A cow is a passive mob found in most grassy biomes and a source of leather, beef and milk.
Spawning[]
Cows spawn above grass blocks in small herds during world generation or individually afterwards. Their spawn rate varies per biome.
In Bedrock Edition, herds of two to three cows spawn on grass blocks at a light level of 9 or higher with at least two blocks of space above, in most grassy biomes except for snowy plains, meadows, mangrove swamps and wooded badlands.
In Java Edition, herds of four cows spawn on grass blocks at a light level of 7 or higher with at least two blocks of space above, in most grassy biomes except for snowy plains, meadows, mangrove swamps and wooded badlands.
Also, a cow sometimes spawns inside animal pens and butchers' houses in villages.
Shearing a mooshroom turns it into a cow and drops five mushrooms corresponding to the type of mooshroom.
Most cows spawn as adults, but they have a 5% chance of spawning as a calf (baby cow).
Drops[]
An adult cow drops:
- 1 to 3 raw beef (or steak if killed while on fire), with a maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 6 with Looting III.
- 0 to 2 leather, with a maximum amount increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 5 with Looting III.
- 1–3 experience orbs are dropped when killed by a player or tamed wolf or 1–7 upon a successful breeding.
Killing a calf yields no items nor experience.
Behavior[]
A calf compared to a cow.
A cow moos and huffs occasionally while wandering aimlessly, but tends to stay on well lit and grassy places. Like most other passive mobs, a cow also:
- flees and remains 25% faster for a few seconds when harmed.
- looks at players within six blocks for two to four seconds sometimes.
- avoids going to water unless it is following players and always avoid traversing minecart rails and walking off cliffs high enough to cause fall damage.
- avoids environmental hazards, such as cactus, sweet berry bushes, dripstone, fire or lava, but make no attempts to avoid explosions.
An adult cow can be milked by using a bucket on it, yielding a milk bucket.
Breeding[]
A cow follows a player who holds wheat but stops following if separated from the player by at least six blocks.
Adult cows enter love mode and pair off to create calves after they are given wheat, granting the player one to seven experience orbs. The parent cows have a cooldown of five minutes before they can breed again and the growth of calves can be accelerated using wheat; each use reduces the remaining growth duration by 10%.
Baby cows take 20 minutes to grow up and follow adult cows, preferring them instead of a player holding wheat. The calf that results from breeding attempts to go to the nearest available block to its parent, even if no path can be found. A calf pathfinds to other adult cow if it is separated from its parent by more than 24 blocks.
Sounds[]
Java Edition:
Cows use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cow moos | Friendly Creatures | Randomly | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7) | 16 | |
| Cow dies | Friendly Creatures | When a cow dies | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7) | 16 | |
| Cow hurts | Friendly Creatures | When a cow is damaged | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7) | 16 | |
| Cow gets milked | Players | When a cow is milked | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Footsteps | Friendly Creatures | While a cow is walking | entity | subtitles | 0.15 | 1.0 | 16 |
| Sound | Source | Description | Resource location | Volume | Pitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friendly Creatures | Randomly | mob | 1.0 | 0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7) | |
| Friendly Creatures | When a cow dies | mob | 1.0 | 0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7) | |
| Friendly Creatures | When a cow is damaged | mob | 1.0 | 0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7) | |
| Friendly Creatures | When a cow is milked | mob | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| Friendly Creatures | While a cow is walking | mob | 0.65 | 0.9-1.1 |
Historical sounds[]
| Sound | From | to | Pitch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idle | Alpha v1.0.8 | Alpha v1.0.9 | ? |
| Hurt | Alpha v1.0.8 | Alpha v1.0.9 | ? |
| Idle | Alpha v1.0.9 | 1.4.2 | ? |
| Hurt/Die | Alpha v1.0.9 | 1.4.2 | ? |
Data values[]
ID[]
| Name | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
| Cow | cow | entity.minecraft.cow |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cow | cow | 11 | entity.cow.name |
Entity data[]
Cows have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.
- Entity data
- Additional fields for mobs that can breed
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
Achievements[]
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Cow Tipper | Harvest some leather. | Pick up leather from the ground. | 15G | Bronze | ||
| Repopulation | Breed two cows with wheat. | Breed two cows or two mooshrooms. | 15G | Bronze | ||
Advancements[]
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | It Spreads | Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst | Monster Hunter | Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst:
| adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
|
 | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed two animals together | Husbandry | Breed a pair of any of these 25 mobs:
| husbandry/breed_an_animal
|
| Two by Two | Breed all the animals! | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed a pair of each of these 25 mobs:
| husbandry/bred_all_animals
|
History[]
The specific instructions are: 12w05a changes
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.8 |  Added cows.
| ||||
| Cows are currently black and white. | |||||
| Cows exhibit strange sounds. | |||||
| v1.0.9 | Cows now emanate a new and realistic bovine sound. | ||||
| v1.0.14 |  Added horns to cows. Cows now have a new look, brown with white spots, instead of black with white spots and have a 3D udder. | ||||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
| 1.3 |  The position of the cow's horns has been changed. | ||||
| 1.8 | Pre-release | Cows now run away when attacked. | |||
| Added raw beef and steak, which are now dropped from cows. | |||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Cows can now be bred using wheat. | |||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 |  The cow's horns have been moved, once again.
