Why are there cows on my spaceship?
Solution 1:
This is an easter egg referencing the sci-fi show Firefly. This area can randomly show crew interacting with each other and one of these random scenes is the cows that reference Firefly.
As you play through The Outer Worlds you will be running into more Firefly references, it's likely that the show served as inspiration to the creators in the game.
Screenshot from the Firefly TV show featuring the cow scene:
And here's the clip from the show:
(starts at 39 seconds)