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[SauliusTheBlack]

Hi,

since losing a dwarf to a fey mood due to lack of yarn cloth, i'm thinking about changing my embark profile to accomodate this idiocy.
So the question is:
Sheep, alpaca or llama, and why?

Greetings

[Garath]

I usually go for sheep. They are cheaper iirc and don't eat as much as llamas. Otherwise alpaca, but not llama

[Yovatsap]

Why not Zoidberg?

All jokes aside, I'd say sheep.

[caddybear]

Sheep:
[GRAZER:1200]
[BODY_SIZE:2:0:50000]

Alpaca:
[GRAZER:857]
[BODY_SIZE:2:0:70000]

Llama:
[GRAZER:333]
[BODY_SIZE:2:0:180000]

So yeah, Llamas eat a ton but are big, so should give a lot of meat; although they eat so much grass you'll need to put them in a large pasture. Sheep are small, but easy to take care of if you're in it for the yarn cloth. Alpaca are the middle ground and generally the preferred choice from what I've seen in my travels in bay12.

[Garath]

I'm not sure, but I thought alpaca was 100 embark points and sheep 50

[caddybear]

Indeed, or at least they are twice as valuable as sheep. Which makes sheep win actually.

[SauliusTheBlack]

could someone go digging in the raws or on the wiki(perhaps?) or just tell me how long it takes for a lamb to mature enough to be sheared? This being more cost-effective and all. If not too long, i'd take a ewe and a male lamb. to save embarkpoints
(the rest of my embark is equally cost-effective: ores instead of bars instead of ready-made equipment)

[Garath]

you could take 1 piece of wool cloth with you from the saved cost of taking a lamb instead of a ram?

[SauliusTheBlack]

could be a decent possibility indeed. I'd have to look into it, so tonight, I'll be embark-point juggling again :-)

[Thorik]

Go for all of them for variety!  Otherwise sheep because their prettier.

[SauliusTheBlack]

I hate variety. I brew 2 kinds of booze(never had abouve-ground farms), and slaughter all the animals that are not of the types that I embark with. I do however always breed with these. I make 1 cloth-type clothing, 1 leathertype clothing, and armour from the resources available. I don't have the time nor the patience to entertain llamas and alpacas and sheep together, so nope, only sheep I guess.

[Garath]

I hate variety. I brew 2 kinds of booze(never had abouve-ground farms), and slaughter all the animals that are not of the types that I embark with. I do however always breed with these. I make 1 cloth-type clothing, 1 leathertype clothing, and armour from the resources available. I don't have the time nor the patience to entertain llamas and alpacas and sheep together, so nope, only sheep I guess.

second that. I used to try to breed all animals that I could get my hands on but the result was usually a mess. I was constantly weeding out the weak and skinny types, trying to keep track which superb breeding animals were probably going to die so to butcher them in time, dozens of different pastures, etc. Then I remembered KISS* and stuck to at most 6 sheep, since cows and all the rest don't add anything but extra work for me. Guard animals and such are a different issue ofcourse.

*Keep It Simple, Stupid

[SauliusTheBlack]

I take a breeding pair of cats(and slaughter all but a few kittens), 3 turkey hens and a gobbler, sometimes a set of dogs, and starting tonight a ewe and a male lamb. When I encounter a breeding pair, i mimght switch from turkey to alligator, but never succeeded in those attempts...

[xeniorn]

Alpaca wool is more valuable, so take that into consideration.

It all comes down to preference actually, unless you need huge numbers in which case you definitely go for sheep, since they eat less.

[SauliusTheBlack]

how often can you shear a sheep/alpaca.
How much more valuable, and how much wool per shearing.

in other words:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Pasture
sheep need 4x4, alpaca 5x5, llama 8x8: Are the prices consistent with these numbers?
(quick calculation based on a grassy 40x40 area)
= 100 sheep OR 80 alpacas OR 25 llamas(correct me if I'm wrong)
= if sheep wool = 1, alpaca should be 1.25 and llama should be 4 to be even.