Stardew Valley – What Do Cows Eat?

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In Stardew Valley players will do their best to bring back the glory of their grandfather’s farm as they plant crops, mine for ores, and grow animals.

One of the most popular and profitable animals in Stardew Valley is the Cow. Cows are the only source of Milk in the game (Goat Milk is considered a different item), and you will need a few to produce Cheese.

Recommended Read: What Gifts Does Gus Like in Stardew Valley?

However, to get Milk from Cows on a daily basis and make a lot of money, you will need to keep them happy. And, to keep them happy, you will need to feed them. But what do Cows eat in Stardew Valley?

Cows in Stardew Valley either eat grass from the ground if you leave them to roam or Hay from the feeding bench inside their Barn.


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What Do Cows Eat in Stardew Valley?

Cows only eat two things in Stardew Valley:

  • Grass
  • Hay

Grass

Grass is the harder resource to provide since you don’t really have control over grass growth.

Grass will randomly grow all over your farm, and your Barn animals, including the Cows, will eat it when they roam around outside during the day.

Of course, there is the Grass Starter item that will allow you to plant grass. Grass continuously grows on surrounding tiles each day, so you won’t have a problem making it reproduce.

You will just need to contain it with fences, since otherwise it will take over the farm and will slow down your movement, along with lowering your visibility.

You can purchase the Grass Starter from Pierre’s for just 100 g. The problem is that these animals will instantly eat that patch of grass when it grows, so you will need a few more if you want to exclusively feed them grass.

A good idea would be to make the layout of the area where you want to raise your animals and already plant some grass there. After a few days, you should have a large area of enclosed grass ready for your Cows to eat.

Hay

If you build a Silo on your farm from Robin’s Carpenter Shop, you can start collecting Hay to feed your Cows in Stardew Valley.

Each time you cut grass with a basic Scythe, you have a 50% chance of collecting Hay, which will instantly teleport into the Silo.

All Barns and Coops have a hopper which allows you to pick up Hay from the Silo.

You can’t just approach the Silo and get Hay out of it. You will need to go inside the Barn and interact with the brown “box” that has Hay sticking out.

Once you pick up the Hay from the hopper inside the Barn, you just need to place it on the feeder to the right, where you can see spots resembling slots.

Players can also use this opportunity to just pick up the Hay and place it inside a chest for the coming Winter since the Silo has an upper limit on how much Hay it can hold.

This works only if there isn’t Hay on any one of the feeder’s slots.

This way, you will know exactly how much Hay you have, and you will have enough food for your Cows to last you any season.


That’s everything you need to know about what Cows eat in Stardew Valley!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Adrian Oprea

Based in London, United Kingdom, Adrian Oprea is a Guides Writer. As a professional single-player RPG player, Adrian has often been stigmatized. He has decided to pour his frustration into writing guides!

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