Thank you for asking this question! I myself noticed this discrepancy between these suttas regarding livestock raising a few months ago. I read the commentarial explanation and wasn’t sure how plausible it is linguistically. I cannot help but wonder if the commentators also saw a possible contradiction between these two suttas and tried resolving it with dubious linguistics.
Part of the problem is that AN 5.177 has literally no context; it’s not even clear who its speaking. Also, does anyone else find it a bit strange that a teaching for laypeople is being addressed to monks? AN 8.54 and AN 8.55 are addressed to lay people. On top of this, AN 8.54 and AN 8.55 have Agama parallels, while AN 5.177 does not (at least not according to Sutta Central).
I guess the point that I’m trying to make is that I’m more inclined to put weight behind AN 8.54-55 than AN 5.177, if that makes sense.
Does anyone know of any Agamas that talk about wrong livelihood?