Crop and Livestock Quality: Reaching Gold and a Brand

Village in the Shade: how crop, flower and fruit quality is decided, how many of each to harvest, branding after gold, which crops to go for first, and where egg, milk and processed-goods quality comes from.

Reaching Gold and a Brand

The quality of crops, flowers and fruit depends on how many of that kind you have harvested. Growing time doesn't matter, and fertilizer gives a chance of one rank higher at harvest. Reach the threshold and the quality rises, and so does the price. After gold, an S at the Evaluation lets you name a brand. Eggs and milk follow the animal's hearts and mood, and processed goods take after their ingredients.

01 / The rule

How is quality decided?

Five ranks, and each one sells for more.

NormalPrice ×1

CopperPrice ×1.25

SilverPrice ×1.5

GoldPrice ×1.75

BrandPrice ×2

What counts: The total harvested of that crop. Copper is 10% of the gold count, silver 40%, gold 100%.
Fertilizer: A chance of one rank higher at harvest: Fertilizer 20%, Good Fertilizer 40%, High-Grade Fertilizer 60%. If it's already gold or a brand, you get double the harvest instead. Apply it before the crop is ready; paddies only take River Snails. No effect on fruit trees, mushroom grow kits, cursed crops or giant crops.
What doesn't: Growing days, the year, the season. None of it.
Where to check: Every crop in the Encyclopedia shows "Points to Next Rank XXX"; just harvest that many.
See the Encyclopedia screen
Corn: 242 harvested so far, which is silver; 358 more makes gold.

02 / Quality thresholds

How many do you need to harvest?

Crops fall into a few groups with the same thresholds. Each crop's page shows its numbers too.

Copper	Silver	Gold	Crops
6	24	60	Yuzu Cherries Plum Peach Mango Bananas Cacao Grapes Persimmon Nashi Pear Apple Orange Lemon
10	40	100	Every flower, all 23 kinds
20	80	200	Turnip Potato Onion Radish Cabbage Lettuce Carrot Scallion Pumpkin Ginger Garlic Watermelon Melon Pineapple Wheat Buckwheat Taro Sweet Potato Napa Cabbage Daikon Spinach Wasabi Lotus Root
30	120	300	Asparagus Shiitake
40	160	400	Sugarcane
60	240	600	Corn Edamame Soybeans Bean Sprouts Blueberries Olive Sesame Tea Leaves Mulberry Leaf Mulberry Fruit Shimeji Wood Ear
90	360	900	Green Peas Snap Peas Strawberry Tomato Eggplant Bell Pepper Cucumber Hops
100	400	1000	Rice

03 / When it counts

When does the counting start?

Counting starts after the first altar offering in the story (spring 5 of year 1 at the earliest). The tutorial turnips before it don't count.
Some harvests share a count: edamame, soybeans and bean sprouts; peas and snow peas; mulberry leaves and mulberries. Everything else counts on its own.
Onions, say, reach copper at the 20th one, but that 20th onion is still normal: the 21st onwards are copper. Onions already in your bag or storage don't change either.

04 / Branding

What comes after gold?

The Evaluation is held on the 27th of every season in the square. A letter arrives on the morning of the 20th, and you reply with the category you want to enter: crops, livestock or horses.
Crops: gold quality gets an S, copper a B, silver an A.
Livestock and horses: five hearts of affection with the mood at its best. In the Livestock List that's all five hearts filled and three music notes.
Gets an SAffection: 5 heartsMood: 3 notes
No SAffection: 5 heartsMood: 1 note
An S lets you name a brand. From then on everything that crop yields or that animal gives is brand quality and sells for double.
Group 9 of the village head's request catalogue wants everything brand quality, and gold won't do:
Rice×5 Tea Leaves×5 Soybeans×5 Milk×5 Egg×5 Truffle×5 Wool×5 Cashmere×3 Horsehair×5
It's worth starting these three crops early.

See when the Evaluation is held and how to enter

05 / What to grow

Which crops to go for first?

Flowers are quickest: 100 of one kind is gold. In spring, go for the Evaluation's S with a cheap, fast-growing flower.
Fruit trees need only 60, but one tree gives few per season, so plant several if you want it soon.
For vegetables start with the 20 / 80 / 200 group and grow one kind at a time; tomatoes, aubergines and the like need 900, so leave them until your fields are bigger.
Rice needs 1,000, at 10 per plant. Seedlings go in only in spring, spring 28 at the latest, so make plenty of paddies from year one.

06 / Livestock

Where does egg and milk quality come from?

Livestock products don't use a running count. The moment you pick up an egg, milk or wool, its quality is drawn from that animal's hearts and mood.

Hearts	Bad mood	Normal mood	Good mood
0 hearts	Bad moodNormal 100%	Normal moodNormal 100%	Good moodNormal 100%
1 heart	Bad moodNormal 100%	Normal moodNormal 90%Copper 10%	Good moodNormal 80%Copper 20%
2 hearts	Bad moodNormal 80%Copper 20%	Normal moodNormal 70%Copper 30%	Good moodNormal 60%Copper 40%
3 hearts	Bad moodCopper 80%Silver 20%	Normal moodCopper 70%Silver 30%	Good moodCopper 60%Silver 40%
4 hearts	Bad moodSilver 90%Gold 10%	Normal moodSilver 80%Gold 20%	Good moodSilver 70%Gold 30%
5 hearts	Bad moodGold 100%	Normal moodGold 100%	Good moodGold 100%

Hearts: Converted from affection, five at most. Chickens, ducks, turkeys and pigs get one per 300 (up to 1,500); cows, sheep, goats, cashmere goats and horses one per 400 (up to 2,000).※ Affection rises each day by +8 for grazing, +5 for the feed box and +5 for the first pet.
Mood: 30 or under is bad, 31 to 180 normal, 181 and up good.※ Settled once a day: grazed outside +150 (feed box only +50, nothing eaten −50), petted +30 (not petted −50), barn door left open when you go to bed −20, winter without a Livestock Heater in the barn −50. Horses and dogs ignore the door and the heater.
While outside: Every half hour from 7:00 to 5:30 the next morning: a sunny day +5, after 19:00 −5, rain, thunder or snow another −5; cloudy is neither. Horses and dogs aren't affected.
Auto-Rancher: What it collects uses the same draw, with the mood after that day's settling; branded animals still give brand quality. Pig products never go into it.
Ghost Cow: An animal housed with the Ghost Cow shows its mood as at best, never , and can't get an S at the Evaluation. Product quality isn't affected.※ Keep Evaluation animals out of the Ghost Cow's barn, and lay the Ghost Cow to rest as early as you can.

07 / Processed & dishes

And processed goods and dishes?

Processed goods come out at the quality that went in: a gold egg makes gold mayonnaise, and brand ingredients make a brand product. When a recipe takes several ingredients, the best one sets the quality.
Exception: the 10 dyes and all dishes come out normal whatever goes in. If low-quality ingredients will do, don't use gold ones.