Stardew Valley Silo Guide: How to Build, Fill, and Use It
A Silo turns farm grass into stored hay for Coops and Barns. Here is the exact build checklist, every way to fill it, and the winter math for 240-hay capacity.
To build a Silo in Stardew Valley, take 100g, 100 Stone, 10 Clay, and 5 Copper Bars to Robin’s Carpenter’s Shop, choose Construct Farm Buildings, and place the 3×3 structure on your farm. Robin finishes it in two days. Once complete, cutting farm grass with a scythe can send hay directly into the Silo, which holds 240 pieces.
Building the Silo before a Coop or Barn is usually the efficient order. It lets you convert existing grass into feed before animals create a daily demand, and it is far cheaper than the animal buildings that use its hay.
What Do You Need to Build a Silo in Stardew Valley?
The complete vanilla build requirement is:
| Requirement | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gold | 100g |
| Stone | 100 |
| Clay | 10 |
| Copper Bars | 5 |
| Footprint | 3×3 tiles |
| Construction time | 2 days |
| Hay capacity | 240 |
These figures come from the current Stardew Valley Wiki Silo entry. Bring every material in your inventory when you visit Robin; materials stored in a chest elsewhere on the farm are not a substitute at the construction menu.
Five Copper Bars require 25 Copper Ore and five Coal when smelted normally. If those bars are also competing with your first tool improvements, use the cost table in our Stardew Valley tool-upgrade guide before committing them.
How Do You Build and Place the Silo?
- Gather 100 Stone, 10 Clay, 5 Copper Bars, and at least 100g.
- Visit Robin at the Carpenter’s Shop while the building service is available.
- Select Construct Farm Buildings, cycle to Silo, and choose Build.
- Place its 3×3 footprint on clear farm tiles.
- Wait two in-game days for construction to finish.
The Silo does not need to touch a Coop or Barn. Its storage connects to the hay hoppers in animal buildings across the same farm, so placement is mainly a space and layout decision. Multiple Silos also share a combined capacity: two hold 480 hay, three hold 720, and interacting with a Silo reports the farm’s total stored amount.
How Do You Fill a Silo With Hay?
The main method is to cut grass growing on the farm with a scythe after the Silo is complete and while storage has room. With the starter Scythe, each cleared grass tile has a 50% chance to add one hay. The Golden Scythe raises that chance to 75%, and the Iridium Scythe makes it 100%. Blue Grass produces two hay when it succeeds. The current percentages and destination rules are documented in the wiki’s Hay guide.
You can also add hay by holding it and interacting with the Silo or a hay hopper. That is useful for hay bought from Marnie, received by mail, or produced as an inventory drop. Harvesting wheat with a scythe has a 40% chance to produce hay. That hay goes to your inventory rather than automatically into storage.
If cutting grass produces no hay, check these in order:
- The Silo has finished construction.
- You are cutting grass on the farm, not merely clearing weeds.
- You are using a scythe rather than a sword, dagger, or bomb.
- The combined Silo capacity is not already full.
- A mod has not changed the building or harvesting rules.
Do not clear the whole farm on day one if you plan to keep animals. Grass you remove before the Silo works cannot be recovered as stored hay.
How Do You Get Hay Out of the Silo?
The hay hopper inside a Coop or Barn is where you withdraw stored hay. In basic and Big animal buildings, interact with the hopper, then place one hay per animal on the feeding bench. Deluxe Coops and Deluxe Barns have an auto-feed system that moves available Silo hay to the bench automatically.
The hopper can also accept hay from your inventory. According to the Hay Hopper documentation, while a feeding bench has open spaces, withdraw extra hay and move it to a chest. You can return that hay through the hopper later. A fully upgraded auto-fed building normally prevents manual withdrawal because its bench fills automatically.
How Many Silos Do You Need for Winter?
Each Coop or Barn animal eats one hay on a day when it cannot eat fresh grass. In a normal winter, the Festival of Ice and Feast of the Winter Star are no-feed days, so the current wiki calculation is 26 hay per animal for the season.
| Animals | Winter hay target | Minimum full Silos by capacity |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 104 | 1 |
| 8 | 208 | 1 |
| 9 | 234 | 1 |
| 12 | 312 | 2 |
| 24 | 624 | 3 |
The formula is animals × 26, then divide by 240 and round up. One full Silo therefore covers nine animals for the winter with six hay left. A full Deluxe Coop plus a full Deluxe Barn contains 24 animals and needs 624 hay, so three full Silos provide enough capacity.
This is a safe storage plan. Actual consumption can be lower. Animals can eat outside during suitable seasons, new animals do not need food on their arrival day, and individual routines can change demand. The animal-feeding rules confirm that unfed animals do not die, but they become unhappy and stop producing until feeding resumes.
Does Grass Still Disappear on Winter 1?
Not in unmodded Stardew Valley 1.6. Grass now goes dormant instead of disappearing on the first day of winter, but it does not spread and yields substantially less hay when cut. Filling storage before winter remains the reliable approach. Players on an older platform build or a modded save should verify their installed version before relying on that behavior.
Does the Silo Have to Be Next to the Coop or Barn?
No. Distance does not change how hoppers access stored hay, and one Silo pool can serve every Coop and Barn on the farm. Put the building wherever its 3×3 footprint fits your long-term layout.
Can You Move a Silo Later?
Yes. Use Robin’s building menu to move farm buildings when that option is available. On a modded save, verify that the mod has not replaced Robin’s normal building controls before rearranging the farm.
