Stardew Valley 1.6 has caused an eruption of interest in this famous indie farm-sim. Part of this interest comes from a brand new farm type, the Meadowlands Farm. This farm is designed with livestock in mind over crops. It is the first map to have a unique starting gift. Rather than getting turnip seeds from the mayor, you'll get 15 Hay, 2 Chickens, and a Chicken Coop. This gives you a great headstart in becoming the best rancher the valley has ever seen.

The farm itself does not have much land to grow crops on, but the land is perfect for barns and coops. You'll have to complete many of the early Year One tasks ubiquitous with any farm in Stardew Valley, but there are some areas you should focus on and important decisions that can improve the efficiency of your ranch.

10 Grow Your Chicken Coop Before Expanding

Just as planting your turnips is important on other Stardew Valley farms, so is expanding your initial coop. This coop will act as your key source of revenue in the first weeks of the game. It will take a while to upgrade your coop into an epic Deluxe Coop, but until then, keep your chickens well-fed and happy so you can collect all their eggs. Coop expansion should be your first big purchase once you get enough money.

Animals & Products Produced In Coops

Once you get a Deluxe Coop, you can get every animal available in the coop; chickens, ducks, void chickens, golden chickens, dinosaurs, and rabbits. Each animal has their own unique products that can be sold outright, used in recipes, or turned into artisan goods. Once you've built your first Deluxe Coop, you can keep any animal at any coop level.

Make sure to have a stocked silo on your farm by the time you build the Deluxe Coop. The coop will automatically stock up with hay from your silo that way.

9 Invest In Mayo

Mayonnaise is an artisan good derived from eggs. As the Meadowlands Farm provides chickens and a coop on the first day, it is easier than ever to invest your time in producing mayo. Upon reaching Farming Level 2, you can build a Mayonnaise Machine with 15 Wood, 15 Stone, 1 Earth Crystal, and 1 Copper Bar. You can get eggs from chickens, ostriches, ducks, and dinosaurs, turning each into a special mayonnaise with multiple uses.

You Can Now Drink Mayonnaise

One of the strangest changes in Stardew Valley 1.6 is the ability to drink mayonnaise. Previously, players had been unable to eat mayonnaise. ConcernedApe has finally listened to the fans by turning mayonnaise into a consumable product. With the increased proliferation of chickens on the farm, mayonnaise can be an easy source of fuel as you adventure through the mines.

8 Barns Are Essential

With your chicken and mayonnaise empire well-established, now it's time to build a barn. Barns are the second type of livestock enclosure, holding bigger animals and more diverse products. Your first barn can hold both cows and ostriches. Ostriches lay eggs you can use in your Mayonnaise Machines, meaning they should be prioritized over cows.

Ostrich eggs produce ten jars of Mayonnaise, making them a mayonnaise goldmine.

Animals & Products Produced In Barns

If you have a Deluxe Barn, you can house cows, ostriches, goats, pigs, and sheep. The barn operates on the same rules as the coop; keep them fed and happy, let them inside at night, and collect their dropped resources. Like the coop, you can also store animals like the sheep in a lower-level barn once you've unlocked them.

7 Foster Chewy Blue Grass

As you explore the Meadowlands Farm, you'll come across a few blue patches mixed in with the regular grass. This is a special chewy blue grass that your animals will adore eating. Allowing them to munch on the grass growing outside their enclosures saves you time and money. As such, take care of any patches of chewy blue grass and plan your enclosures around it.

Collecting Hay

Cutting down grass is a popular way to get hay without spending any money. Clearing the farm of debris is something many players enjoy in the early stages of a new playthrough. However, try not to cut down the bluegrass. You'll get some easy love from your animals if you let them eat it. Allow the grass to spawn as it wishes and cultivate it rather than using it for hay. You'll still have plenty of grass to harvest elsewhere.

Once you build an exterior area for your animals to roam, don't cut down the grass that wants to grow there. It's better to let your animals graze than leave them in an empty lot.

6 Use Your Ponds & River

Fishing is one of the staples of Stardew Valley, and the Meadowlands Farm offers multiple ponds and a river right on the property. You may not catch any legendary fish in Stardew Valley from here, but you can set up your Crab Pots and check them in the morning. You can also find a wide variety of regular fish, allowing you to hold off on building a Fish Pond.

If you want to craft or buy your own Crab Pots, you'll need to reach Fishing Level 3. Crab Pots are easy in the Meadowlands Farm, as it does not take long to go and collect them when they've caught something. Soon enough, you'll be swimming in Crayfish and Snails.

5 Choose The Rancher Profession

When you get to Farming Level 5, you'll have to choose between Rancher or Tiller in Stardew Valley. Both of these professions are great, but if you live on the Meadowlands Farm, Rancher is the obvious choice. Rancher increases the price of your animal products by 20%, further encouraging your ranch lifestyle.

