Actually, he wouldn't need to, as he would know his animals as individuals (excluding newborns), just like Ma and Pa Kettle knew their children by name not number. When the stead has more than can be known as individuals, someone can be paid a few of the animals to track the rest, just as someone could be paid to read for the farmers if they had received a written communication. In the case of less important animals, like broiler chickens, he would have single-sized coops with single-length rows, and use those to do his counting for him.
> When said farmer is searching for his lost sheep in the woods and spots
> a large party of broos down a gully, can he report back an actual number to his chief?
No. The broos do not stand in a line making it easy to count them, after all. First, accurate scouting is a (military, not ag) skill, and secondly, the farmer is more likely to just panic and run back screaming for the Uroxi. OTOH, a rough count will be possible, and probably less rough than most of us would manage.
> Regarding 1000 coins; When an urban tax collector, who collects taxes in coin,
> finds himself and his guards bound and locked in his own strong room, some
> Heortling (ex) farmers might find themselves in a position of possessing more
> coins than they have ever seen before.
> -Terry
Until they are outlawed to keep the Lunar Army from wiping out the entire clan or even tribe in retribution :-) . Then, they will have to give up farming and run away to somewhere that will keep them out of the Lunar clutches -- some anti-Lunar hero band, probably, where they have to convert themselves into permanent warriors rather than the part-timers that they were.
Actually, their best bet if they have the taxman in that position is to chase off the REAL outlaws (like the REAL killer of OJ's ex-wife?) and hope for his gratitude. If they cannot do that, because the taxman already knows that they trapped him, they had better be able to fed his guards and him to a gorp, because merely killing him will not be enough for the Empire to not identify the farmers and kill them and a few hundred or thousand of their closest friends and relatives.
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