Arowhenua Station was the second run taken up in South Canterbury. Originally consisting of 31,000 acres, it was taken up by Major Alfred Hornbrook in 1853, and managed by his brother William for 10 years. The station cow byre was apparently constructed shortly after the neighbouring woolshed, which was erected in 1854. In 1863 the station was sold to Alfred Cox, then in 1878 to J. T. Ford and Co, from whom it was taken over in 1883 by the Bank of New Zealand. The bank's estate company assumed control in 1890, subdividing the station in 1897. The homestead block containing the cow byre and woolshed was drawn in ballot by Robert McCallum, who in turn sold the block to John Lyon in 1919. The Lyon family still own the property, though it is leased to a neighbouring farmer.

The cow byre is of substantial size but is a simple structure providing basic shelter and facilities for hand milking the cows. The floor was "cobbled" with river stones set into the earth to provide a reasonably clean and firm surface. It may have initially been simply a fenced and roofed set of bails and then the rear wall was later clad with split slabs of timber to provide greater enclosure, or the slabs may have been added at the time of construction. Later, as the slabs decayed, corrugated iron sheets were used to clad the rear walls. For many years the building has just been used for storage.

Because of its age and the rarity of this type of farm building, the Arowhenua Station cow byre is an historic building in its own right. However, it also gains from its physical and historical associations with the nearby station woolshed (Category II), one of the oldest in New Zealand.