I do this from time to time but with bison. I will casually slip "flock of bison" into a conversation hoping someone corrects me to "herd of bison". So I can say. "No I hadn't heard about your bi son. You must be so proud."

there's a chance the flock of cows would just pass me by unnoticed as i wrangle the conversation in my head and then hours later i realize something off about it in the shower or in bed

I use school of deer when spotting deer and things like herd, pod or flock of fish while fishing.

In my language, there's different words for body parts of animals versus humans. Like "paws" and "hands". There's one exception: horses should use the human words. I always use the animal form just to have people correct me

Thank you for the new material to annoy my fiancé with every time we see cows.