A cow is a common passive mob, and a source of leather, beef, and milk. They are found in most grassy biomes.
Spawning
Natural generation
Herds of 2 to 3 cows spawn on grass blocks at a light level of 9 or higher with at least 2 blocks of space above, except in snowy tundras and wooded badlands plateaus.
They spawn individually on grass after world generation. A cow spawns inside fowl runs and butchers' houses in villages.
5% spawn as calves.
Drops
- 0–2 Leather. The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 5 with Looting III.
- 1–3 Raw Beef (Steak if killed while on fire). The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 6 with Looting III.
- 1–3 when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
Upon successful breeding, 1–7.
Like other baby animals, killing a baby cow yields no items nor experience.
Milking
An adult cow can be milked by using a bucket on it, yielding a milk bucket. Players can use the milk bucket to consume the milk, which removes any status effects and returns an empty bucket to the player's inventory.
Behavior
A calf compared to an adult.
A cow wanders around, mooing and huffing occasionally.
Cows avoid going to water, hazards and walking off cliffs high enough to cause fall damage. They flee for a few seconds when harmed.
As with other baby animals, baby cows follow adult cows.
Breeding
A cow follows a player who holds wheat but stops following if separated from the player by at least 6 blocks.
If cows are given wheat, they enter love mode and pair off to create calves, granting the player 1-7 experience. The parent cows have a cooldown of 5 minutes before they can breed again. Babies take 20 minutes to grow up. The growth of baby cows can be slowly accelerated using wheat; each use takes 10% off of the remaining time to grow up.
Mooshrooms
Shearing a mooshroom turns it into a cow and drops 5 mushrooms corresponding to the type of mooshroom.
Sounds
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cow moos | Friendly Creatures | Randomly from adult | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Cow moos | Friendly Creatures | Randomly from baby | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 1.3 - 1.7 | 16 | |
| Cow dies | Friendly Creatures | When adult cow dies | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 0.8 - 1.2 | 16 | |
| Cow dies | Friendly Creatures | When baby cow dies | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 1.3 - 1.7 | 16 | |
| Cow hurts | Friendly Creatures | When adult cow takes damage | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 0.8 - 1.0 | 16 | |
| Cow hurts | Friendly Creatures | When baby cow takes damage | entity | subtitles | 0.4 | 1.3 - 1.7 | 16 | |
| Cow gets milked | Players | When a player milks a cow | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Footsteps | Friendly Creatures | When cow walks | entity | subtitles | 0.15 | 1.0 | 16 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 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 24 mobs:
| husbandry/bred_all_animals
|
History
The specific instructions are: 12w05a changes
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.8 | File:Cow Revision 1.png 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 | File:Cow Revision 2.png 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 | File:Cow Revision 3.png 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 3 | File:Cow Revision 4.png The cow's horns have been moved, once again. | |||
| The cow udder's model has been changed from File:Cow Revision 1 from below.png to File:Cow Revision 2 from below.png. | |||||
| File:Baby Cow Revision 1.png Added calves. | |||||
| Cows can now be bred with wheat. | |||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 | The texture of the cow's back has been changed from File:Cow Revision 1 from behind.png to File:Cow Revision 2 from behind.png. | ||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w07a | The cow AI has been updated. | |||
| Cows can no longer be bred with mooshrooms. | |||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w38a | Cow's sounds has 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 snowy tundras. | |||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The entity ID for cows have been changed from Cow to cow. | |||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | ||||
| 1.15 | 19w37a | Five percent of cows now spawn as babies. | |||
| 19w39a | File:Baby Cow Revision 3.png 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 | File:Cow Revision 4.png Added cows with old sounds. | ||||
| v0.6.0 | File:Baby Cow Revision 1.png Added calves that spawn naturally 25% of times. | ||||
| Cows can now drop leather. | |||||
| v0.7.0 | Cow spawn eggs have been added to creative. | ||||
| v0.8.0 | build 2 | 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 | ||||
| 1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.1 | Cows spawn in animal pens in villages. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | File:Cow Revision 4.png Added cows. |
| Cows do not run away when attacked. | |||||
| TU5 | Cows now run away when attacked. | ||||
| TU7 | File:Baby Cow Revision 1.png Added calves. | ||||
| Cows can now be bred with wheat. | |||||
| TU14 | 1.04 | Using a cow spawn egg, calves can now be spawned by using | |||
| 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. | |
| 1.90 | |||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | File:Cow Revision 4.png File:Baby Cow Revision 1.png Added cows and calves. | ||||
The cow as it appears in the PC Gamer Demo.
A cow from the PC Gamer Demo, with an exclusive texture.
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 | ? |
Issues
Issues relating to "Cow" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- Cows in the PC Gamer Minecraft Demo are branded with a 'PCG' logo on their side.
- Notch 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, in some breeds, female cows also have horns).
Gallery
Screenshots
A cow begging at the player holding a piece of wheat.
In Other Media
A Cow in promotional artwork for the Horse Update.
Lego Minecraft Cow.
References
- ↑ The Word of Notch - Gender in Minecraft https://notch.tumblr.com/post/28188312756/gender-in-minecraft









