What's your game plan here? Are you wanting lots of money? Are you needing to complete the community center still?

Pigs are by far the most profitable animal overall. With the gatherer and botanist professions, truffles are insanely good, and don't even really require processing (gains from processing are marginal and only if you have the artisanal profession). The only downside is that barns chock full of pigs will blanket the area with too many truffles unless you're picking them up every day, and they can never benefit from an auto-grabber. Thus pigs are relatively high maintenance if you get tons of them.

You'll always want to keep a few cows whatever you do. Milk and cheese are very useful in cooking. Goats aren't as good as cows though, and really you'll only need goats for the purposes of the animal bundle in the community center and for completing your shipping list. Otherwise avoid them.

Ostriches can be good in high numbers, but are harder to scale up to since you can only incubate the eggs and not buy the creatures. They lay a single egg per week but you get 10 mayonnaise from it...that's nice since it'll reduce your maintenance work.

Sheep are good for one thing only: factory farming. Pack a barn or two with sheep and take the rancher/shepherd professions. Watch that wool roll in. You'll go crazy if you don't have an auto-grabber though. If it's late game, you can get an auto-petter too and never worry about petting the sheep again...just pick up the wool now and then and sell it raw and unprocessed. You can make up to 68k per week from such a barn and never have to pet the sheep.

Coop animals aren't as great for profit, and I tend to use coops more for resource production than money.

Chickens and void chickens are both pretty good for money since they produce eggs everyday. Turn the eggs into mayonnaise or cook with them, but you won't get much for unprocessed eggs. Void chickens are interesting because if you're making mayonnaise from the eggs then their heart level won't affect your output at all, so you don't even need to pet them.

Rabbit's feet are phenomenal gifts, so I always have at least a pair of rabbits going. They'll also give you wool for your animal bundle, but they won't make you much money.

Ducks aren't as profitable as plain ol' chickens, but duck feathers are useful for the dye bundle and as gifts for a couple of people (Elliot and Leo). Buy a pair of them in your first year but buy them on back-to-back days so that they alternate production...you'll only need one mayonnaise machine for the two of them.

Never use dinosaurs. They produce less than half the value than chickens do over time, though they're extremely low maintenance since their heart level won't affect the quality of their produce at all if you're making mayonnaise. You can get dinosaur eggs from the skull caverns for the few times you need it during the game (completing your shipping list and for the missing bundle).

(I'm ignoring gold chickens, which have triple the profit margin of regular chickens but are only available so late in the game that it doesn't much matter.)

Generally I think a mix of everything is best for coops, but it really depends on what you still need to accomplish in the game. Plain ol' chickens are the best profit potential here, but you won't make much money at all without turning those eggs into mayonnaise, so it's fairly high-maintenance work compared to things like a barn full of sheep with the shepherd profession.

pigs goats ducks rabbits void chicken dinosaur

Personally I say do what makes you happy. I have a barn with two goats, one pig, rest cows. Then I have two coops - one with a rabbit, three ducks, and the rest chickens. My second coop is split evenly between blue chickens, void chickens, and dinosaurs

Personally I dedicate a couple barns just for pigs, then one barn with all the other animals. For coops, one full of chickens, one of void chickens, then one with all the others. Late game I add another for >!golden chickens!<

Pigs can make you a lot of money thanks to truffle oil, but you can't automate picking up truffles, and they are useless in winter.

Cows are great for high cheese production. I use golden cheese as non-buff food for the mines, and it still can fetch a good price. Goat cheese is better if you want to sell, though.

Duck and dinosaur mayonnaise are the best for earning money. Void chickens have the advantage of always laying large eggs, and they only have one color. So you have a lot more room in your inventory, and their mayo sells for almost as much as golden star mayo. Plus, you don't have to raise teir friendship if you don't want to, since they always lay the same egg size.

I haven't looked into rabbits enough to know if they are good. Their rabbit legs sell for a lot, but they also spawn quite rarely.

Thanks for doing the maths on this, and for sharing.

&#x200B;

>Dinos, goats, ducks, and rabbits are not worth it

Except cute. I must have them. 😏

Large eggs seem a lot closer to 100% if you pet them regularly, which likely pulls regular mayo ahead of or at least even with void mayo.

