Updated 25 October 2026. Facts on this page come from minecraft.wiki, minecraft.net and the live Artemis PvP server; sources are listed at the bottom.
Cows and Pigs in Minecraft: Milk, Leather and Riding Pigs
Cows give milk (use a bucket on one), 0-2 leather and 1-3 raw beef; pigs give 1-3 raw porkchops and can be ridden with a saddle and a carrot on a stick. Breed cows with wheat and pigs with carrots, potatoes or beetroot. Both come in temperate, cold and warm variants since 1.21.5.
How do cows and pigs compare?
| Cow | Pig | |
|---|---|---|
| Drops | 1-3 raw beef, 0-2 leather | 1-3 raw porkchop |
| Other use | Milk: right-click with a bucket, any time | Ride with a saddle, steer with a carrot on a stick |
| Breeding food | Wheat | Carrots, potatoes or beetroot |
| Variants | Temperate, cold, warm | Temperate, cold, warm |
| Struck by lightning | Nothing special | Turns into a zombified piglin |
Looting adds more meat and leather. Cooked beef (steak) and cooked porkchop both restore 8 hunger; see food and hunger.
What is milk for?
Drinking a milk bucket removes every status effect, good and bad, which cures poison, Wither, Bad Omen and Darkness. It is also needed for cake. A cow can be milked again straight away, so one cow is enough. Mooshrooms are the mushroom cow version; see mooshrooms.
How do you ride a pig?
Put a saddle on an adult pig (craft one from leather and an iron ingot, or find one in chests, fishing or trading), then hold a carrot on a stick (a fishing rod plus a carrot) to steer it. Using the stick gives a short speed boost and wears it down. Shears take a saddle off, and a saddled pig always drops its saddle when it dies. More mounts: rideable mobs.
What do the cold and warm variants look like?
Spring to Life (Java 1.21.5) gave cows, pigs and chickens three looks set by the biome where they spawn: temperate is the classic look, cold variants are woollier and darker, and warm variants are lighter and suited to hot biomes. The look does not change how they behave. See Spring to Life.
Are there cow mobs on ArtemisPvP?
Frequently asked questions
What do you feed pigs to breed them?
Carrots, potatoes or beetroot.
Does milk remove all effects?
Yes, drinking milk clears every status effect, good and bad.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.