Cows are passive mobs found in the Overworld.
Spawning
Natural generation
Cows spawn in herds of 4 on top of opaque blocks with at least 2 blocks of space above them, at a light level of 9 or higher. They only spawn in herds while the world is first generating, on land.
Baby cow
A calf compared to an adult cow.
If cows are given wheat, their love mode will be triggered and they will pair off to create calves, which may grant the player a small amount of experience. The parent cows will then have a delay of 5 minutes before they can breed again.
The growth of baby cows can be slowly accelerated using wheat. Each use takes 10% off the remaining time to grow up.
Mooshrooms
Shearing a mooshroom will turn it into a cow.
Drops
Adult cows drop 0-2 leather, 1-3 raw beef (1-3 steak if killed by fire) and 1-3 experience.
Cows can be milked by using a bucket on it.
Like other baby animals, killing a baby cow yields no items nor experience.
Behavior
Cows are 1.6875 blocks tall, 0.625 blocks wide, and 1.5 blocks long.
Cows tend to walk around slowly and aimlessly, mooing and breathing occasionally. They will avoid walking off cliffs high enough to cause fall damage, and usually stay out of water.
A cow will follow the player if he/she is holding wheat, but will stop if the player travels too far away (approximately 10 blocks).
In the Console Editions, cows are unaware of cliffs and holes in the ground, leading them to occasionally fall and die.
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| The Lie | Bake a cake using: wheat, sugar, milk, and eggs. | Pick up a cake from a crafting table output. | 30G | Bronze | ||
| 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 | ||
Video
Cow/video
History
The original cow skin without horns.
| a | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.8 | Added cows. They make noise similar to a kazoo and are black and white. | ||||
| 1.0.9 | Cows now make a more realistic cow sound. | ||||
| 1.0.14 | Added cow horns. Cows have a new look, brown with white spots, instead of black with white spots. | ||||
| b | |||||
| 1.8 | Updated cow AI as part of the first AI update; they now run away when attacked. | ||||
| Added raw beef and steak. | |||||
| r | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9-pre3 | Added baby cows. | |||
| Cows can be bred with wheat. | |||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w07a | Updated cow AI. | |||
| 1.4.2 | 12w38a | Added new step, hurt, and idle sounds. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Baby cow growth can be accelerated using wheat. | |||
| pocketa | |||||
| 0.3.0 | Cows were added. | ||||
| 0.6.0 | Baby cows were added. | ||||
| Cows can now drop leather. | |||||
| 0.7.0 | Cow spawn eggs were added to creative. | ||||
| 0.8.0 | Cows are attracted to wheat and can be bred. | ||||
| Improved cow AI. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | Added cows. | ||||
| TU5 | Cows will run away when attacked. | ||||
| TU7 | Added baby cows. | ||||
| Cows can be bred with wheat. | |||||
| TU14 | Baby cows can now be spawned by using | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Cow" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- Cows resemble Norwegian red cattle.
- Cows in the PC Gamer Minecraft Demo are branded with a 'PCG' logo on their side.
- Notch stated in a tweet that all “breedable” peaceful mobs displayed traits of both genders and could breed with any other individual of their species. This applies to cows, since they have horns and give milk (although female cows have horns)
Gallery
A cow begging at the player holding a piece of wheat.
References

