animal that doesn't graze, and perhaps even one that gives little to no meat and bones, because 1 piece of leather per butchered animal means you will need a whole lot of them if you want to sustain a leather industry.
It is completely optional though, between the bins full of leather from merchants and the fact that you don't actually need that industry (you can make the majority of things from either cloth or metal and it is easier too).

Chickens tend to be a good candidate for leather since they can multiply quickly, don't graze and give a raw skin when butchered.
If not for their tendency of adopting dwarves, cats would be pretty decent as well.

If you can capture (or trade with elves) some creatures that lay even more eggs then it would be even better, crocodiles (cave or salt water) or other reptiles can be good candidates for it but the best would be iguanas (either normal or giant) since their average egg count is higher.

https://www.dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Egg_production
(there is a table that you can order by number of eggs)


But yeah, sheep are great as an overall animal, their only downside is that they are grazers but since they are relatively small it isn't as big of an issue.

By the way, you don't necessarily "need" to embark with extra animals (except as food rations perhaps) since you can order some from dwarven caravans when you are settled enough to be able to keep them safe, unless of course you are in a place that is out of reach.
On the other hand, animals can distract agressive animals when just starting a new fort in a dangerous locale, so cheap ones can be a way to ensure the safety of your dwarves.