Chances are if you’ve just started playing Stardew Valley, you’re already pretty familiar with how to grow your own produce efficiently. But when it comes to doing the same with animals, that may be a little more difficult. As such, we’re going to go over how to milk cows and explain the best way to do it while saving time.
Stardew Valley | How to Milk Cows
To milk a cow in Stardew Valley, you’re going to need a couple of items. Of course, you’ll first need a cow, which requires a Barn and a Silo. Once you have that all set up, you’re going to need a Milk Pail, which can be purchased from Marnie’s Ranch for 1,000 Gold. To get the milk, simply walk up to the cow with the Milk Pail in hand and interact with it.
Cows will produce milk daily, provided they have a sufficient level of happiness and friendship. This is fairly easy to do, as feeding and milking them will increase these stats. After these have both been maxed out, the cows will start producing large milk, which is more valuable.
If you’re just starting out your journey on the farm and have no idea how to milk a cow, don’t worry, it’s easy! To start, you’ll need to build a Barn. This will require an investment of 6,000 Gold, 350 wood, and 150 stone at the Carpenter’s Shop. The barn will take up a 7×4 area on your farm, and the base version can hold four animals.
Additionally, you’ll want to set up a way to feed your animals. The best way to do this is to set up a Silo, which means another trip to the Carpenter’s Shop. This will set you back another 100 Gold, as well as 100 stone, 10 clay, and five copper bars. Once you have a Silo, you’ll be able to collect hay, which you’ll use to feed all your animals.
Hay can be collected by using a scythe on the grass throughout your farm, and will automatically go into the Silo. Each Silo will hold 240 hay and take up a 3×3 area on the farm. This combined with the relatively low building cost makes it pretty simple to get multiple Silos set up as you expand your Barns and Coops.
Now that you have all that set up, you can finally buy your cow. Doing so will cost you 1,500 Gold each, and we recommend only purchasing two of them. When you first purchase the cows they’ll start as calves, but after five days they’ll fully mature and be ready for milking.
Milk has a variety of uses, primarily for cooking. If you have another source of food already, you can use the milk to create cheese, an artisan good that sells for up to 644 Gold, with the proper levels and quality. A creative player can use cheese presses and casks to set up a farm dedicated to cheese production.
Hopefully this guide will make learning how to milk a cow Stardew Valley a bit easier for new players. And for more experienced players, hopefully you got some new ideas on how to build your farm in your next playthrough.
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