The Best Professions For Meadowlands Farm

The other professions in Stardew Valley are connected to Fishing, Foraging, Mining, and Combat. Each of these skills have professions better fitting the Meadowlands Farm lifestyle than others.

In Fishing, to begin, become a Trapper at Level 5 to improve your vast collection of Crab Pots, then Luremaster at Level 10 so you don't need as much bait. If you focus on being a Miner and later a Blacksmith in the Mining skill, you can get more ore materials to craft all your artisan good machines, therefore putting your animal products to use.

The Combat skill has no bearing on the Meadowlands Farm, but if you want to keep building coops and barns, you'll want the Forester and Lumberjack professions in the Foraging skill. This will allow you to collect more wood from your farm and hopefully spend less at Robin's place. With these professions, you'll improve your farm faster than you could with regular foraging.

4 Build A Small Garden

Just because you're focusing on your livestock does not mean you should neglect your crops. You have a small open space in front of your house that is perfect for a small garden. Grow some of your favorite crops to supplement your livestock income during Year One. Make sure you have some high-quality ingredients on hand so you can cook filling recipes (once you upgrade your house, that is).

Best Crops In Stardew Valley

You'll want to grow the best crops per season in Stardew Valley to maximize your limited land. In Spring, focus on cauliflower and strawberries. Corn, hops, and blueberries sell the best in Summer. Corn transfers over to Fall, the most profitable harvest season, where you can harvest pumpkins, yams, and cranberries.

Winter, as every experienced Stardew Valley player knows, provides limited crop production without the fruit bat cave and the greenhouse. However, thanks to the Meadowlands Farm and its focus on livestock, you should have a highly profitable first Winter in Pelican Town. Just make sure you have enough hay for the coldest time of the year.

3 Dedicate Your Cave To Fruit Bats

The cave nestled near the edge of the farm provides one of two important resources, depending on the player's choice. The cave can either produce mushrooms or become a nesting ground for fruit bats. When playing on the Meadowlands Farm, make sure you choose the fruit bats. Without the strong crop focus of a standard farm, you'll need whatever crops you can get.

Fruit Available In Cave

The fruit bats leave a variety of fruits in the cave each night, providing a steady supply of resources for artisan goods and community center bundles. The cave can be filled with apples, oranges, wild plums, cherries, pomegranates, peaches, spice berries, apricots, salmonberries, or blackberries. Most of these fruits grow on trees and would be very difficult to collect before the end of Year One.

Many players choose the fruit bat cave due to this time constraint and the wide range of uses fruit holds. The cave is useful for Meadowlands Farm because you don't want to waste your growing space on fruit like spice berries, which don't sell well but are still important. The cave is a good, yearlong holdout until you build the greenhouse.

2 Rebuild The Greenhouse Quickly

The greenhouse is one of the most important resources a farmer can unlock in Stardew Valley. The greenhouse allows you to grow crops, both seeds and trees, year-round, harvesting them regardless of the season outside. The greenhouse appears upon the completion of the Pantry Bundle in the community center or by paying Joja 35,000g.

Building The Most Effective Greenhouse

The greenhouse is the perfect place to set up automatic sprinklers. Sprinklers take up limited space outside, but are vital in the greenhouse. By placing four Iridium Sprinklers with the Pressure Nozzle upgrades along the edge of the growing pit, and one sprinkler in the center, you'll only lose one growing space. You can now plant 119 different crops in the greenhouse.

When you can afford fruit trees, make sure to put them in the greenhouse. They will produce fruit throughout the year rather than going dormant for 3/4ths of the game. You can plant up to 18 fruit trees, leaving room for all six main fruit trees and the Ginger Island banana and mango trees.

1 Visit Marnie More Than Pierre

Marnie is the main supplier of livestock-related products in Pelican Town. As such, she is your most important merchant for Meadowlands Farm. While Pierre sells important staples and crops at his general store, you aren't focused on crops, and therefore don't need Pierre as much as Marnie.

Marnie's Wares

Marnie sells all the animals you can home in your coops and barns, save for void chickens, golden chickens, and dinosaurs, although she does sell golden eggs after you achieve perfection. Make sure to purchase her Animal Catalogue so you can buy from Marnie regardless of your schedule. You'll be visiting Marnie a lot for Hay.

Some of Marnie's wares are required if you want to harvest from certain animals. Without Shears, you can't get Wool off your sheep. Without a Heater, your animals will be unhappy in Winter. Milk Pails let you collect Milk from your cows and goats. Lastly, if you want true automation in your farm, you'll need an Autograbber to pick up your animal resources quickly. With Marnie's help, your Meadowlands Farm in Stardew Valley will be great.