World Cow Day

Mark your calendar for World Cow Day on September 1, a global observance dedicated to one of the oldest and most important animals in human history. Cows were first domesticated roughly 10,500 years ago in the Near East, and today there are approximately 1.57 billion cattle worldwide, making them among the most widespread large mammals on Earth.

Whether your connection to cows is through a glass of milk, a religious tradition, or a childhood memory of a roadside pasture, this day is built around a simple idea: look closer at the animal you already know.

Cattle were among the earliest large animals domesticated by humans, with archaeological and genetic evidence placing the first domestication of taurine cattle in the Fertile Crescent around the eighth to ninth millennium BC. A separate domestication event produced zebu cattle in the greater Indus Valley region several thousand years later. From those two starting points, cows spread across every inhabited continent and became central to farming, trade, and daily diets.

In Hindu culture, the cow has been revered for centuries as Gomata, a symbol of purity, abundance, and sustenance, and festivals such as Gopashtami and Govardhan Puja include dedicated cow worship. In many parts of Africa, cattle herds have historically functioned as a primary measure of family wealth, while in Western agriculture the 18th century rise of systematic selective breeding produced the first formal cattle breeds and, eventually, hundreds of distinct types worldwide.

By the 21st century, the global cattle population had reached roughly 1.57 billion head, and cow’s milk production alone amounted to more than 780 million tonnes in 2023. Against this backdrop, World Cow Day was first observed on September 1, 2025, coordinated through the worldcowday.org platform as a global event linking sanctuaries, farms, and local communities that host visits and gatherings around that date.