Farming, Livestock & Contests
Quality & Branding System Guide
This is the canonical cross-system guide for quality tiers, contest branding, branded animal products, High-Quality Goods and Greenhouse planning. Crop records, animal acquisition and machine recipes stay on their owning authorities.
Short answer
Quality and branding are different. Repeatedly harvest a target crop until Gold Star, or raise an individual animal to the documented Livestock S Rank conditions. A contest win creates branding; it does not make every crop, animal or processed item branded.
English labels remain provisional where the official Western localization is not yet available. This page reports the current Shade repository baseline and marks unsupported values as unresolved.
System model
Quality is not Brand Status
Keep the state transitions separate when planning sales, contests and Chief Deliveries.
01
Base
Crop quality state
02
Copper Star
Crop quality state
03
Silver Star
Crop quality state
04
Gold Star
Crop quality state
05
Branded
Contest result
Crop quality
Repeated harvesting raises the relevant crop's progression. The exact harvest threshold is not universal and no hidden point total is published.
Animal quality
Higher Affection improves possible normal livestock-product quality. No livestock multiplier or exact quality threshold is normalized.
Branding
Contest S Rank attaches the brand to the submitted crop or individual animal. It is not a global farm upgrade.
Crop quality
The verified crop tiers and value effects
These multipliers belong to crop quality testing only.
Gold Star is not automatically branded. The branded 2.00× figure is the current crop value result for a contest winner; it is not a universal value rule for livestock products, processing or cooking.
How to improve
Choose one target crop and harvest it repeatedly. Quality is crop-specific, so improving Rice does not improve Tea or Soybean.
Exact threshold
Unresolved. The repository does not publish one harvest count that applies to every crop.
Current crop records
47 crop/flower records remain owned by the Crops database; seasons, planting areas, growth and prices are not duplicated here.
Crop branding
Gold Star → Crop Contest S Rank → custom brand
Brand the specific crop needed for a delivery or collection plan.
1 · Prepare
Bring one Gold Star crop
The entry is one crop item. The exact crop growth and harvest details remain on Crops.
2 · Enter
Choose Crop division
Contests occur on Day 27 of each season at Village Plaza. One division is chosen per date.
3 · Name
S Rank creates the brand
The winning crop can receive a custom brand name. Winning one crop does not brand the rest of that crop type or the farm.
Livestock quality
Affection, Mood and Brand Status are three different checks
Use the Livestock and Animal Care guides for acquisition and routine care; this section owns the quality/branding relationship.
The documented S Rank condition is maximum Mood plus Affection 5. Petting is effective once per animal per day, but exact point gain, numeric display scale and an animal-product multiplier remain unresolved.
Chicken
Coop · Egg
Production: Daily. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
Colored chicks and Roosters are separate from the normal egg-producing Chicken record.
Duck
Coop · Duck Egg
Production: Daily. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
Turkey
Coop · Turkey Egg
Production: Unresolved. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
The current repository has conflicting cadence evidence. Do not rewrite Turkey as universally daily or every three days without a current-game confirmation.
Cow
Barn · Milk
Production: Daily. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
Sheep
Barn · Wool
Production: Every few days. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
Goat
Barn · Goat Milk
Production: Daily. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
Cashmere Goat
Barn · Cashmere
Production: Every 5 days. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
The five-day adult production cadence is preserved separately from daily products.
Pig
Barn · Truffle
Production: Variable. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
Outdoor grazing as a Truffle condition remains unconfirmed in the current repository.
Horse
Horse · Horse Tail
Production: Daily. Livestock Contest S Rank brands this individual animal
Horse has a separate Contest division; livestock numeric rank rules are not inherited automatically.
Cow Ghost / Mood
Resolve the Mood ceiling before a livestock contest
Cow Ghost belongs to the nighttime anomaly system; its contest consequence is documented here.
Blocked state
Prevents livestock Mood from reaching maximum while present
This is a Mood ceiling, not a confirmed Affection reduction or a published purification timer.
Cow Ghost resolution guide →Reward
Livestock Whistle
Calls nearby owned livestock; it does not directly raise Affection.
Livestock Whistle guide →Branded products
The downstream delivery targets
The brand belongs to the animal; these are the product records needed by the High-Quality Goods category.
