Is there a word for the action of “mooing”? National security depends on this answer! 
But seriously, if lambs bleat, what to cows do?
Moo?
Low?
An interesting word in the history of the English language. It’s onomatopoeic – a mimicking of the sound a cow makes. Or, at least, it was. The word was originally pronounced something like “Lou,” but the Great Vowel Shift changed the pronunciation into something that doesn’t sound like a cow. Thus “moo” developed to sound more like it.
I’ll second “lowing”. I think I learned this word as a kid from one of the later verses of “Away in a Manger”: “The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes”, or something like that.
You answered your own question.
If you’re shy of “moo” or “low”, then I suggest “bellow.” Because that’s exactly what they do. They bellow, they lick things, they bellow, they poop, they bellow, they eat, they bellow.
Bulls, incidently, when they’re gunning for you, beller. This is a scientific fact, gathered by many incidences of diving under barbed wire fences.
And what goes “Moo, bellow, I’d like to see some Wedgewood please?”
A bull in a china shop.
That is absolutely vomitous. Which means I am ashamed that I have a goofy grin on my face right now.
Cattle also bawl.
I’ve always thought it sounds more like “nurrrr”. Long n, gradually developing through an ur.
“NNNnnnnnnuuuuuurrrrr!”
So I tend to say, “Cows nurr”, although from a historical language point of view, it’s probably, “Cows low”.
My husband (a farmer) is a fan of “bawl.” Which they do a lot. For some reason, this particular group of cattle is very vocal.
Moo.
–FCOD
Individual cows don’t low. Cattle low.
OED gives no indication that it’s onomatopoeic. Have you a cite for your intepretation?
Just to add that OED also gives only one pronunciation in the word’s entire history in English. (The present pronunciation).
Really? Over 100 people on Google appear to think otherwise. Including one dictionary entry, one New York Times journalist, not one but two .edu study guides to The Iliad, and not one but two books written at the turn of the last century, so you can’t chalk it up to modern-day slang or sloppiness.
Plus the Urban Dictionary.
And Frazer’s The Golden Bough.
The cow is lowing, the baby’s awake. Perfectly correct. But “the cattle are lowing” scans better.
…
In my world, calves bawl – in fact a “cry baby” kid was called a “bawl calf” when and where I grew up. But cows moo. Or low, if you’re singing Away In The Manger.
I didn’t realize the OED listed more than the current pronunciations for any words. Where does one go to see a pronunciation history?