So is raising cows/chickens not worth it?

[GreatNecromancerJesusKun]

I've been reading about how they make minimal profit for what their worth, and that the biggest problem is how the grass they eat outside takes forever to grow and takes up space on your farm that could be used better for crops.

I haven't build a barn or coop yet, though I want to complete the quests. What should I do? Should I plant a lot of grass, and if so how much per animal? Or would it be better to just purchase hay? Do the animals eventually make a decent profit after raising their affection, to the point that dealing with growing them grass/buying them hay is worth it?

I also read someone saying how there's gonna be an update with the grass but idk if that's true or not. If it is then should I wait for that to happen?

[Bejo]

Based on what my friend said, the wild grass now spawn more quickly now, that's he said, so yeah I guess it is time to invest in that

[Klumpatsch]

There already WAS an update that fixed the grass issue (2 days ago I think). Now it really grows incredibly fast, even without grass starters (you only need to buy them if you want grass in particular areas now). No need to buy extra hay. Just remember to build a mayo and cheese press to max out profit.

[LoqD]

Chickens make a profit if you turn their eggs into mayonaisse. I haven't got cows yet, but I'm guessing it's the same with milk to cheese

[Spukc]

in harvest moon animals where useless so guess this game is spot on haha

[Sarda]

Their useless compared to crops. In the time you spend going to a barn, milking a cow/picking up eggs if they even produce any at all, feeding them when its raining, ect. You could grow crops and process them to artisan goods that are reliable and worth about 5-50x more. I can make wine that's worth 3k a bottle and I can send out hundreds of bottles a week. You couldn't even come close to that with the entire farm dedicated to pigs and truffles, you don't have a 1/10th the space youd need.

Their barns are very useful tho. They're about 4x bigger then the space they occupy and it's perfect for your barrels and processing machines.

[Spukc]

Originally posted by Sarda:

Their useless compared to crops. In the time you spend going to a barn, milking a cow/picking up eggs if they even produce any at all, feeding them when its raining, ect. You could grow crops and process them to artisan goods that are reliable and worth about 5-50x more. I can make wine that's worth 3k a bottle and I can send out hundreds of bottles a week. You couldn't even come close to that with the entire farm dedicated to pigs and truffles, you don't have a 1/10th the space youd need.

just like in real life ! eating meat sucks!

[Klumpatsch]

Originally posted by Sarda:

Their useless compared to crops. In the time you spend going to a barn, milking a cow/picking up eggs if they even produce any at all, feeding them when its raining, ect. You could grow crops and process them to artisan goods that are reliable and worth about 5-50x more. I can make wine that's worth 3k a bottle and I can send out hundreds of bottles a week. You couldn't even come close to that with the entire farm dedicated to pigs and truffles, you don't have a 1/10th the space youd need.

Only that 1) you actually don't need so much money, 2) only taking care of crops becomes boring as hell after a while, 3) once you have sprinklers, you don't have to spend much time on your fields anyway, 4) melking and collecting eggs takes like 1-2 in-game hours.

[Sarda]

Originally posted by приzрак:

Originally posted by Sarda:

Their useless compared to crops. In the time you spend going to a barn, milking a cow/picking up eggs if they even produce any at all, feeding them when its raining, ect. You could grow crops and process them to artisan goods that are reliable and worth about 5-50x more. I can make wine that's worth 3k a bottle and I can send out hundreds of bottles a week. You couldn't even come close to that with the entire farm dedicated to pigs and truffles, you don't have a 1/10th the space youd need.

Only that 1) you actually don't need so much money, 2) only taking care of crops becomes boring as hell after a while, 3) once you have sprinklers, you don't have to spend much time on your fields anyway, 4) melking and collecting eggs takes like 1-2 in-game hours.

And in those 1-2 ingame hours of picking up like 1000$ of eggs and milk you could pick up like 100k in Starfuit. Before processing.

[Klumpatsch]

Let me quote myself.

Originally posted by приzрак:

1) you actually don't need so much money, 2) only taking care of crops becomes boring as hell after a while, 3) once you have sprinklers, you don't have to spend much time on your fields anyway

And, in addition to that, cows and chickens at least produce products every day, including winter (it takes quite a while to unlock the glasshouse, whose space in addition is quite limited), and the progress of turning products into cheese and milk takes much less time than making wine - especially useful in the beginning when you need cash very quickly.

[robruckus65]

animals are great for making money especially during winter... they dont give you huge pay outs but they are a steady stream of money... they take a pretty buig initial investment but with cheese presses and mayo makers they pay for themselves rather quickly...

[PhilkIced]

It's a small steady income that you'll get everyday, so you're guaranteed at least a bit of money daily. It's not worth it if you don't process the goods (eggs into mayo, milk into cheese, etc) but after processing they get you a little profit.
As Sarda said they're nowhere near the profit you can make with plants, you won't get too much money out of them (you can get a bit more by reproducing and selling, but still not much), but at the same time приzрак is completely right that it is very boring to do only plants and no animals, you can do everything you have to do on your farm before 10 AM thanks to sprinklers and spending 3/4 of everyday fishing and mining will get boring fast, so the animals are a nice extra thing to generate a little fun time, make your farm look more lively and still get some money, even if not much.

[Zourin]

If you overbuild your farm, they're less worth it, but if you keep your farm relatively modest (around 200 tiles), they're really good if you keep up on the maintenance.

I don't see a need for that much money per-season, so I tend to keep things modest and varied. I've actually started to have spare time in year 2.

[Vashra]

Ducks pay pretty well if you incubate and sell the duckling, it's 0 effort. Also, its enjoyable seeing the animals around the farm, after the first year money pretty much makes itself so animals are quite charming to have around and are useful if you like cooking etc.