While leveling up your farming level in Stardew Valley and upon reaching level 5, you will be called to select a profession between Rancher and Tiller.
Overall, the Tiller is the better choice as crops are more profitable than animal products.
In this guide, I will compare the Rancher and Tiller professions in Stardew Valley to help you decide on what to choose when you reach level 5 farming.
If you’re also leveling your combat skills, check out our guide on the Fighter vs Scout debate in Stardew Valley.
What Does the Rancher Profession Do?
The Rancher profession increases the selling price of all animal products by 20%. This involves the following items:
- Egg
- Large Egg
- Void Egg
- Duck Egg
- Wool
- Dinosaur Egg
- Golden Egg
- Ostrich Egg
- Milk
- Large Milk
- Goat Milk
- Large Goat Milk
- Truffle
If you want to focus on animal husbandry, the Rancher can help you make your farm way more profitable. Especially if you want to focus on Pigs and Truffles, the Rancher is a great way to get rich.
What Does the Tiller Profession Do?
The Tiller profession increases the selling price of all your crops by 10%. While it’s 10% less than the Rancher, it’s important to keep in mind that especially in the early game, you have significantly more crops than animals.
Since the Tiller increases the value of all your crops, a 10% increase in selling price is actually a huge bonus.
Rancher vs Tiller in Stardew Valley – Which One is Better?
Overall, while the Rancher increases the selling price by a higher percentage, the best level 5 farming profession in Stardew Valley is the Tiller.
This is because you’ll have way more crops than animals in most cases, and thus the 10% increase on all your crops will award you more money compared to the 20% on your limited animal products.
As for the level 10 profession, if you chose Tiller, the options will be Artisan (40% increased selling price for artisan goods) and Agriculturalist (10% increased grow time for crops). Here, the Artisan choice is the best as it will allow you to get rich by making wine and oil.
If you decided to go with Rancher, you’ll have to choose between Coopmaster (Befriend animals quicker and reduce incubation time by 50%) and Shepherd (Befriend animals quicker and make sheep produce wool faster) at level 10.
In this case, both are equally good and you should decide based on the animals you have. If you’re using chicken and ducks, go for Coopmaster. If you’re using sheep, Shepherd is the better option.
Wrapping up
To summarize, the Tiller profession is better than the Rancher in Stardew Valley as it is more profitable overall.
However, if your gameplay focuses primarily on animal husbandry, Rancher can be a solid choice. Just make sure to select the best level 10 farming profession afterward.
Which professions did you choose at levels 5 and 10? Do you have any other profession recommendations to offer? Let us know in the comments below.
Before leaving, if you’re looking to spice up your gameplay, check out our guide on the best mods for Stardew Valley in 2023.
He has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, which allows him to always come up with a fresh approach to solving in-game puzzles and challenges, but also to create content that’s to the point, clean and easy to follow.
- Minecraft: Armor Trims – Locations & How to Use - February 12, 2025
- List of ALL the Elden Ring Soft Cap Stats - February 6, 2025
- Starfield: Andreja vs. Sarah Romance – Who Should Be Your Cosmic Partner? - December 12, 2024