| ||||
The cow udder's model has been changed from  to  . | |||||
 Added calves. | |||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 | The texture of the cow's back has been changed from  to  . | ||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w07a | The cow AI has been updated. | |||
| Cows can no longer be bred with mooshrooms. | |||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w38a | Cows' sounds have been changed. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Calf growth can now be accelerated using wheat. | |||
| 1.9 | 15w39a | Cows are now slightly taller (1.4 blocks tall rather than 1.3, with babies 0.7 blocks tall rather than 0.65). | |||
| 15w50a | Added a sound when the player milks a cow: entity.cow.milk. | ||||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | Cows no longer spawn in ice plains. | |||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The entity ID for cows have been changed from Cow to cow. | |||
| 1.14 | 18w43a |   The textures of the cow and calf have been changed. | |||
| 1.15 | 19w37a | Five percent of cows now spawn as babies. | |||
| 19w39a |  The models of the calves have been changed. | ||||
| 1.16 | pre1 | Cows can now be milked in Creative mode. | |||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.3.0 | Added cows with old sounds.
| ||||
| Calves have also been added, but they do not yet spawn naturally. | |||||
| v0.6.0 | Calves now spawn naturally 25% of the time instead of adult cows. | ||||
| Cows can now drop leather. | |||||
| v0.7.0 | Cow spawn eggs have been added to Creative. | ||||
| v0.8.0 | build 1 | Cows are now attracted to wheat and can now be bred. | |||
| The cow AI has been improved, cows now avoid falls, fire, water, cactus and lava. | |||||
| v0.12.1 | build 1 | The cow sounds have been updated. | |||
| v0.14.0 | build 1 | Baby zombie jockeys now check for nearby cows to mount prior to attacking the player, villager or golem. | |||
| Cows no longer spawn in snowy tundra biomes and variants. | |||||
| v0.15.0 | build 1 | Baby husks can now mount cows. | |||
| ? | The chance of baby cows spawning instead of adults has been reduced to five percent. | ||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | The textures of the cow and calf have been changed. | |||
| 1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.1 | Cows spawn in animal pens in villages. | |||
| 1.18.30 | beta 1.18.20.27 | Cows no longer spawn in snowy taigas. | |||
| Release | Reverted the cow spawning change made in beta 1.18.20.27. | ||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | Added cows.
|
| Cows do not run away when attacked. | |||||
| TU5 | Cows now run away when attacked. | ||||
| TU7 | Added calves.
| ||||
| Cows can now be bred with wheat. | |||||
| TU14 | 1.04 | Using a cow spawn egg, calves can now be spawned by using  on an adult cow. | |||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Calf growth can now be accelerated using wheat. | |
| TU43 | CU33 | 1.36 | Patch 13 | The baby cow's sounds have been updated. | |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added cows and calves. | ||||
Historical images[]
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Cow" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
- Cows are visually based on the Norwegian Red cattle.
- Cows in the PC Gamer Minecraft Demo are branded with a 'PCG' logo on their side.
- Markus Persson stated in a Tumblr post that all "breedable" peaceful mobs displayed traits of both genders and could breed with any other individual of their species.[1] This applies to cows as they have horns and give milk (although there are some cattle breeds wherein females exhibit horns).
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
A dying cow.
A cow begging at the player holding a wheat.
A cow attempting to follow the player through a fence.
A cow that has been pushed from a water source into a cave.
Lots of cows.
Lots more cows.
A cow in the nether.
A cow in the end.
The original black-and-white cow.
The cow as it appears in the PC Gamer Demo.
A cow from the PC Gamer Demo, with an exclusive texture.
The Moon Cow, a joke variant featured in Java Edition 23w13a_or_b.
Cosmetics[]
A cow as it appears in the City texture pack.
A cow as it appears in the Greek Mythology mash-up pack.
The "Infernal Cow," featured in the Halloween Edition mash-up pack and Minecraft Mini-Series.
A cow as it appears in the Plastic texture pack.
A cow as it appears in the Natural texture pack.
Cow Man, a skin featured in the third Legacy Console skin pack.
Party Cow, a skin featured in the 1st Birthday skin pack.
In other media[]
A cow in promotional artwork for the Horse Update.
A cow in promotional artwork for the first Caves & Cliffs update.
A cow and several other animals watching Noor in the Minecraft Live 2023 reveal trailer.
Several cows in a Cherry Grove from the same trailer.
A Cow as it appears in Minecraft Story Mode.
Cows as they appear in Minecraft Dungeons.
Cow Onesie, a hero dressed as a cow featured in Minecraft Dungeons.
Wooly Cows, a unique variation of cows first introduced in Minecraft Earth.
LEGO Minecraft cow.
LEGO Minecraft calf.
A cow plush made by JINX.
An officially licensed cow hoodie.
Animal Tower, a T-Shirt design by JINX.
Textures[]
PC Gamer demo
