Fantastic Cow Pictures
and Photos

Do you love fantastic farm cow pictures? Images of cows are peaceful, interesting, and even amusing. Cows are found everywhere in country life, so cow photos abound, too.

Hi! My name is Maria. This page is a photo gallery collection of fantastic country photos for your enjoyment. Fantastic pictures capture a magical moments in time, and that's what you'll discover here at Fantastic Farm and Country! 

It's so easy, click here to show and tell your own country photos! Or share your cows with us by scrolling to the bottom of this page.

Cows on the Farm

The cow happens to be among the most useful farm animals, and where there's a "farm" it's likely that there's a cow somewhere in there, too!

Holstein Herd
A herd of black and white milkcows in a green spring field.

©/Shutterstock

A green pasture dotted with grazing black and white Holstein cows... These cow pictures come to mind when we think of a farm. The cow is a common sight world wide, in any rural area. You can't think country living without remembering the cows. Share your own pictures with us by scrolling to the bottom of this page.

Defining Cows

Cattle refers to all bovine animals. The term cow generally means an adult female of the bovine family. A heifer is a young female cow that hasn't yet had her own calf. The bull is an adult male bovine animal. 

In the Pasture
A curious cow wanders over to check out a visitor in her pasture.

©Shutterstock

Moo Cows for Kids

And for some reason, a cow's moo delights children everywhere! It's one of the first words my children learned (next to "tractor" that is!).

They love pictures of farm animals, and of course, they're thrilled with the cow pictures, too! They can't seem to get enough of them.

Spotted Cow
Brown and white cow graze peacefully in a meadow.

©Jan de Wild/Shutterstock

Kids also love those baby calves. Visiting the local dairy to see the babies is one of my children's favorite places. I have lots of baby cow pictures with them.

If a kid is lucky enough to live on the farm, raising a calf is a responsibility that is fun and entertaining.

Mom and Baby
A baby calf sticks close to its mother.

©MaxPhoto/Shutterstock

Did you have one of those toy farm play-sets when you were a kid? Yup, along with the tractors there were cows there, too! Start looking around. Cows and cow pictures are everywhere...

Historical American Country Life

Cows have been a part of American culture for hundreds of years. In fact, when the Pilgrims landed in New England, with their livestock they brought their cows, too!

Dairy Farm
A herd of cows lazily chew their cud nearby the farm's dairy barn.

©V. J. Matthew/Shutterstock

In earlier years, America was mostly an agricultural, rural country. Nearly every family had their own cow. As our country became more industrialized, the small farmers have been replaced with big commercial dairy farms where milk is produced by herds of many hundreds of cows.

However, there are still many small family-owned farms who keep their own cow and other farm animals.

Did you know? You can add your photos to this site! Just use the photo sharing form below.

Family Farm Chores

Keeping the farm running smoothly is a whole family effort. And, of course, getting up before dawn to do the milking is one of the most common farm chores.

Cows in the Field
A herd of Holstein cows grazing in the country.

©Henk Bentlage/Shutterstock

The sound of warm milk singing into the milk pail is part of the farm scene, with the barn cats sitting around waiting for a treat. Then bringing the cows in from the field for the evening milking is another daily task.

Commercial Dairy Farming

The larger dairy farms are a little different than the family farm. It's on a much larger scale. A full fledged dairy will keep hundreds of cows.

Peaceful Meadow
It's a lazy afternoon in a grassy field for this cow picture.

©Cathy Kovarik/Shutterstock

The farmer must be sure all cows are kept well-fed and healthy if they are to produce efficiently, this sometimes means medical attention from a veterinarian.

Milking in a big dairy goes around the clock. Two or even three times daily the cows enter the dairy barn to be milked. It's cooled and stored in a large tank to be shipped to a factory to be processed and sold.

So Many Milk Products

Fresh milk often turns into useful dairy items such as cheese, yogurt, and butter, buttermilk, and even ice cream. Don't forget, whether homemade, or bought at Dairy Queen, ice cream originates from cows!

Though some people are allergic to cow's milk, it is high in calcium, protein, and other nutrients. Thus, it's a food found almost world wide including countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. Though different breeds are preferred in different cultures, farmers keep cows for milk production nearly everywhere.

