In Texas and can confirm as I've been to one. My mom was a participant of cow patty bingo in the late-80's/early-90's. It was part of some radio station contest for a car. Everybody that called in and won a minor prize over a quarter was invited to a party with the bingo as the big event.

They had a large pen, say a quarter acre (about the size of 2 basketball courts) divided up into squares. The participants drew a number, went into the pen to find their spot. After all the participants found their spot they let the cow out to roam around. (You need a fairly docile cow to have people on the field when this happens)

In our game the cow started and did most of it's business on my mom's square, but finished on an adjoining square of young single blonde. I'll let you guess how DJ ruled who won the car. (hint: wasn't my mom)

> Are people watching the cow with bated breath?

Kinda? I mean if the prize is good it's fun to watch.

> Are plots closer to the gate considered better?

Might be worse actually. Usually they run the cows into the pen instead of letting them just mosey in. When and where the cow does its business isn't even known to the cow. The cows can take a while to go too, better part of an hour sometimes.

Did this in north Alabama back in the mid 90s for a school fundraiser. They hired a surveyor to plot the squares on the football field. We discovered that the field was narrower on one end by about 7 feet! The cow plopped on a square boundary with an unsold square so the winner only got half. As I recall it was a whole lot of standing around and waiting. Funny for the first 20 minutes, then very, very boring.

It's a thing, yes, but I think the novelty of it makes it get more attention than deserved. IME it is by no means common, or the sort of thing you would expect to come across, but it does occur.

Can confirm. I'm from BFE Michigan, and I've heard of it, too. It's funny and kind of fun, but I wouldn't expect the average Midwesterner to have participated it. A born & raised urban-dweller might not have even heard of it.

I'm from rural Kansas, live on a dairy farm, plenty of neighbors in the beef cattle business, and I've never heard of it.

Can confirm. I've both won and lost a lot of money on it.

I can't speak to this particular practice, but as a kid, whenever we would go to the parades, people would organize grids in the street to bet where the horses would poop. And then inevitably try to convince the people on the horses to stop over their square and force their horse to go.

I was generally not interested in my town parade/party day, but we had cow-chip bingo where I'm from in Iowa. So I don't know the "strategy" but it exists.

I mean, I was introduced to meat raffles since moving more into the Midwest but this is next level to me. Granted I live in a metro region so only turkeys roaming around, no cows.

For those wondering about meat raffles... https://wisconsinlife.org/story/meat-raffle-a-wisconsin-tave... ... and an upcoming calendar https://www.meatraffles.com/calendar/wisconsin-meat-raffles....

In the early 1990s, I went on a bicycle tour in Ireland with a friend for a couple of weeks. At a fair somewhere in County Mayo there was such a lottery. After that, when my friend asked me something I did not know, I always replied: "Do I know where the cow poops?"

This is still a thing in the UK at some village festivals. In the US I've only come across 'chicken shit bingo' though I'm sure the larger format variant also exists!

There's also chicken-shit bingo in Austin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOmQ0WSUuBI

Am from Midwest. Have seen this with chickens, but not cows. Wouldn't surprise me in the least though.

Rural Canada, can confirm.