There’s One Trick Every Stardew Valley Farm Should Use To Save Space & Keep Animals Happy

Taking care of a herd of animals in Stardew Valley is a lot of work. Players have to tend to their chickens, cows, ducks, goats, rabbits, sheep, and pigs every single day to keep them happy. Not to mention the effort that goes into keeping the flock fed through every season, since players have to provide ample space for grass to grow in warmer months and plenty of hay for Winter.

As a player grows their farm, adding barns, coops, and larger farming plots with the aid of sprinklers, they’ll find how quickly space runs out. Since more space on the farm equals more profit, considering the large areas needed for crops and for kegs, casks, oil makers, bee houses, and preserves jars, being economical with land usage is a big deal for later game farms. Thankfully, there is a workaround for players who need every square inch of space on their farms.

Silos Can Take Up Too Much Room On Stardew Valley Farms

A Building For Just One Season

The one building that takes up far too much space on the farm is the silo. An incredibly important building, at least for one month, the silo stores hay for every animal to snack on throughout the coldest parts of the year when they won’t go outside to eat the plentiful grass. Silos take up a 3×3 space and store only 240 hay, which isn’t very much when players start upgrading their farms and taking care of larger numbers of animals.

It only costs 100g, alongside 100 stone, 10 clay, and 5 copper bars to build one silo.

A single silo feeds nine animals throughout Winter, so any farms with at least one Deluxe Barn and one Deluxe Coop (each houses 12 animals) would need three silos. That’s a lot of space taken up to feed animals for a single season of the year.

How To Store Hay For The Winter With One Silo

Save Space And Keep Your Animals Well-Fed

There is a way to get through the entire Winter season with only one silo taking up space on the farm. As explained by Reddit user lookforazebra, the strategy is to put a chest next to the silo. Once the silo has enough hay inside, players can repeatedly withdraw hay from the hoppers in a barn or coop and simply place it in the chest until the silo is empty. Players can fit much more hay in their chests than the silo can fit, which doesn’t make much sense with the logic of structural sizing, but Stardew Valley does also feature a talking mouse who sells hats.

The only drawback to this strategy is that it can’t be done efficiently if players only have barns or coops that have auto-feeders. Stardew Valley only allows players to take out an amount of hay equal to the empty spots on the feeding bench. Unfortunately, there are never any empty spaces on the bench when players have upgraded to an auto-feeder. There’s no way to simply take the hay off of the bench either, so the only way to get hay with an auto-feeder is to use a bomb inside the barn or coop, which can feel overkill for 12 pieces of hay.

Silos Can’t Be Upgraded, But Chests Can

This Building Needs An Update

Unlike practically every other building players can build on their farm with the help of Robin, silos cannot be upgraded. This is a major drawback when taking care of animals, since players will have to keep dedicating more space to feeding their herd for a single season of the year. Not being able to upgrade the silo feels like a major oversight, especially since big chests were introduced by ConcernedApe in the 1.6 update for Stardew Valley earlier this year.

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The big chest is a simple upgrade to the classic storage solution, which holds 70 item slots for different items. When compared to the normal chest’s 36 item slots, the big chest seems like a worthy investment. Players can get the recipe for this upgraded storage from Robin, and it costs 120 wood and two copper bars to build, which does seem like a lot compared to the simple 50 wood needed for a normal chest.

If any Stardew Valley players want to truly upgrade their storage and keep their animals fed for Winter without sacrificing space on their farm, all they’ll need is one barn or coop that doesn’t have an auto-feeder, one silo, and one chest or big chest if they feel that they’ll need even more storage. The silo might be a Stardew Valley staple, but it’s at its best when accompanied by a little extra strategy and some unconventional techniques.

Source: lookforazebra/Reddit