Updated 25 October 2026. Facts on this page come from minecraft.wiki, minecraft.net and the live Artemis PvP server; sources are listed at the bottom.
Hay Bales in Minecraft: Uses and Fall Damage
A hay bale is 9 wheat packed into one block. Use it to store wheat, feed and breed horses and llamas, craft target blocks, and make campfire smoke rise higher. Landing on a hay bale also cuts fall damage. Hay bales pile up in plains villages, and a hoe breaks them fastest.
What are hay bales used for?
- Compact storage: 9 wheat in one block, and back to 9 wheat in a crafting grid.
- Feeding horses, donkeys, mules and llamas, which heals them and speeds up growth (and helps tame llamas); llamas breed with hay; see llamas.
- Crafting target blocks with redstone; see target blocks.
- Under a campfire, making the smoke signal rise higher; see campfires.
Do hay bales reduce fall damage?
Yes: falling onto a hay bale takes much less damage than landing on a normal block, which makes it a handy landing pad for drop shafts. Water still stops fall damage completely, and so do slime blocks, which bounce you back up. More: fall damage.
How do you place hay bales?
Like logs, they can point up, sideways or along either axis, depending on the face you place them on. They are often found in villages in plains, and less in savannas and deserts, and in abandoned camps.
Where does the wheat come from?
Any wheat farm; villagers farm it too, and farmer villagers buy wheat for emeralds. Crafting wheat into hay saves chest space before you trade or feed animals. Farming: crop farming.
Frequently asked questions
Do hay bales stop fall damage?
They reduce it a lot, but not completely.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.