Cow
Branded Milk
High-Quality Goods quantity: ×5
Cheese, Cream, Yogurt routes exist; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
Chicken
Branded Egg
High-Quality Goods quantity: ×5
Mayonnaise and Smoked Egg routes exist; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
Pig
Branded Truffle
High-Quality Goods quantity: ×5
Truffle Oil route exists; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
Sheep
Branded Wool
High-Quality Goods quantity: ×5
Cloth route exists; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
Cashmere Goat
Branded Cashmere
High-Quality Goods quantity: ×3
Cashmere Cloth route exists; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
Horse
Branded Horse Tail
High-Quality Goods quantity: ×5
Horse Tail uses are documented by the Horse authority; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
A branded animal can produce branded products according to the current contest/care model. The repository does not prove that already-stored products retroactively change, or that every processing machine preserves the status.
Open Chief Deliveries for the exact checklist →High-Quality Goods
Exact branded requirements and Greenhouse consequence
This is the contest-to-delivery-to-building chain; Rare Gems are a separate branch.
High-Quality Crops
- • Branded Rice ×5
- • Branded Tea ×5
- • Branded Soybean ×5
High-Quality Livestock Products
- • Branded Milk ×5
- • Branded Egg ×5
- • Branded Truffle ×5
High-Quality Animal Fiber
- • Branded Wool ×5
- • Branded Horse Tail ×5
- • Branded Cashmere ×3
Complete the full High-Quality Goods category to unlock the Greenhouse; contests supply the branded branches, while Rare Gems remain independent. The Greenhouse construction authority records Glass Rod ×150.
Full Greenhouse unlock walkthrough →Rice / Tea / Soybean
Plan the three branded crop deliveries
These crops have separate crop records and planting rules; branding is the shared contest step.
Crop delivery
Branded Rice ×5
Grow the target crop to Gold Star, win Crop Contest S Rank with that crop, then reserve the branded result. Do not treat one crop's quality progress as shared with the other two.
Crop record authority →Crop delivery
Branded Tea ×5
Grow the target crop to Gold Star, win Crop Contest S Rank with that crop, then reserve the branded result. Do not treat one crop's quality progress as shared with the other two.
Crop record authority →Crop delivery
Branded Soybean ×5
Grow the target crop to Gold Star, win Crop Contest S Rank with that crop, then reserve the branded result. Do not treat one crop's quality progress as shared with the other two.
Crop record authority →Rice keeps Paddy requirements, Tea keeps its own Ridge/harvest rules and Soybean remains an Autumn crop record. Use Greenhouse for environment behavior, not as a shortcut around seed, surface or year gates.
Milk / Egg / Truffle
Brand the animal before reserving the product
The product category is downstream of the individual animal contest result.
Branded Milk
Source animal: Cow. Delivery quantity: ×5. Normal production cadence and machine uses are documented separately; exact quality and brand preservation are not.
Livestock authority →Branded Egg
Source animal: Chicken. Delivery quantity: ×5. Normal production cadence and machine uses are documented separately; exact quality and brand preservation are not.
Livestock authority →Branded Truffle
Source animal: Pig. Delivery quantity: ×5. Normal production cadence and machine uses are documented separately; exact quality and brand preservation are not.
Livestock authority →Egg covers the current High-Quality Goods label. Chicken, Duck and Turkey have separate animal records; Turkey cadence is intentionally unresolved because the repository contains conflicting evidence.
Wool / Cashmere / Horse Tail
Fiber requirements have different quantities
Do not flatten the three fiber requirements into one five-item rule.
Branded Wool
Source animal: Sheep. High-Quality Animal Fiber quantity: ×5. Cloth route exists; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
Open source authority →Branded Cashmere
Source animal: Cashmere Goat. High-Quality Animal Fiber quantity: ×3. Cashmere Cloth route exists; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
Open source authority →Branded Horse Tail
Source animal: Horse. High-Quality Animal Fiber quantity: ×5. Horse Tail uses are documented by the Horse authority; branded/quality carryover is unresolved.
Open source authority →Sell, processing & cooking
What this guide does and does not multiply
Keep direct sale value, machine output and dish data on their owning systems.
Direct selling
Apply the documented Copper, Silver, Gold and Branded multipliers only to crops. Livestock product sell effects are unresolved here.
Shipping authority →Processing
Milk, Egg, Truffle, Wool and Cashmere have downstream machine routes, but quality/brand preservation through processing is unresolved.
