By holding wheat, the cows (along with sheep, pigs, and chickens) will follow you until you either right click them with the wheat, placing them in love mode, or stop holding the wheat, preferably once inside a fenced off area to prevent escape.
@ForumTroll(View Post) If you have wheat selected/in your hand, cows and other animals will follow you. Once you have them where you want them (providing you have two), you can use the wheat (right click) on two cows to produce a little baby cow. That makes it easier to produce a greater population.
edit: I was beaten to it by 20 minutes? I really do type slowly sometimes.
With 1.0 (and maybe 1.8), mobs like cows never spawn or despawn, they are only created when a new chunk is created. You might have to travel extremely far before you find cows, and then use wheat to get them to where you want. If there are no cows near your house now, thew will never spawn no matter how long you wait there.