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If you’re keeping any livestock on your farm inStardew Valley, they’ll feast on wild grasses throughout the warmer months if allowed to go outside, but what about during the winter when plants don’t grow so well and the animals are hesitant to leave the warmth of the barn?
By puttingHayinto the feeders in any of your barns and coops in Stardew Valley, you’ll be able to stockpile any grasses you cut throughout the year to use to feed your animals through the Winter. Marnie also sells some in her shop, if you’re ever truly in a pickle.
Even if you’re not raising livestock, you’ll still need ten pieces of Hay for the Bulletin Board bundle in the Community Center, so it never hurts to know how to gather it!
Where To Find Hay In Stardew Valley
Build A Silo And Use Your Scythes
When you begin playing Stardew Valley, you’ll be given a handful of starter tools, one of them being aScythe. This is the tool you’ll use to clear out a few ground-based plants likeWheat, but its most important use early in the game isclearing out grasses and weedsnot only on your farmland to clear it out a bit and get started on your farming journey. You’ll also find Grass you can cut down with the Scythe around Pelican Town or inside the occasional Mine floors if you’ve ventured inside.
However, you’d be wise tobuild a Silo on the farm firstbefore you get too wild with clearing out the grasses around your property, especially if you’re trying to get Hay. When you clear grasses withoutbuilding a Silo, you’ll just clear the tile and have a chance to getFiberandMixed Seeds, but waiting until you’ve built a Silo on your property will allow you tocut Hay from Grass when using your Scythe. Any Hay you cut in this fashion will beautomatically added to an empty Siloon your farm, right up until it reaches capacity at240 pieces of Hayper Silo built.
As such, if you’ve got several Barn or Coop on the farm and plan to rise quite a few animals, you may want to consider building additional Silos in time (though you’ll only need one to begin collecting Hay, which can then also be stored in chests or feeders). If you’re planning to raise livestock on your farm, you may want toconsider building a Silo right awaybefore springing for the barns or coops, since you’ve got quite a lot of grass to cut eventually, and you’re wasting free resources for every tile you clear before building a Silo.
Be sure tomanually fill your troughsfor your animals until you’ve also invested in feeders or barns/coops that have auto-feeding capabilities!
Better Scythes And Different Grass Types Gather More Hay
The beginner’sScythegives you a50 percent chanceto get a portion of Hay from any Grass you cut, but you canfind better Scythesto increase your chancesof cutting Hay when clearing that tile. If you reach the end of the Quarry Mine and take theGolden Scythefrom the statue there, the odds of cutting Hay from grassincrease to 75 percent. If you’vereached Farming Mastery, theIridium Scytheguarantees a piece of Hay every time you cut a tile of Grass with it.
Additionally, if you’re playing on theMeadowlands Farmintroduced in the March 2024 update, you’ll be able to growBlue Grasson your farm as well. Not only does this give your animals more friendship points when eaten from the ground outside, butcutting Blue Grasswith any Scythe will producetwo pieces of Hayinstead of the singular piece given from normal grasses and weeds.
But it’s not just Grass that offers Hay when cut! Once you’ve reached the Summer season, you’ll be able to purchase the seeds to grow Wheat back on your farm. Like Amaranth and Kale, you’ll need touse your Scythe to harvest Wheatonce it’s fully grown, and each Wheat plant has a chance to also produce a piece of Hay if you’ve got a Silo on the property.
Hay from Wheat plants is stored in your player’s inventory, not added directly to the Silos like the Hay from Grass.
Other Ways To Find Hay
Get Hay From Shops (For Pretty High Prices)
If you’re raising animals on your Pelican Town farm, you’re not the only resident to do so!Marnieis the livestock farmer who lives just south of your farm in the Cindersap Forest by the path leading east into Pelican Town, and she’s your go-to source for animal goods and anything you may need to help care for your own back at home.
While Marnie’s shop hours are somewhat inconsistent if you don’t have theAnimal Catalogue, she’s open between the hours of 9AM and 4PM Wednesdays through Sundays (except festival days and for the occasional doctor’s appointment for her orJas). Here, you canbuy Hay from Marnie’s shopif you’ve not cut enough yourself using your Scythe, which will cost50g per piece. It gets pretty pricey to rely on Marnie’s to be your main source of Hay in Stardew Valley, so we definitely recommend farming your own!
That said, while Marnie hates getting Hay as a gift (just asall the other villagers do), she’s more than willing to give it! By progressing your friendship with Marnie, you mayoccasionally receive a stack of Hayin the mail for free from your fellow animal-loving farmer.
you may also head out to Calico Desert once the bus service has been restored to Pelican Town, where you’ll findthe Desert Traderon the side of the road that takes you into the desert. If you speak to theDesert Trader on Mondays, you can purchase Hay at a rate of three pieces for oneOmni Geode. If you’re visitingduring the Desert Festival, Marnie may also have some Hay at her stall if she’s vending that day.
Use The Volcano Forge For The Haymaker Enchantment
Once you get further into playing Stardew Valley, you’llsail off to Ginger Islandand attempt to reach the final level ofthe Volcano Dungeonthat awaits you there, but it’s not just new resources and stocks of gems you’ll find there. If you reach the top, you’ll gain access to theVolcano Forge, a machine with the power to improve your weapons and tools in a variety of cool ways in exchange for onePrismatic Shardand 20 pieces ofCinder Shard.
WhileEnchantments are given randomlywhen you choose to enchant your tools and weapons in Stardew Valley, one of the options you can receive is theHaymakerenchantment, eligible to end up on any weapon you’re enchanting. While it doesn’t offer much in the way of combat boosts like the other four Enchantments better suited for fighting and bringing into the Mines or the Skull Cavern, the Haymaker perk definitely has its uses.
Not only does cutting weeds and grasses with a weapon that currently has the Haymaker Enchantment give you vastly more Fiber, but it can also give you a chance tocut Hay with that weapon. Like Hay chopped with any of your Scythes, this will be added right into the Silos back at your farm.
