Farming in Stardew Valley is likely to be the biggest timesink you experience, especially early on. When you start getting animals, the onus is on you to ensure they get everything they need to thrive. If you want to make life easier on yourself when it comes to caring for your barnyard friends, you’ll need a Silo.
The Silo is a farm building that stores any Hay that you gather while cutting grass on or off the farm. On top of that, storing Hay inside the Silo will allow you to easily feed your animals, while reducing the amount of running around that you need to do.
How to get a Silo in Stardew Valley
The Silo can be purchased from Robin at the Carpenter’s for 100 Gold, making it one of the cheapest farm buildings available to buy. Alongside this small amount of Gold, you’ll also need the following resources:
- 100 Stone
- 10 Clay
- 5 Copper Bars
Once you’ve got all of these things, head to Robin and select “Construct Farm Buildings”. Click through the available options until you find the Silo, and select “Build” in the bottom right corner of the interface. You’ll then be able to select where you want the Silo to be built, and it will be ready two in-game days later.
How to use the Silo in Stardew Valley
Each Silo is capable of holding up to 240 pieces of Hay. The Hay can be added in a variety of different ways:
- Cutting grass on the farm has a 50% chance of adding one Hay to the Silo
- 75% chance with Golden Scythe
- 100% chance with Iridium Scythe
- Cutting weeds with melee weapons that have the Haymaker enchantment can drop Hay into Silo
- While holding the Hay, click on the Silo
- While holding the Hay, click on the Hay Hoppers within Barns or Coops
How to use the Hay Hopper in Stardew Valley
All Barns and Coops purchased from Robin come with a Hay Hopper included. If you have a Silo on your farm, clicking on the Hay Hopper will retrieve one Hay that is stored in the Silo, allowing you to place it down for your animals to eat.
This is particularly helpful during the Winter, when animals will survive solely on the Hay that you provide. Each animal that you have will need a total of 26 Hay to get through the Winter season, so make sure to have enough stored away in your Silo for this purpose.
In Deluxe Barns and Coops, the Hay Hopper also has an ‘auto-feed’ function, which automatically pulls Hay from your Silo and puts it onto the feeding bench for the animals to eat.
