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For other uses, see Cow (disambiguation).
For the mob in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Cow.
Not to be confused with Cod.

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[]

Minicow

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[]

Main article: 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.

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Cow moosFriendly CreaturesRandomlyentity.cow.ambientsubtitles.entity.cow.ambient0.40.8-1.2
(Baby: 1.3-1.7)
16
Cow diesFriendly CreaturesWhen a cow diesentity.cow.deathsubtitles.entity.cow.death0.40.8-1.2
(Baby: 1.3-1.7)
16
Cow hurtsFriendly CreaturesWhen a cow is damagedentity.cow.hurtsubtitles.entity.cow.hurt0.40.8-1.2
(Baby: 1.3-1.7)
16
Cow gets milkedPlayersWhen a cow is milkedentity.cow.milksubtitles.entity.cow.milk1.01.016
FootstepsFriendly CreaturesWhile a cow is walkingentity.cow.stepsubtitles.block.generic.footsteps0.151.016

Bedrock Edition:

SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
Friendly CreaturesRandomlymob.cow.say1.00.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
Friendly CreaturesWhen a cow diesmob.cow.hurt1.00.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
Friendly CreaturesWhen a cow is damagedmob.cow.hurt1.00.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
Friendly CreaturesWhen a cow is milkedmob.cow.milk1.01.0
Friendly CreaturesWhile a cow is walkingmob.cow.step0.650.9-1.1

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[]

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierTranslation key
Cowcowentity.minecraft.cow

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
Cowcow11entity.cow.name

Entity data[]

Cows have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format
  • Entity data
    • Additional fields for mobs that can breed
    • Tags common to all entities
    • Tags common to all mobs

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon Achievement In-game description Actual requirements (if different) Gamerscore earned Trophy type (PS4)
PS4 Other
Cow TipperHarvest some leather.Pick up leather from the ground.15GBronze
RepopulationBreed two cows with wheat.Breed two cows or two mooshrooms.15GBronze

Advancements[]

Icon Advancement In-game description Parent Actual requirements (if different) Resource location
Advancement-fancy-rawIt Spreads
Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst Monster HunterKill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
Advancement-plain-rawThe Parrots and the Bats
Breed two animals together HusbandryBreed a pair of any of these 25 mobs: A mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs are ignored for this advancement.husbandry/breed_an_animal
Advancement-fancy-rawTwo by Two
Breed all the animals! The Parrots and the BatsBreed a pair of each of these 25 mobs: A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.husbandry/bred_all_animals

History[]

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The specific instructions are: 12w05a changes
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.8Cow JE1 Added cows.
Cows are currently black and white.
Cows exhibit strange sounds.
v1.0.9Cows now emanate a new and realistic bovine sound.
v1.0.14Cow JE2 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
1.3Cow JE3 The position of the cow's horns has been changed.
1.8Pre-releaseCows now run away when attacked.
Added raw beef and steak, which are now dropped from cows.
Java Edition
1.0.0Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2Cows can now be bred using wheat.
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3Cow JE4 BE1 The cow's horns have been moved, once again.
The cow udder's model has been changed from Cow UNKVER1 (facing SWU) to Cow UNKVER2 (facing SWU).
Baby Cow JE1 BE1 Added calves.
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6The texture of the cow's back has been changed from Cow UNKVER1 (facing SWD) to Cow UNKVER2 (facing SWD).
1.2.112w07aThe cow AI has been updated.
Cows can no longer be bred with mooshrooms.
1.4.212w38a Cows' sounds have been changed.
1.814w02aCalf growth can now be accelerated using wheat.
1.915w39aCows are now slightly taller (1.4 blocks tall rather than 1.3, with babies 0.7 blocks tall rather than 0.65).
15w50aAdded a sound when the player milks a cow: entity.cow.milk.
1.1016w20aCows no longer spawn in ice plains.
1.1116w32aThe entity ID for cows have been changed from Cow to cow.
1.1418w43aCow JE5 BE2 Baby Cow JE2 BE2 The textures of the cow and calf have been changed.
1.1519w37aFive percent of cows now spawn as babies.
19w39aBaby Cow JE3 The models of the calves have been changed.
1.16pre1Cows can now be milked in Creative mode.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.3.0Cow JE4 BE1 Added cows with old sounds.
Baby Cow JE1 BE1 Calves have also been added, but they do not yet spawn naturally.
v0.6.0Calves now spawn naturally 25% of the time instead of adult cows.
Cows can now drop leather.
v0.7.0Cow spawn eggs have been added to Creative.
v0.8.0build 1Cows 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.
v0.12.1build 1The cow sounds have been updated.
v0.14.0build 1Baby 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.
v0.15.0build 1Baby husks can now mount cows.
?The chance of baby cows spawning instead of adults has been reduced to five percent.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Cow JE5 BE2 Baby Cow JE2 BE2 The textures of the cow and calf have been changed.
1.11.0beta 1.11.0.1Cows spawn in animal pens in villages.
1.18.30beta 1.18.20.27Cows no longer spawn in snowy taigas.
ReleaseReverted the cow spawning change made in beta 1.18.20.27.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 11.0.1Cow JE4 BE1 Added cows.
Cows do not run away when attacked.
TU5Cows now run away when attacked.
TU7Baby Cow JE1 BE1 Added calves.
Cows can now be bred with wheat.
TU14 1.04 Using a cow spawn egg, calves can now be spawned by using Left trigger on an adult cow.
TU31CU19 1.22 Patch 3Calf growth can now be accelerated using wheat.
TU43CU33 1.36 Patch 13The baby cow's sounds have been updated.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Cow JE4 BE1 Baby Cow JE1 BE1 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[]

Cosmetics[]

In other media[]

Textures[]

References[]

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