Cow (AWL)

Cows are animals available in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition.

Cows are available to purchase from the ledger. At the start, you will only be able to buy a regular black and white cow. However, as the years pass, you will be able to purchase different types of cows (only for Special Edition. All cow types available immediately in vanilla). Male bulls are also available to purchase.

Cost
Each cow has a different buying price, depending on both the breed of the cow and the sex. Healthy adult cows will sell for half of the price you purchased them for. Calves will sell for much less, since they are not fully grown cows. It should be noted that while newly bought cows and bulls look grown, they are not fully matured and will take 30 days to be able to fully mature in order to become pregnant or impregnate respectively. Newly bought cows will not produce milk until after giving birth, so the time gap from purchase to regular milk production is over a year and a half.

Care
Healthy adult cows must be fed twice a day. They can be put out into the pasture during good weather to graze and eat grass, or they can be fed fodder inside the barn. Cows runs the risk of getting sick and possibly dying if they are left out in the rain or are not fed. Sick cows can be cured with Animal Medicine.

Talking to, nuzzling, brushing, milking by hand, or hand feeding fodder to a cow can increase its affection. A cow who is not washed and brushed on a regular basis will become dirty. If you try to interact with a cow when it is sleeping or eating, it will react negatively. Raising the affection level of a cow raises the chance that it will produce higher quality milk.

Products
Each breed of fully grown cow will produce milk for 40 days after giving birth. For the first 5 days post-birth, they'll produce mother's milk, which should be fed to the calf twice a day (it sells for less than grade B milk). The selling price of each bottle depends on the quality of milk and breed of cow. Cows can be milked by hand, by using the milker, or by using the milking room if one has been built. Milking by hand will improve the affection with your cow faster, but using a milker may be a good idea if you are trying to get your son to be a scientist or archaeologist. The milker also uses less stamina than milking by hand does.

A female cow can be milked twice a day after giving birth, and can produce a maximum of 8 bottles of milk per day. In Summer, cows will always produce less milk (due to the heat). The amount of milk produced can also depends on how much food the cow has had and how long it has been since they last gave birth. Sick cows will not produce milk, and pregnant cows who are close to giving birth will also not produce milk.

Milk
Regular Cow Marble Cow Brown Cow

Star Cow

Butter
Butter and Cheese can be made after the Milk Processing Room has been built. Turning milk into butter or cheese will fetch a better selling price than if you were to just sell the milk on its own (except for Star Cow milk grades A/S).

Regular Cow Marble Cow Brown Cow

Star Cow

Cheese
Regular Cow Marble Cow Brown Cow Star Cow

Pregnancy
Unlike most other traditional Harvest Moon games, pregnancy is required for cows to continue milk production. A fully grown female cow will give milk for a year, but will stop after this period. She must become pregnant and give birth before she will regularly produce milk again. After giving birth, the cow will produce milk for another year before another pregnancy is required.

If there is an adult bull on the farm, he may mate with any female cow by chance for free without a Miracle Potion, assuming he is well looked after and happy. If you have a bull on your farm, you can also cross-breed cows. A more reliable method, however, is to buy Miracle Potion to impregnate your cow with. The cost of Miracle Potion depends on the breed of cow. After using a Miracle Potion, pregnancy will usually occur within three days. Every cow, regardless of type, will be pregnant for three full seasons before giving birth.

You can monitor your cow's condition by talking to her every day. As the date of the birth draws closer, her udder will turn a bright pink color. Your cow must be isolated from all other animals six days before she delivers. There can only be one isolation pen in the barn at once, meaning that you are only able to have one cow give birth per season. If the barn is full of animals already, there will be no room for the calf, and pregnancy will not occur. You will first need to make room in your barn and have one free space for an animal.

Calf Care
After a calf is born, it will need to be kept in a special hutch for the next 10 days. The hutch is automatically supplied and does not need to be purchased. After giving birth, the mother cow will now provide a special kind of milk called "Mother's Milk." This special milk should be given to the newborn calf while it is still young to ensure it's health. This should be done twice a day. The calf can also be given regular milk from another cow or fed fodder as an alternative. Feeding a calf is the most important step in making sure that it will not get sick.

10 days following the birth, the calf will leave the hutch. It no longer requires Mother's Milk, and can be fed a normal diet of fodder or grass. Because the cow is still immature, it cannot be milked. It takes a full 30 days for a young cow to mature into an adult cow. After this time period, it will be able to be milked like a regular adult cow.