“My first cow was a Red Devon called Hannibal. She was a looker, and she knew it – boxy with a straight back, a deep red-brown coat, and tight curls on her forehead and forequarters. She behaved like a supermodel – stubborn at a threshold, flouncing through tall grass, always showing her best side.

“All our cows had personalities. Molly was our lead cow, first out of the gate. Aileen invariably brought up the rear. And Number 23, whose given name didn’t stick, was our nanny cow, always surrounded by a posse of calves. Bella was the first calf born on our farm. I have a photograph of our son, Inigo, feeding her. He is five years old. He’s holding on to the milk bottle with both hands, determinedly, and Bella has latched on to the teat and is rolling her eyes in pleasure at the warm milk.

“Cows were domesticated in neolithic times, or earlier, so we’ve all grown up together. Humans have long relied on cattle as a store of value; as early as 9000 BC they were used as money or for barter – our “first currency”. They have provided us with transport, and company, as well as meat, milk and manure. They feature in our nursery rhymes, our songs, our stories, our myths … and our poems.

“I learned Edmund Vance Cooke’s ‘The Moo Cow Moo’ as a child, and recited Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Cow’ at school. Jim Carruth’s ‘Herd’ takes me back to our farm, sending our kelpie sheepdog out on cold mornings  to bring in the cows. Tjawangwa Dema emphasises the spiritual aspect of the cow – hers is a “wet-nosed god”. In a field or on the page, chomping grass or symbolic of wealth, generosity, and serenity, the cow is fundamental to all our lives.

Poems by Hayden Carruth, Jim Carruth, Gillian Clarke, Edmund Vance Cooke, Ruth Dallas,Tjawangwa Dema, Selima Hill, Hilary Menos, Gill Smith and Robert Louis Stevenson, selected and introduced by Hilary Menos.

The friendly cow, all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple-tart.

from ‘The Cow’ by Robert Louis Stevenson