The Auto Feeder is a ranching tool added to Fields of Mistria in the v0.15.0 update, and it keeps the troughs in your barns and coops filled automatically every morning. To get one, reach Ranching Level 45, buy the feeder for 5,000 Tesserae at Hayden's shop, and set it on the pedestal inside a Large Coop or Large Barn. Once stocked with Hay, Grass Seed, crops, forageables, or cooked dishes, it converts your inputs into the correct feed for that building each day. This guide covers the unlock, the cost, the placement rules, and the conversion behavior.

What the Auto Feeder Does

The Auto Feeder was added, in the developers' own words, "by popular request," and it removes one of the most time-consuming daily chores from your routine. Every day it deploys Animal Feed, matched to the size of the Barn or Coop it sits in, directly into that building's trough. If the trough holds enough food and you have not called your animals outside before 10 AM, the animals will be marked as fed for the day. Even when Spring rainstorms keep your animals cooped up for days on end, they will have food whenever they need it.

How to Unlock the Auto Feeder

The single prerequisite for the Auto Feeder is your Ranching Level: you need to reach Ranching Level 45. Ranching experience comes from housing and tending livestock, so the path to the feeder is simply consistent animal care. The more steadily you keep up these routines, the faster the level grows.

To raise Ranching efficiently:

  • Build barns and coops and keep them populated with livestock.
  • Feed and pet your animals every single day.
  • Gather the materials they give you in return, such as Wool, Feathers, and Milk.

The Auto Feeder arrived with the game's Fourth Major Update, version 0.15.0, so update your game before looking for it in the shop.

Where to Buy the Auto Feeder

Once you hit Level 45, head to Hayden's shop and open the Farm Supplies section of his inventory. The Auto Feeder appears on the bottom shelf of that section. There is no limit to how many you can buy, so you can outfit every eligible building on your farm in a single trip.

Key purchase details:

  • Shop: Hayden's, inside the Farm Supplies section.
  • Price: 5,000 Tesserae per Auto Feeder.
  • Purchase limit: none, but budget carefully, since costs add up quickly across multiple buildings.

You only need one Auto Feeder per Barn or Coop, so plan purchases around the Large buildings you actually own.

Placement Rules: Large Buildings Only

Auto Feeders can only be assigned to Large Barns or Large Coops; buildings of a smaller size will not accommodate these tools. Inside a Large Barn or Large Coop there is a special spot designated for equipment like this. Look for what resembles a small pedestal near the storage chest where you normally keep animal feed, and place the Auto Feeder directly on top of that pedestal to effectively turn it on.

One further note comes from the update history: as of v0.15.2, Auto Feeders now drop when the player destroys a coop or barn containing one. Demolishing a building therefore no longer destroys the feeder with it. You can recover the tool whenever you reorganize your farm.

How to Set Up Your Coop Auto Feeder

Setting the feeder up takes only a moment once it has been purchased and carried back to the farm. Follow these steps:

  1. Buy the Auto Feeder at Hayden's shop after reaching Ranching Level 45.
  2. Carry it into the Large Coop or Large Barn where you want to use it.
  3. Find the small pedestal near the feed storage chest inside the building.
  4. Place the Auto Feeder directly on top of the pedestal.
  5. Load it with Hay, Grass Seed, or other items using its tile spaces.
  6. Sleep, then return the next morning to find the troughs filled with feed.

The Auto Feeder has plenty of tile spaces for stock, so you can top it off in bulk instead of refilling it every day. The refresh of feed happens once a day, each morning. That keeps the troughs stocked even when you are busy elsewhere.

Daily Operation and the 10 AM Rule

Each morning the Auto Feeder deploys feed into the trough of its building, in an amount corresponding to the size of the Barn or Coop. Animals are marked as fed only when two conditions are met: the trough has enough food, and you have not called the animals outside before 10 AM. This makes the feeder a reliable companion on rainy days, since animals kept indoors pass the check automatically as long as the trough is supplied.

The daily cycle rewards a simple habit. Keep the machine stocked and let your animals out after 10 AM, and every animal starts the day marked as fed. If you send your flock out at dawn instead, early outings interact with the feeding check in ways the sources do not fully spell out (待确认).

What You Can Put in the Auto Feeder

The two basic inputs are the everyday animal feeds:

  • Hay: outputs Hay in Barns, sell value 5 Tesserae.
  • Grass Seed: outputs Grass Seed in Coops, sell value 5 Tesserae.

Beyond those, you can place dishes, crops, or other forageables into the Auto Feeder, and it converts them into the appropriate feed for the building. Because the machine looks to output food matching the building, it may be able to convert Small Animal food into Large Animal food, and vice versa (待确认). Representative conversions reported on the wiki include:

  • Egg and Milk convert to Hay in Barns.
  • Cabbage, Carrot, and Cherry convert to Ultimate Large Animal Feed.
  • Corn and Tomato convert to Deluxe Large Animal Feed.

Manufactured feeds pass through in their own tier: Quality Small and Quality Large Animal Feed sell for 10 Tesserae, Deluxe varieties for 15 Tesserae, and Ultimate varieties for 30 Tesserae. The exact conversion mechanics the Auto Feeder uses to match input items to outputted Animal Feed are currently unclear. The community conversion table is explicitly marked as a work in progress and may be incomplete, inaccurate, or incorrect, so treat specific pairings as provisional (待确认).

Shiny Beads and Skill Restrictions

Several open questions remain about the feeder's hidden mechanics. It is unknown whether using the Auto Feeder results in Shiny Beads at all, and if it does, how the drop rate is impacted. The wiki's conversion table lists Shiny Bead values next to each input, but its footnote indicates those values apply when an item is hand-fed rather than dispensed by the machine (待确认). It is likewise unknown whether the restrictions on what items can be placed in the Auto Feeder correspond with those that can be hand-fed to livestock, and whether the same skill restrictions exist.

Tips for Your Daily Routine

The Auto Feeder shines brightest when combined with an auto-petting Animal Sprite Statue. Together they streamline the two most repetitive ranching chores: feeding and petting. Your morning rounds then shrink to a quick harvest of Wool, Feathers, Milk, and other animal products.

  • Budget 5,000 Tesserae per eligible building and buy all your feeders in one trip, since there is no purchase limit.
  • Only Large Barns and Large Coops can host a feeder, so upgrade smaller buildings first.
  • Remember the 10 AM rule when deciding whether to let animals out to graze.

Sources

  • https://fieldsofmistria.wiki.gg/wiki/Auto_Feeder
  • https://www.dualshockers.com/fields-of-mistria-how-to-unlock-auto-feeder/