Highlights

  • Stardew Valley mods can enhance gameplay by adding new animals, improving ranching, and increasing player immersion.
  • Players can download mods like Animal Patting and Better Ranching to improve animal care and profitability on their farm.
  • Elle's New Coop Animals and Better Ranching are popular mods that add customizable skins and helpful indicators for players to enjoy.

Stardew Valley continues to see countless updates that add new content to a player's farm. However, those playing on a PC or mobile have not only the updates that ConcernedApe has added, but they also have access to a variety of content that has also been made by modders to further improve a player's experience in this adorable farming simulator.

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Ranching is one area of Stardew Valley that many players wish was expanded upon. Thankfully, through the help of mods, players can truly focus on a Stardew Valley save that solely relies on animals instead of usually planting crops. These are by far the best ranching mods a player should install.

8 Animals Die - Old Age - Hunger - Illness

Endorsements: 253

Animals Die Mod menu in Stardew Valley

Players who are looking for more realism in their Stardew Valley game may wish to bring mortality back to their animals. In Stardew Valley's base game, the player's animals live forever. Therefore, players who have got their animals to max hearts can rely on a great profit from the animals they have dedicated in-game years to.

However, with Animals Die, it is possible for the player's favorite chicken or lovable cow to eventually pass away from old age. This isn't the only way the animal can die, as neglecting them can also cause them to go hungry and pass away. They can even get sick during the winter.

7 Balanced Valley

Endorsements: 370

stardew valley fall crops

Many Stardew Valley players tend to avoid focusing on using animals to make a profit due to the unreliable amount of money earned via looking after them. Thankfully, mods like Balanced Valley aim to deal with this and more across the phenomenal title.

Many of the changes that have been made to ranching in Stardew Valley through the Balanced Valley mod focus on how much each product made by animals sells for. This means that a player no longer needs to purchase pigs in order to be able to find truffles.

6 Like A Duck To Water

Endorsements: 686

Ducks in a pond in Stardew Valley

Ducks are one of many coop animals players can purchase to wander around their farm. While this mod doesn't add anything that special, it can enhance the player's immersion as it fixes an issue ducks have had with water for a long time.

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Like a Duck to Water makes it so the player's quacking ducks finally take to the water for a quick paddle around when they have been let free from the coop. This not only makes it more likely for ducks to swim, but it also rewards players who provide ponds for their birds, as it can increase their friendship the first time they swim each day.

5 Trent's New Animals

Endorsements: 720

An assortment of Trent’s New Animals in a barn in Stardew Valley

Those who have played Stardew Valley countless times may have gotten bored with the animals that are purchasable in the game already. Trent's New Animals does exactly as its name suggests and adds a variety of new animals to both the coop and the barn for players to own.

Not only do these creatures have a cosmetic difference to them, but they can also provide the player with different products. The Buffalo, for example, allows the player to make buffalo cheese. Moles can also be incredibly useful, as they can find wild or ancient seeds for the player to grow.

4 Animal Patting

Endorsements: 1,644

Leah telling the player she has pet the animals in Stardew Valley

Animal Patting is a worthwhile mod even with how small it is. Players who enjoy the romance mechanics of Stardew Valley and have gotten married to their spouse now living on their farm can thank their loved one for helping with the animals.

The player's spouse will now wake up bright and early to go stroke the player's animals, allowing the farmer to focus on completing other farm duties instead. The animals will still gain friendship, adding another reason for a player to get married.

3 Animal Husbandry Mod (Former ButcherMod)

Endorsements: 5,936

Player looking at Bacon from Animal Husbandry mod in Stardew Valley

Alongside new animals and better balance for ranching in Stardew Valley, the Animal Husbandry Mod adds an assortment of new tools for players who truly wish to focus on the ranch lifestyle.

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Players can now sustain their own livestock through ways of impregnating them at the farm, giving them treats to increase friendship, and there's even an assortment of new recipes that use the meat of the player's animals. Players don't have to kill their animals to enjoy Animal Husbandry, as there are plenty of other interesting features of the mod that make it interesting just by itself.

2 Elle's New Coop Animals & Elle's New Barn Animals

Endorsements: 23,615 & 30,725

Two types of cow from Elle’s New Barn Animals in Stardew Valley

Alongside Trent's New Animals, players may instead just wish to have new skins for their cows and chickens. While they are two separate mods, players will adore using both Elle's New Coop Animals and Elle's New Barn Animals together to make for a cuter farming experience.

What makes it even better is that the mod is also fully customizable, which means that players can choose what designs they want each animal to be, from turning their regular dairy cows into fluffy Highland Cows or simply altering the color of their chickens. This mod breathes new life into the farming title.

1 Better Ranching

Endorsements: 41,492

A player who is looking at their cows that need to be milked in Stardew Valley

Out of all the available mods for Stardew Valley, players who truly wish to improve how ranching works on their farm should look no further than the Better Ranching mod by Urbanyeti. This mod adds a few well-needed improvements to Stardew Valley to improve a player's chances with their livestock, removing failed milking and sheering attempts.

It also adds an indicator to help players realize if they have remembered to fulfill the tasks involving the animals for that day. This includes if they have been petted or if the player has forgotten to harvest the resource they provide. Having access to these reminders for a player who has a lot of animals running around their farm means they will never miss a day of petting any of their cows or chickens.

stardew valley
Stardew Valley

Platform(s)
PC , Xbox One , Android , iOS , PS4 , Switch
Released
February 26, 2016
Developer(s)
ConcernedApe
Genre(s)
RPG , Simulation