Processing database →Cooking
Recipes own ingredients, recovery and dish values. No universal rule turns a branded ingredient into a branded dish or applies 2.00× to cooked food.
Recipes authority →Crop multipliers are the only numeric quality sell-value effects currently normalized here. Livestock, processed and cooked multipliers, and Shipping Skill interaction, are unresolved. Processing chains exist, but preservation of quality or branding through a machine is unresolved. The recipe database tracks ingredients, recovery and dish sell fields; it does not establish a universal quality/brand carryover rule.
Naming
Name the brand without changing the mechanic
Naming is a presentation layer; it does not add another value bonus.
Crop brand name
Confirmed: the winning crop can receive a custom brand name. The name does not add another multiplier.
Animal identity
Branding is attached to the individual submitted animal. A separate custom animal brand-name flow is not confirmed.
Horse
Horse naming is null in the current Horse record, and its contest thresholds are not inherited from livestock.
Greenhouse boundary
A quality-delivery reward, not a quality multiplier
The Greenhouse is unlocked after High-Quality Goods completion and built through Kisuke.
Unlock
Complete High-Quality Goods. Branded crop, livestock and fiber groups are only part of the category; Rare Gems are separate.
Build
The current construction requirement is Glass Rod ×150. The Greenhouse guide owns dimensions, placement and construction details.
Quality effect
No quality, growth-speed or yield bonus is documented. Continue using normal crop quality and contest rules where applicable.
Safe Mode / Postgame
Shade is the live baseline
Mode and postgame boundaries prevent accidental cross-mode claims.
Safe Mode
This repository models Shade as the live authority baseline. Sunshine parity for quality, branding, deliveries and postgame behavior is unresolved unless a shared record says otherwise.
Postgame
Story clear can open postgame goals, but it does not create a new quality tier, retroactively brand stock or bypass delivery and contest requirements.
Postgame authority →The live system baseline is Shade. Sunshine parity is not asserted. Postgame completion does not create an unverified quality tier, multiplier or branding shortcut.
FAQ
Quality and branding questions
What is the quality progression?
The documented crop progression is Base, Copper Star, Silver Star, Gold Star and Branded. The numeric multipliers are crop-scoped.
Is Gold Star the same as Branded?
No. Gold Star is the Crop contest prerequisite. Crop Contest S Rank creates the branded crop state.
How do I brand an animal?
Enter the individual animal in the Livestock division and reach S Rank with maximum Mood and Affection 5. Horse uses a separate division with unresolved numeric thresholds.
Does Affection equal Mood?
No. Affection and Mood are separate. Maximum Mood is required for the documented livestock rank table; exact point scales are not normalized.
What does Cow Ghost block?
Cow Ghost prevents livestock Mood from reaching maximum while present. It is not documented as an Affection reduction.
Which products can be branded?
Branded Milk, Egg, Truffle, Wool, Cashmere and Horse Tail are the current High-Quality Goods product targets. Stored-product retroactivity is unresolved.
Does branded quality carry through processing or cooking?
The repository has processing and recipe routes, but it does not establish a universal quality or branding carryover rule.
Does the Greenhouse add a quality bonus?
No Greenhouse quality, growth-speed or yield bonus is currently documented. Its verified benefit is compatible season-independent growing.
Can I use this guide for Sunshine mode?
This authority uses the live Shade baseline. Sunshine parity is not asserted without a shared record.
Related authorities
Follow the owning guide for detail
This page is the cross-system map; the linked guides own their complete databases and procedures.
Persistence and data safety
Names are permanent; future-brand behavior stays explicit
Use the game's stable item and animal IDs for every delivery and database join.
Crop brand name
The current Missables record marks the confirmed crop/brand name as not editable in-game. A retained prior save may let you redo the action, but that is rollback, not renaming.
Missables authority →Future harvests
Whether branding changes a persistent crop type, planted instances or only the submitted harvest—and whether later harvests inherit the brand—remains unresolved in the repository. Treat the post-contest greenhouse strategy as an optimization lead, not a canonical guarantee.
Stable IDs
A custom display name never becomes an item ID or join key. Delivery, animal and product relations continue to use stable IDs, while offspring branding remains unresolved.
Troubleshooting
Common quality and branding blockers
Identify the owning system before repeating the same loop.
Written by: Village in the Shade Guide Editorial Team
Last updated: August 27, 2026
Sources: Official publisher and storefront pages, released-game research and linked source notes.