Top 5 Most Profitable Livestock in Stardew Valley

Not every farm animal in Stardew Valley pulls its weight when it comes to gold income. Some produce a steady drip of sellable goods, others deliver rare jackpots, and a few mostly take up barn space. This ranking covers the five livestock options worth investing in if your endgame is filling the shipping bin with valuable items.

Animals that produce nothing sellable (horses, cats, dogs, crows) are excluded since they exist as companions or pest control, not income sources.

How the Ranking Works

The criteria balance three things: the value of each produced item, how frequently the animal produces, and how rare or expensive it is to acquire in the first place. A common animal that gives daily output can easily outearn a rare one with a weekly jackpot, depending on your farm size and patience.

#5: Cow

Cows are the workhorse of dairy production. Once you've built up enough friendship, they upgrade from regular Milk to Large Milk, which sells for noticeably more. Daily output is what keeps Cows on this list. Goats produce a more expensive single item, but cows show up every morning without fail.

A worthwhile upgrade path: process milk through a Cheese Press to turn it into Cheese, which sells for more than the raw milk and pairs especially well with the Artisan Profession.

Acquiring a Cow

Visit Marnie's Ranch and drop 1,500 gold. The game randomly assigns the cow's color (brown or white) at purchase, so don't bother trying to game the selection.

Sale Prices

Milk

• Base: 125g
• Silver: 156g
• Gold: 187g
• Iridium: 250g

Large Milk

• Base: 190g
• Silver: 237g
• Gold: 295g
• Iridium: 380g

#4: Dinosaur

Yes, you can keep actual dinosaurs on your farm. The catch is the seven-day production cycle. Each Dinosaur lays one Dinosaur Egg per week, which is a slower revenue stream than most barn animals. If you're impatient this rank may feel generous, but the egg's resale value plus the option to refine it into Dinosaur Mayonnaise justifies the spot.

Tip: Drop the egg into a Mayonnaise Machine. Dinosaur Mayonnaise sells for considerably more than the raw egg, with no extra ingredients consumed in the process.

Acquiring a Dinosaur

The egg itself is the gatekeeper here. There's no buying one from Marnie. You'll need to find it through any of the following:

• Digging an Artifact Spot in the Mountains or Quarry
• Reaching Fishing Level 2 and pulling a Treasure Chest while fishing
• Looting it off a defeated Pepper Rex in the Skull Cavern
• Foraging in the Prehistoric Floors of the Skull Cavern
• Winning it from the Crane Game at the Movie Theater

Once you have one, place it in an incubator inside a Big or Deluxe Coop. The hatch takes 12 in-game days.

Sale Prices

Dinosaur Egg

• Base: 350g
• Silver: 437g
• Gold: 525g
• Iridium: 700g

#3: Golden Chicken

The Golden Chicken sits at the top of every poultry farmer's wishlist. Once acquired, it lays one Golden Egg per day, making it one of the most consistent high-value producers in the entire game.

Getting one in the first place is the hard part.

Acquiring a Golden Chicken

Obtain a Golden Egg through any of these methods:

• Buy directly from Marnie's Ranch for 100,000 gold
• Buy from Qi's Walnut Room for 100 Qi Gems
• Open a Treasure Chest while fishing (luck-based)
• Witness the rare golden witch event, where she flies over your Coop overnight and leaves an egg

With egg in hand, slot it into an incubator inside a Big or Deluxe Coop. Hatching takes six in-game days, or just three if you've picked the Coopmaster Profession.

Sale Prices

Golden Egg

• Base: 500g
• Silver: 625g
• Gold: 750g
• Iridium: 1,000g

Note: Golden Egg prices climb by 20% with the Rancher Profession. And here's the real trick: one Golden Egg processed in a Mayonnaise Machine yields three jars of Mayonnaise, which together outsell the raw egg by a comfortable margin.

#2: Ostrich

Added in version 1.5, the Ostrich is a barn-housed bird that lays one Ostrich Egg per week. The cycle is slower than chickens or ducks, but each egg punches well above its weight in resale value.

Acquiring an Ostrich

Locate Journal Scrap #10 on Ginger Island. The scrap reveals a dig spot just outside the Volcano Dungeon entrance, where the egg is buried. Ostrich Eggs can also appear in treasure chests inside the Volcano Dungeon itself, so even players who haven't found the scrap have a path.

Incubation requires an Ostrich Incubator, a separate craftable from the standard Coop Incubator. The egg takes 9 days and 10 hours to hatch, or 4 days and 18 hours with the Coopmaster Profession.

Sale Prices

Ostrich Egg

• Base: 600g
• Silver: 750g
• Gold: 900g
• Iridium: 1,200g

Tip: Run an Ostrich Egg through a Mayonnaise Machine and you'll get ten jars of Mayonnaise, each matching the original egg's quality. Selling the full set returns significantly more gold than the egg sold raw.

#1: Pig

Pigs take the top spot for one reason: Truffles. Pigs don't produce goods inside the barn the way other animals do. Instead, you need to release them outdoors during a non-winter season, where they'll wander your farm and dig up Truffles. A single pig can locate multiple truffles per day under the right conditions.

The math is brutal in your favor. A small herd of well-fed pigs spread across open farmland produces a stack of truffles that already outearns most barn output when sold raw. Run them through an Oil Maker to convert each truffle into Truffle Oil, which sells for substantially more per item.

Acquiring a Pig

Buy one from Marnie's Ranch for 16,000 gold. Place two pigs in the same barn and they may produce offspring naturally, meaning you can scale a starter pair into a full operation without returning to the shop.

Sale Prices

Truffle

• Base: 625g
• Silver: 781g
• Gold: 937g
• Iridium: 1,250g

Tip: Keep one or several Oil Makers running at all times. Raw Truffles are valuable enough, but Truffle Oil is the late-game gold printer that turns a pig herd into the most profitable corner of any farm.