Livestock — Hearthfolk

Pasture Basics

A pasture is placed by clicking 4 corners to outline its area — bigger pastures hold more animals. Each pasture is set to one animal type at a time, which you can change from the building info panel.

Pastures need at least one worker (Herding profession) to produce continuous output like wool, milk, and eggs, and to collect slaughter yield when animals age out. An unstaffed pasture will still breed animals, but any meat or hides from old-age deaths will be lost.

The Four Animals

Animal	Space needed	Matures	Continuous output	Slaughter yield
Sheep	3 cells each	1 year	Wool every cycle	Mutton on death
Cattle	6 cells each	2 years	Milk every cycle	Beef + hides on death
Pigs	2 cells each	1 year	None	Pork on death
Chickens	1 cell each	1 year	Eggs every cycle	Chicken meat on death

Note: Pigs produce no continuous output — all their value comes from slaughter. They're efficient in terms of space and fast to mature, but they won't give you anything until they're butchered or die of old age.

Note: Cattle are the only source of hides from domestic animals — needed for the leatherworking chain that leads to clothing. Cattle cost the most space, but their hides make them doubly useful.

Breeding and Herd Growth

Every Spring, each pasture checks its mature animals and breeds new ones automatically:

Requires at least 2 mature adults
Produces roughly one new young animal per pair
If the pasture is at capacity, the oldest mature animal is slaughtered first to make room

This means a healthy herd self-sustains indefinitely. A pasture with only one mature animal will never grow on its own — you'll need to buy more from the travelling merchant.

Feeding for Bonus Output

You can turn on the fodder toggle for any pasture. When enabled, your villagers will deliver grain or turnips from the barn to keep the animals fed. Fed animals produce 50% more continuous output each cycle (wool, milk, eggs).

Feeding is entirely optional — unfed animals still produce at base rate. But if you have surplus grain in Summer, routing some of it to the pastures is an easy productivity boost.

Animal	Accepted fodder
Sheep, Cattle, Pigs	Wheat, barley, corn, rye, or turnips
Chickens	Wheat, barley, corn, or rye (no turnips)

Getting Animals

Livestock must be purchased from the travelling merchant. Animals cannot be caught from the wild — that's what the Hunter's Lodge is for. See the Wildlife guide for hunting wild animals.

Once purchased, animals walk to their assigned pasture on their own.

Tips for New Players

Start with sheep or chickens. They need less space and mature in a year. Cattle are worth it long-term, but they're a larger investment up front.
Always staff your pastures. An unstaffed pasture loses all slaughter yield when animals die of old age. One worker is enough.
Buy at least 2 of each. A single animal will never breed. Start with at least a pair so your herd can grow.
Sheep + cattle = warmth. The wool-to-cloth-to-clothing chain needs sheep. The leather-to-clothing chain needs cattle hides. Both are important if you want well-dressed villagers heading into Winter.