Manor Lords has quite a few different types of livestock, some of which, such as oxen and horses, are used for utility as beasts of burden. Since I assume you’re not a peasant from the Middle Ages, it can be difficult to discern their purposes, so I’m going to demystify them for you.
Note that some livestock have similar uses, but all of them have different purposes. It’s never an either/or decision where you need to choose between strengths and weaknesses for a task. There is no overlap. With that in mind, here are the different livestock.
To note, these are the Livestock you can buy at the Livestock Trading Post. There are also goats and chicken that are kept at Artisan plots and produce food. These are simply passive resources, and you don’t need to actually worry about the animals themselves.
What are Oxen for in Manor Lords
Oxen are your absolute most important livestock in Manor Lords. So much so that among your starting resources for a new colony, you are provided with an ox.
The oxen are what move most resources through your colony. To get timber from a Logging Camp to your Storehouse, you need Oxen. There’s no way around it. Without them, no resources will be moved to a construction site, which means you won’t be able to build anything. It doesn’t matter how many villagers you have, without Oxen, everything will grind to a halt.
Oxen are mainly held at Hitching Posts and Small Stables. If you have the Heavy Plow technology unlocked, you can assign them to a farm, but they will be housed at the Stables/Hitching Post. It’s not a bad idea to have multiple of these throughout your village to accommodate a growing herd of Ox.
What are Horses for in Manor Lords
In Manor Lords, horses are for your traders to go to travel with. That’s it. Like Oxen, you can house them at a Hitching Post or Small Stables, but they are exclusively used by traders who come and go from your village. You can also house them at a Pack Station, but not directly at a Trading Post.
Horses will not haul resources within your town like an Ox. Likewise, they will not be used to transport goods between your regions like a Mule. If you want good, fast trade, you’ll want multiple horses.
What are Mules for in Manor Lords
While similar in function to horses, Mules transport goods between your regions using a Pack Station. When managing multiple regions, you will want to exploit what each one is best at. For example, when you have ones that are capable of deep mining, you’ll want to distribute their ore and rocks to other regions that have expended their resources.
To clarify, Mules do not haul resources within your village like oxen. They also do not leave the map to trade with off-screen regions like Horses. They are specifically for moving goods between regions using a Pack Station.
What are Sheep for in Manor Lords
Sheep have a couple of important functions in Manor Lords. The most obvious one is that if you keep a Sheep Farm, your sheep will occasionally be sheered, and their wool can be traded as-is or used to make yarn. Yarn can then be combined with dye to make cloaks at the Tailor.
Their second usage is to pasture on fallow fields when you have the Fertilizer technology unlocked and the Fence In upgrade installed on a field. This is the best way to restore soil fertility to an area.
What are Lambs for in Manor Lords
In Manor Lords (and in reality) lambs are baby sheep. If you have the Sheepbreeding technology, lambs will show up over time in your flock of Sheep and eventually age into full-grown sheep. However, they can be imported as lambs and left to grow or exported for wealth.