Jay Wilde grew up around cattle farming, though faced reservations about the ethics of raising cows for food.

In summer 2017, after meeting with The Vegan Society, he and his wife Katja gave most of their herd to the Hillside Animal Sanctuary and took up vegan organic farming, with plans to develop a range of affiliated businesses, such as a restaurant, a cookery school, and a shop; the remaining members of the herd stayed at Bradley Nook as "pets".

It was directed, produced, and edited by Alex Lockwood, with cinematography by Oliver Walton, and sound by John Roddy.

In the eyes of one critic, this both evokes the simplicity of farming life and matches with "Jay’s soft-spoken and melancholy nature".

[10] In addition to the film's vegan message, Lockwood identifies the theme of mental health: "Jay spent his life doing something he hated and saw no way out of.

I hope that people who watch [73 Cows] will understand that they have the power to make positive change in their own lives.

They introduce their connection to the farm: Jay inherited it from his father, but came to see cows as individuals with feelings and personalities.

Jay explains that they first installed solar panels, and then unsuccessfully sought planning permission for a wind turbine.

Katja talks about the excitement and difficulties faced by the prospect of switching to vegan organic agriculture; this was, ultimately, viable.

Sending them to slaughter, he felt, would be a bad start to vegan farming, and so they sought space for them at animal sanctuaries.

After the cattle had moved to Hillside, Katja and Jay began receiving letters of praise and support.

Sondhi called the film "a profile in courage", praising the film as having "everything you ideally want in a short documentary: it has an intriguing top-level premise, it elicits truly emotional and compelling performances from its on-camera subjects, and [it is filled] with beautifully composed and cinematic images".