Milk Cow Breeds

The most popular and commonly known cow is the black and white Holstein. Most dairy farmers use Holsteins because they're are the highest volume milk producers.

Cow & Farm Field
A cow grazes in a farm field with hay bales in the distance.

©Eric Gevaert/Shutterstock

Next in line is the Jersey cows. These are lovely brown creatures, known for their rich, creamy milk.

The Ayrshire is a dairy cow that originates from Scotland. These animals are a more reddish color that ranges from an orange to brown.

The Brown Swiss dairy cow is well known and loved among the small dairy farmers. She has a docile temperament, is very hardy. No one can miss this cute cow's big furry ears. The Brown Swiss produces high quality milk that's great for cheese production.

The Guernsey is another common dairy breed. This farm animal is brown and cream colored. Her milk is well know for being rich flavored.

Of course, there are many more breeds used in dairies, including the Friesian, Hereford , Charolais. Then there are other farm cows that aren't necessarily for milk production, but rather for beef.

Other Kinds of Cows

There are many cows that are raised meat purposes. Range cattle are raised in fields or on uncultivated lands. As the mom cows aren't milked, the calves usually stay with their mother until grown.

The Angus and Shorthorn are both breeds that are generally used for beef.

Black Angus Calf
A young calf checks out a visitor.

©Eric Gevaert/Shutterstock

Click here to share YOUR favorite cattle photos!

Cool Cow Facts:

• Did you know? No two Holstein cows are alike. Their black and white patterns are all unique, just like your finger prints, or the winter's snowflakes.
  
  
• One cow can provide approximately 200,000 glasses of milk during her lifespan.
  
  
• A cows will generally spend 6 hours a day in eating and another 8 hours chewing it's cud.
  
  
• Cows are one of the largest of the farm animals, weighing around 1400 pounds! (They can be more or less depending on the breed.)

Mooooooo!
A low camera angle gets great cow pictures of this curious heifer.

©Createsima/Shutterstock

Those Funny Cows!

Cows can be very amusing creatures. They're very curious ones at that!

Have you ever stopped near a field to get a cow picture of that idyllic country scene, only to have the entire herd come crowding up to the fence to find out what's going on?

Curious Cows
This funny cow and her calf come closer to find out what's this strange black box contraption is all about...

©Heiko Potthoff/Shutterstock

Funny cow pictures abound, because cows are inclined to stick their nose up closed to the camera lens to get a better look. Funny at first, but obnoxious when they ruin your photography efforts! (Don't forget to share your pictures with us here...)

Farm Cows for Fun and Profit

Cows are everywhere, the world over. Though large dairy farms have the most cows these days, there's still lots of small farms that keep up the tradition of the family cow.

From the Holstein to the Angus, cows pictures certainly will continue to be an essential part of farm and country living!

Grazing Cow
This cow spends it's days grazing in rural green countryside.

©Fernando Jose Vasconcelos Soares/Shutterstock

Hey! Do YOU Have a Cow Picture to Add?

Get over here and listen to this! Absolutely every photo is incredibly unique. Can you imagine your very own picture featured here, on this website? Just think, we're absolutely dying to see yours!

Do you love to show off your favorite photos? Want to share with other country folks? Are you ready to join the fun? Don't miss out! Get started now!

Fantastic Cows from our Readers

Click on the links below to see fantastic pictures from contributing photographers:

Fantastic Free Cow Photos

Looking for free pictures of cows for personal or commercial use? The above stock images are copyrighted and you'll need to purchase a royalty-free license at Istockphoto or Shutterstock if you want to use them.

However, here are some great pictures from Flickr that are available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Use them for your projects, screensavers, or desktop wallpaper as long as you give credit to the photographer.

Coming soon...

Add Yours Here!

I love sharing country photos, and I love seeing photos from other country folks.  Now YOU too can join the fun!  Click here to add your cow photos

Maybe you don't have one right now? Guess what! You can still participate! Click here to show and tell your own country photo.

PS. Now that you are at the end of this webpage, you are just minutes away from seeing your own photo featured here. You do want to add your photo, don't you? Do it now while you're thinking about it!

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