Stardew Valley is a world designed to be like a dream. Your own little patch of heaven. But, as a farmer, you are missing something when you just start out: Your own animals! In order to own cows, pigs, and other livestock in Stardew Valley, you are going to need to invest in a Barn. These traditional red buildings are what you need if you want to take care of – and profit off of – animals.
The Barn is a large, 7×4 building which holds various livestock for production of goods or for selling in their entirety. However, it can be a little difficult to build one in the first place. This guide will explain the steps you need to take before you purchase your first. Plus, we’ll give tips on how you can care for your animals once construction is complete.
How To Get A Barn
In order to get your first Barn, you will need to go to the Carpenter’s Shop, the building that Robin is in. To get the building, walk in and talk to Robin to access the construction menu. There you can construct any building that you’ve unlocked, just so long as you can pay the price. You need 6,000g, 350 Wood, and 150 Stone to build your first Barn.
Once you place it, Robin needs a few days in order to fully construct it. It doesn’t function as a method to hold livestock during that time, but you can talk to Robin and give her gifts while she’s working.
You can purchase some animals from Marnie’s Ranch for a specific price. Cows, for instance, cost 1,500g each. You cannot purchase other types of animals while you have your first upgrade. The only other type of animal that you can put in a standard Barn is an Ostrich, which is a random drop or a reward for completing Journal Scrap #10.
Barn Upgrades
Once you have a Barn, you can upgrade to a Big Barn, and then to a Deluxe Barn. The first upgrade costs 12,000g, 450 Wood, and 200 Stone, as well as three days of Robin’s time. A Deluxe one costs 25,000g, 550 Wood, and 300 Stone. These replace the earlier upgrade.
The Big Barn allows you to care for Goats. It also allows your animals to have a small chance to become pregnant and produce another member of their species. It has a maximum capacity of 8.
The Deluxe Barn allows you to care for Sheep and Pigs, as well as the Cows, Sheep, and Ostriches you had before. This building can hold 12 livestock and comes with an Autofeed system that can help provide your animals with sustenance. You do have to provide the food, though, so be sure to double-check it after a few days to make sure it hasn’t spent too much.
Goats, Sheep, and Pigs can all be purchased from Marnie, although most of them cost quite a bit of gold. Goats produce Goat Milk, Sheep produce Wool, and Pigs can find Truffles. They all can pay for themselves within a few months once they reach adulthood, though the Pig is a random-chance nightmare. Huge chance to produce extra funds once they reach high friendship, though.
Interestingly enough, once you’ve upgraded a single Barn to either Big or Deluxe, any lower-level structure can hold any other type of animal. They will not have the additional features of, say, the Deluxe version, but a normal Barn can hold Pigs once you have one building at the max upgrade.
Caring For Barn Animals
There are a few things you must do when caring for your barn animals. You must feed them, pet them, milk them, and let them graze. This means your structure should be in a grassy area and you must make the effort to speak with animals every day if you want them to reach maximum efficiency.
Animals have several benefits at high friendship, such as higher quality produce, a higher sell cost, and a better chance to keep a high mood. To befriend your animals, make sure you visit each of them during the day to talk with them and milk them (if they can be milked). We recommend doing this early in the morning to prevent losing track of your animals over the course of the day. They will wander and graze at their leisure if not inside of the building or in a fenced enclosure.
They also must be wrangled up at night and put under a roof. They will normally do this by themselves, as long as the door is open. Just check your farm really quick at a round 6 pm to ensure that no animals have gotten caught on anything. A fence – or a bunch of tea saplings – can keep animals in manageable areas and guarantee that they have room to graze. This is especially important for Pigs, since they require open tiles to find their truffles.
Once you reach endgame, there are a few things you can do to automate the process of animal care.
- The Autofeed System, that comes with the Deluxe Farm, will feed animals every day if food is left in it.
- The Auto-Grabber will automatically milk your farm animals and collect their produce.
- The Auto-Petter, purchased from JojaMart or random treasure chests in Skull Cavern, will pet your animals content, but will not improve friendship by a significant amount. You can use the Auto-Petter and normal petting to improve friendship extremely quickly, though.
These are not early game luxuries, though. Be prepared to not see these goods until much later on in your farming careers.
Expert Tip
If any animals are left outside and are having trouble getting back in, try to head into the barn or leave the farm to let the animals teleport inside. Leaving an animal outside will give them the “Grumpy” condition, making them not super helpful for profits. Close the door after they return home to prevent mishaps and to let you pet and feed them before they go out to graze.