I mostly just keep chickens, ducks and cows.

I actually like the first two tier colors the most for those. And tier doesnt matter to actual resources gotten.

As a completionist, who is also very late game. I keep four of each kind of animal, which is kinda a lot, but I like it. Two are tier 1, so like the first pair I get, because of sentimental reasons, and because they will be the quickest to give golden products. I bred my way up from those, usually doing one small and one large animal at a time. Now here at the "end" I have two tier 5 or 6 for prestige and for the winter festival.

I have my ducks and chickens together, bunnies and capybaras together, sheep and alpacas together and horses and cows together. I keep them all in Large barns/coops with space for 12 in each, which gave me plenty of breeding space. I have two chests near my house, one for food, treats and the breeding biscuits, and another for all animal produce.

Starting with large barns/coops and tons of animals is not really feasible, so just start small with some chicken and cows in small barns/coops and then go from there.

Chickens, ducks, cows and sheep are the most useful imo

I grew up playing Pokemon so I had to catch 'em all. I keep a few of each animal type and have bred all the tier 6 ones. 

I didn't get them all at once though. I started with cows and chickens and bought more whenever I felt like it. 

A small tip: Hayden has a daycare service. He will store your animals free of charge and for an unlimited amount of time. You can get them back 24/7, whenever you feel like it. I don't think there's a limit to how many animals you can drop off, either. So basically whenever the responsibility of ranching becomes too much to bear, you can just dump them at Hayden's and make them his problem. 

I started with chickens, then branched out to cows once I could afford a barn. Since then I've started rabbits and horses, but I'm holding off on the rest right now!

pigs are the best animal to invest in as truffles are worth quite a lot, but pigs cost 16k and require a deluxe barn so they’re more of a late game upgrade. for early game i would upgrade the coop for ducks. eventually they produce not just eggs but feathers too.

The best profit per day is chickens in the coop and pigs (cows are 2nd) in the barn.

Void chickens are good.. pigs for truffles and goats for their cheese if you can age it but cows are good too for their cheese also but I use cow cheese for food and gifts

I recommend cows for start, at their max heart they'll give 285-380 money per day. Also you can make cheese and sell at their lower heart levels that costs 230-345. After buying like 12 cows to a deluxe barn. I'll recommend building a new deluxe barn and buy sheep (If you choose Rancher(5) and Shepherd(10) skills and get max heart they will produce wool everyday that costs 612-816, also shepherd skill will increase to get hearts with barn animals, so it will be a lot easier). If you need more money you can buy pigs that produces truffles that costs 937-1250 everyday when it has max heart. But truffles can't be collected with auto-grabber (You can buy it with 25.000 at farming level 10 from Marnie's Ranch. It collects cow's milk, goat's milk, wool and all coop products when it is in that building.) If you need time to do other things like skull cavern mining, mines mining, gifting everyone. I don't recommend pigs because they will drop truffles random places at your farm, so you need to search them to collect.

if you have the artisan perks 100% you want goats and ducks as goat cheese and duck mayonnaise will be highest value once processed. for the long game you want pigs because truffles will bring in bank, especially if you process them into oil.

if you fully upgrade your coop, definitely get rabbits - they only produce wool sometimes but you really want them for the rabbit foot drops. thats a universally loved gift which can be useful for upgrading relationships with townspeople

i always run artisan so tbh dont know what the best bets are if you dont.

Well, obviously golden chicken will be the most profit (considering how much effort it requires to get it would be reddicilous if it would not) But untill you get it, I never counted the actual profit but I may assume that void chicken are great simply because they lay eggs every day and their eggs and mayo are more expensive than of regular chickens. Second I think it would be just regular chickens and ducks. Also ducks can swim so they are the winners for sure! (but coop full of blue chickens looks like dream also)

Dinos and void chickens are low maintenance (dinos are low yield while voids are high), brown/white/blue chickens are higher maintenance.

I have a coop for each dinos, ducks/rabbits, and chickens/voids all being pet daily and i tend to stockpile dino mayo to sell in winter for a night market nest egg since it’s extremely profitable, but it’s definitely not the best coop moneymaker overall. I just love dinosaurs lol.

Dinos aren't profitable. Chickens are the best with mayo machines. Ducks were buffed this update so they're good too.

