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Ah, Minecraft. Depending on how you approach it, this wonderfully relaxing little game can either be a testament to bucolic paradises or a nightmarish industrial dystopia, and all that separates the two is a texture pack or two. Minecraft is host to a wide variety of creatures and species; no matter what you can imagine, there’s a good chance that either the base Minecraft game supports it or that you can download a mod that adds it into the game.
One of the most frequently overlooked animals in Minecraft is, of course, the humble cow. In certain biomes, cows will spawn automatically depending on what kind of territory you have on your map. There’s a lot you can do with cows; they yield several different resources, behave rather delightfully when you’re observing them, and act as a great complement to a farm map or a ranch. The age-old question, though, is this: what do cows eat in Minecraft? Well, don’t fret, because we’re here to answer that question.
How do cows work in Minecraft?
First, let’s talk a little bit about what cows are in Minecraft and how they operate within the game. Cows are peaceful mobs, which means they’re mobile and don’t attack. They can often be found wandering around the world, and depending on what biomes you’ve spawned into your map, they can occur naturally. You’ll find them mostly in plains and forest areas, so be sure to be on the lookout for them if you’ve got a map with those areas in it!
What do cows eat in Minecraft?
Now that you know a little bit about cows in Minecraft, we can answer the burning question: what do cows eat in Minecraft? The answer, thankfully, is pretty simple, and if you know anything about cows in real life, it’s also very intuitive.
Grass
That’s right – cows in Minecraft eat grass, just like they do in the real world. You’ll often come across cows in Minecraft chomping down on grass, especially if they’re near to it. This is something you’ll need to watch out for; if you’ve planted grass so that your map can look especially nice, then a poorly-placed cow – or just one that happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – can ruin the whole effect simply by devouring that grass. Don’t plant grass near cows if you don’t want them to eat it. It’s worth noting here that cows eating grass has no beneficial effect for the animal; it won’t put your cow into love mode, like wheat does (see below).
Wheat
As well as grass, cows in Minecraft also eat wheat. Unlike grass, however, cows won’t eat wheat if it’s just organically growing on your map. They will need to be fed wheat in order to consume it. If you want to see something cute, grab yourself some wheat and feed it to one of your cows. They’ll be grateful for the meal! This means that you’re safe to grow wheat near cows without them naturally eating it.
Wheat also has another benefit for cows: it puts them into “love mode”, which means they can breed if there are two cows close to one another in this mode. There’s a chance these cows will breed, and if they do, they’ll spawn a baby cow. We challenge you not to become completely overwhelmed with love when you see one of these little critters, so it’s worth putting cows near wheat just so you can get yourself a baby cow.
Of course, there’s a time limit on this; cows can only breed once every five minutes. In addition, there’s an upper limit on how many mobs there can be in each world, so there’s a chance that you’ll spawn too many baby cows if you get carried away. Not that we’d blame you for doing so; baby cows in Minecraft are completely adorable, after all.
How do you farm cows in Minecraft?
If you’ve decided you want to keep and farm a couple of these adorable animals in Minecraft, then the solution is simple. Here are the steps for farming cows.
- Get yourself some wheat by growing it or finding it nearby
- Build an enclosure for the cows so that they don’t wander off
- Find cows and place them within the enclosure (or usher them inside)
- Feed cows wheat to make them enter “love mode”
- Watch as they create an adorable tiny baby cow
What can cows be used for in Minecraft?
Once you’ve finished with your cows in Minecraft, you can harvest them in order to get yourself some much-needed resources. Cows are a great source of leather, but they’ll also give you beef and milk if you want it. Naturally, the way you gather these resources is a little different depending on what you want.
Leather
Unfortunately, in order to get leather from your cows, you will need to kill them. You can achieve this using any kind of weapon, if you can bring yourself to do it.
Beef
Again, getting beef from a cow requires that the animal be killed. It’s probably worth leaving a few cows alive so that you can keep getting milk (and more cows) from them.
Milk
To milk a cow, just grab a bucket and hold it up to the cow in question. You should then see that your bucket fills up with milk. Now you’ve got some milk!
