A cow county is a rural county with a typically small population, and a history of dairying or other types of farming. The term is often used disparagingly, much like “hicktown,” to suggest that the residents are parochial and not familiar with the larger issues of the outside world. However, some residents of cow counties greatly enjoy their rural lifestyle, and will sometimes go to great lengths to defend it, as developers have discovered.
A typical cow county has a long history of raising cows for either dairy or meat, which means that numerous farms are often scattered across the county. The residents typically have rural attitudes, and the towns in a cow county tend to be small, with very basic amenities. In some regions, cow counties have also managed to gain a strong position in local legislature, due to the way that districts are drawn up; a county with a small population has the same representation as a county with a large population, and sometimes cow counties get together to exploit this.
Due to rapidly encroaching development and the industrialization of agriculture, many cow counties have found their traditional way of life under assault. The land in such counties is often broken up and sold be developers, as farms slowly go out of business because they cannot compete with larger, heavily mechanized farms. Many cow counties also struggle with an influx of city people, who move to the cow counties for their rural lifestyle, and often don't consider all of the implications of rural life in a cow county.
Some cow counties have fought back; farmers, for example, may band together to create a dairy cooperative to keep their farms viable, and to keep land in the family. In some cases, cooperatives have actually purchased farmland and put deed restrictions on the land to ensure that it will continue to be used for farming, preserving the rural character of their landscape. Cooperatives sometimes also focus on traditional methods of farming so that these techniques are not lost.
Many cow counties have very conservative values, which can be off-putting to people from urban areas, who tend, as a rule, to be more liberal politically. This can create values clashes as new residents in a cow county come into conflict with old timers, including people who have resided in the area for generations. Such clashes often illustrate class divides in addition to political ones.