If you don't like to spend time on petting animals, get void chickens.

Indeed! A dinosaur only gives you one egg every seven days. A void Chicken gives you an egg every day. Base price for void mayonnaise is 275. Dinosaur eggs can be turned into mayonnaise and sold for a base price of 800. However, you only get an egg every 7 days. With a void chicken you could be making $1925 in that same time period. Ducks give you eggs every two days and their base sell price for mayonnaise is 375. On average you would get around 1312.5 per week per duck if you were to do that. So while chickens give you more money in the long run, void chickens give you more money in the short and medium run.

While raising multiple animals is more fun and you get different products, from a profitability standpoint chickens are the most profitable for the coop. Base price for chicken mayonnaise is $190 which you can make every day. Ducks give you higher priced eggs but only every other day. So while duck mayonnaise sells at a base price of $375 on average you would get $1312.5 per week whereas you can get $1330 per week with chickens. The difference becomes more substantial as you become better friends with your chickens. So if you want half the work for slightly less money ducks would probably be your best option. This could let you focus on other aspects of your farm ☺️

Edit: added a lot of additional information about dinosaur and void chickens.

If you're talking pure profit, not worth it.

Of the normal animals, chickens are the most profitable per animal when all the work is put in.

Void chickens come next. Makes less than happy chickens, but that's also a bonus not needing to worry about daily pets/outside grazing.

Ducks take a decent hit to daily profits, but also less maintenance. Producing every other day either means visiting half as often to collect, or have half the coop offset to reduce the needed machines.

Rabbits aren't really good profit-wise, but the items themselves are good to get.

Then come dinos. You get the benefit of both a longer production cycle and not needing to worry about happiness, but you make half as much profits. The only value is that they produce every 7 days, so you can choose which day of the week to collect.

All that said, why wouldn't you want to raise a dino.

Chickens are the most profitable. I tend to have 2 ducks, 1 Dino, 1 rabbit and 8 chickens.

Regular chickens at 5 hearts are the best because they produce every day.

With the artisan perk a single chicken will be worth 2793g per week (7 x 399), while a dinosaur only produces once (1120g per week).

I have a deluxe coop full of chickens and by the end of the month (I only sell at the end of every month, on the 28th) the mayonnaise from the eggs alone earns me between 40-90k gold depending on happiness (grass-fed is happier = more big eggs for gold quality).

After that, I would say pigs but they're a trade-off. Chickens are 800g iirc but pigs are 16,000g. A barn full of them is 192,000g not including add on prices (like auto petters and pickers, etc) and pigs only garner profit when they can go outside (so not on a rainy/stormy day and never in winter). However, truffles make huge money when high heart pigs can go outside especially if theyre iridium quality (lvl 5 gatherer > lvl 10 botantist).

So really it's just about how you like to play. I prefer mining vs taking care of animals and planting crops so I have less animals which means less time I have to pet them and more time for me to go mining. If you're a casual player, chickens do more than enough for good profit. Get a coop of them. Get two even, lol. If you like the min/max profit stuff, I would get pigs, for truffles and eventually truffle oil. But have fun regardless!

Edit: Dinosaurs, while fun to have, make significantly less profit than chickens and even their mayonnaise doesn't do quite well. Only have Dinosaurs if you think they're fun to have (I have some on my first save because I thought they were cute lol). Void chickens do outperform regular chickens on a normal day. Their sell price is usually quite stable, as you have 4 levels to choose from (normal, silver, gold, iridium) and they're all the same size, whereas brown and white chickens can go small or large (and only large eggs make mayo as you know) and they fluctuate.

So since you're doing your second coop, I would still stick to chickens. Unless you want a rabbit or two, they're good for wool and their feet are great gifts/have a great sell price too!

Rabbits- Rabbits Foot- universal loved gift minus Penny

Chickens

Basic Chickens.

I personally also recommend only keeping brown or white chickens. Brown eggs and white eggs are functionally the same, but having both take up inventory slots can be annoying. (It’s also worth noting that >!Blue chickens produce white eggs!<)

White, Brown, or >!Blue!< chickens. The rest are more novelty or variety.

Chickens.

No joke.

Chickens are the most profitable.

