How many animals...?

[Prismatic Junimo]

...is too many? Or, more generally, how many do you aim for?

Up until recently, I only did two coops, and two barns, but my most recent playthrough, I upped it to 4 barns, 4 coops, with 12 of each animal. And while it's a lot of hay to buy (since I don't like growing grass), it definitely pays for itself, even if it is a lot of work for upkeep.

 

[Ereo]

I generally have one coop, one barn, and another barn for dinos cause they would eat my chickens (I know they don't, but they should). I buy one of each animal and try to breed the rest. My coop has 3 chickens (one of each), one rabbit and the rest are ducks.

The barn is a bit more difficult because the birth are so rare.

But it depends on how you want to play. I usually set a theme for each farm. The current one is a "no buy, just forage, keep it natural" theme, and buying a bunch of animals doesn't fit that.

But maybe my next farmer wants to specialize in animal husbandry?

 

[liquidcat]

I did a farm with about 50 pigs, never again. They ate a lot of grass and manually collecting all of the truffle was a pain every morning!

I try to get 2-3 of each animal across my barn and coop now. It's far more manageable for me

 

[Uzzlegorf]

You don't have to collect the truffles every morning, they stay there to the next day... (unless it's the last day of the season)

 

[ThatOneGuy]

One Barn with four cows, goats, and pigs. One Coop with four chickens, ducks, and rabbits, and then another Coop with six dinosaurs and Void Chickens.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I tend to not focus on animals because they require more work than crops and aren't worth as much money. For myself, one barn and one coop is more than plenty. A single goat for bundle completion, a single duck for the same reason, the rest are chickens and cows.

I will say, cheese is pretty awesome. As a salable product, a gifting option, and as a source of health and energy when mining, it's pretty much upper middle tier. The fact that once your cows start reliably producing large milk, you can reliably get gold-star cheese is an added bonus.

On paper, pigs are the most profitable animal, however it's still not nearly as good as most decent cash crops from the perspective of profit per tile, especially once you crank in their foraging area. Maybe one or two if you want, but there's no need to go... hog wild.

 

[Magically Clueless]

i usually do one barn and one coop, but for my current game im considering getting another set

 

[imnvs]

In one of our MP games on a 4 Corner farm, the wife and I have 3 barns (10 cows, 2 pigs, 12 goats, 12 sheep) and 3 coops (5 blue chickens, 1 void chicken, 6 ducks, 12 rabbits, 12 dinos). With two of us working this, it's not a big deal, but the entire southern half of the farm is pasture for those hungry, hungry hippos.

In our Forest Farm we (will, we're not there yet) have 1 barn (4 cows, 4 goats, 3 sheep, 1 pig) and 2 coops (5 blue chickens, 1 void chicken, 6 ducks, 6 rabbits, 6 dinos). In that one we work it so that only one of us is petting the animals and letting them out, and the other takes care of closing up in the evening.

In my old, original, lost save (my new 4 Corners is a do-over of this one), I originally had 3 barns and 3 coops all by myself. That was too much. I was never done with all those animals and processing or storing their produce until after noon every day. I'll never do that much again without help... and even then, probably not.

In my new 4 Corners solo, the same set up that we're shooting for in the Forest Farm MP (1 barn, 2 coops). In that farm, I only need 1 quadrant of my 4 for them and their pasture. I get a steady supply of stuff that I can use for cooking ingredients and bundles and gifts etc. Anything I don't need, gets sold. That's not how I make money, though. It's spare change and stuff.

I don't play optimized, intensive plays like some folk seem to. These aren't as profitable as spending my whole day of play tending a garden? So? I'm not playing Farmville here. There's more to do than just farming. I like having animals, and I absolutely NEVER do a Joja play, always the Community Center, so you need just about 1 of everything at a minimum.

 

[MrTeapoT]

i usually do one barn and one coop

So I am (Hilltop layout)

 

[starbrite]

In my first two playthroughs I did one barn and one coop, but quickly ran out of space and wasn't as productive as I wanted to be. Since I focus on animals a lot, this playthrough I'm doing two barns and two coops. I find goats, cows, chickens and ducks to be the best for me since I can make mayo, cheeses and milks from them. Other than that I usually just have one rabbit, two sheep for wool, then max the rest of the barn out with my main money makers. Having some pigs is nice too for truffles, but truffle oil takes so long to make sometimes so I never have gone over 3-4 pigs.

 

[Quillmagic]

I have 1 barn and two coops. One coop for the regular animals, and one for special animals, i.e. Blue chickens, void chickens, dinosaurs

 

[LoveElliotsHair]

I have two barns and two coops. One is filled with dinosaurs because the eggs are good $$. Duck feathers are good gifts for Elliot and void eggs for Sebastian. Goat cheese is good gifts too. Otherwise I just collect eggs about once a year. I sold the pigs because the truffles are a pain.

 

[lilan castel]

About 10 animals. 8 in a delux coop (2 chickens, 2 void chickens,2 ducks and 2 bunnies) and 2 cows in a barn.

 

[PorkChop]

There is not really a limit. Stardew Valley is open ended. It's what you make it. You could have a peaceful small profit farm with 4 cows 4 chickens, or, you could raise a wild farm of 200 rabbits. It is your choice.

 

[Prismatic Junimo]

There is not really a limit. Stardew Valley is open ended. It's what you make it. You could have a peaceful small profit farm with 4 cows 4 chickens, or, you could raise a wild farm of 200 rabbits. It is your choice.

I know! I'm just curious how other people play - and it seems to be a wide range of interesting answers!

 

[Lew Zealand]

My Vegetables rarely ask to be pet, but the mere existence of the Peach argues that not all Fruit should be treated as such. Crops are also rarely so peripatetic as my Pigs but on the other hand, the Pigs are nice enough not all to become ripe in bunches of 150 on the very day Luck is at its highest and I've got a hot date with Mr. Qi. Well, there will be another high Luck day, dependably on Spring 1 when there's just nothing on the Farm that needs tending at all...

So I keep my Animal husbandry to a minimum and Vegetable husbandry to a relative minimum:

11 Pigs, 1 Cow
10 Dinosaurs (or 10 Ducks on my anachronism-free save), 1 Chicken, 1 Rabbit

Max g for minimum effort, with Eggs and Milk for cooking and Wool for outfits to make me look smashing.

 

[PoppyForPenny]

I've never had more than one barn and one coop. Currently I've got 3 cows, a goat and a pig in the barn. 4 bunnies, 3 chickens, and 2 ducks in the coop. Just 14 animals and no real fence, just a raggedy inefficient line of stumps and saplings. I needed some of them to get my greenhouse. Some were just to keep the others company. And I like rabbit foot for gifts. Hoping to find a dinosaur egg!

 

[Odin]

On my main farm I have one full barn and one full coop, and then a second coop with four dinosaurs. I was thinking about downsizing to just one coop though to both free up some space on the farm and simplify how much I need to do on the farm each day.

 

[DPCisAWESOME]

In my heavily modded game, I'm trying to do a barn/coop for each animal. I'm about halfway there, and I gotta say thank goodness for junimos

 

[chaskuchar]

winter 2, one coop with two chickens, duck and rabbit. barn with cow, pig. goat and sheep. just one of each so far. still waiting for large milk to get greenhouse...