Rabbits are good for gifts though. Rabbits foot is a universally loved gift, except penny I think.

What the flip you can choose which one to get? I needed to complete the pigs and only then got the sheep. So much time wasted 😭

Anyways, I recommend focusing on the sheep and the cows. That's what i do, I only feed them, since they use different food from one another & it's easier to get gems. 🐑🐄

This is what I mean by they eat different food:

✅ 🐑Sheep eat: 4🥕 + 4🌽

✅ 🐄Cows eat: 2🌾 + 3🥬

❌ 🐖Pigs eat: 3🌽 + 2🥬

I’d recommend you focus more on Sheep Barn because it takes less time to collect carrots and corn than cabbages, the difference is 1 hour, the amount of gems is the same (between sheeps and pigs) so focus on time.

Carrots = 3h

Corn = 3h

Cabbages = 4h

Unfortunately, I still don’t have Cattle Ranch so idk how many gems you can get from it.

https://preview.redd.it/9ytq8v3rem3f1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=916bf6aa48ca62488386ec4de9279957dde6c2b9

How you have so much money? 😭 And your code please 👉👈

Animals are in fact, a net positive. I won't pretend they're more profitable than crops because they're not. But they have a place. They don't reset when seasons do unlike crops, so the earlier you get them the more money they can make you over time. Also, breeding animals is a net positive every time. The cookies are cheaper than the babies. So if you're breeding, you can keep your favorite colors (or in my case one of every color), then sell your spare ones for a profit. If you're going for every color, you WILL get extras because of how the breeding system works.

Adult animals sell for more than babies, so if you're willing to wait for them to grow up you can do that too. I'll leave my animals to grow up before selling unless I need the space or there's too many rain days because then they eat into the indoor food which costs money rather than the free outdoor food.

It’s more of a long term investment and also important if you want to craft a variety of furniture. It is tedious but there are ways to get around it like the bell that lets you let them out and send them back in without ringing each individual barn/coop bell.

Setting everything up is a hassle, but after that, it’s pretty much fine on its own imo. Usually, I just use the 40 day essence stone and leave a few in the chests so once in a while, I’ll go collect the drops and check to see if it needs a refill. For food, I planted some regrowing crops with sprinklers so they can feed themselves and I only have to refill their food on days where it rains.

Tbh, I think if they’re not something you enjoy/find value in, you don’t have to since Balor’s cart will occasionally sell animal products as well. Crops are still my main source of income, it’s just nice to have a side income that’s mostly automated as well

I will personally say that as someone who has never really enjoyed the animal husbandry part of farm games, I actually like that they're not a requirement here. I can get everything I need (well, minus bull horns? I think you have to have the animals available at hayden's before balor will sell the materials, but I also could just be missing something) from Balor's cart or the inn and I don't have to mess with animals if I don't want to. However, they're also there for people who do enjoy it and want to have fun with the animal tiers.

I currently am breeding some horses and bunnies to have something for the winter festival, but that's only now that I've completed everything else and I have time for them. I made enough money off crops that I don't need to worry if they're paying for themselves or not.

Cows and chickens golden produce can be used to make Golden Cheesecake and Golden Cookies that sell for a high amount, plus give you a good amount of renown when you sell. I don't really spend a lot of time on them either. Crafting the Big Bell is really helpful in getting all my animals inside and outside at once, I just have my animals eat the grass. I only really visit them on rainy days to feed them. I grow crops that stay around the entire month and just feed them that on rainy days, I'm in Spring rn and use strawberries. The Golden Cheesecake and Golden Cookie value is personally worth it for me, I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it 😅

I like them, and I disliked husbandry in stradew valley.

For me, animals are a collection - unlock all skins, unlock all items for cooking, all items for gifting. They are end game content satisfaction (e.g. get the spring horse) and early/mid game challenge (you get them right before the quests starts asking for animal items and the requirements gate your immediate progression). If my game got easier because suddenly I had sacks of gold swinging at me from the daily profits, without any hard work or long set-up, I'd be immensely disappointed.

If anything, I don't see a reason to do anything in game just for gold, or play to see my gold go up. So, fortunately there is space for all approaches. If you are a profit player - sure, but for my gameplay style, animals absolutely do not suck and are balanced just right.