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Cow dung

August 22, 2023

This article is about cattle feces. For feces used as fertiliser, see manure. For the English slang word, see bullshit.

Cow dung, also known as cow pats, cow pies or cow manure, is the waste product (faeces) of bovine animal species. These species include domestic cattle ("cows"), bison ("buffalo"), yak, and water buffalo. Cow dung is the undigested residue of plant matter which has passed through the animal's gut. The resultant faecal matter is rich in minerals. Color ranges from greenish to blackish, often darkening soon after exposure to air.

Cow dung on the ground
Drying cow dung for fuel
Water buffalo dung drying on the wall of a house in Yuanyang County, Yunnan, China
A mound of cow dung in India

Uses

Fuel

In many parts of the old world, and in the past in mountain regions of Europe, caked and dried cow dung is used as fuel. In India, it is dried into cake like shapes called upla or kanda, and used as replacement for firewood for cooking in chulah (traditional kitchen stove).

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    Cow dung in Bangladesh

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    Storage of cow-dung cakes in Punjab

Dung may also be collected and used to produce biogas to generate electricity and heat. The gas is rich in methane and is used in rural areas of India and Pakistan and elsewhere to provide a renewable and stable (but unsustainable) source of electricity.[1]

Fertilizer

Cow dung, which is usually a dark brown color, is often used as manure (agricultural fertilizer). If not recycled into the soil by species such as earthworms and dung beetles, cow dung can dry out and remain on the pasture, creating an area of grazing land which is unpalatable to livestock.

Cow dung is nowadays used for making flower and plant pots. It is plastic free, biodegradable and eco-friendly. Unlike plastic grow bags which harm nature, cow dung pots dissolves naturally and becomes excellent manure for the plant.[citation needed] From 20 July 2020, State Government of Chhattisgarh India started buying cow dung under the Godhan Nyay Yojana scheme. Cow dung procured under this scheme will be utilised for the production of vermicompost fertilizer.[2]

Religious uses

Cow dung is used in Hindu yajna ritual as an important ingredient.[3][unreliable source?] Cow dung is also used in the making of pancha-gavya, for use in Hindu rituals.[4] Several Hindu texts - including Yājñavalkya Smṛti and Manusmṛti - state that the pancha-gavya purifies many sins.[5] The Mahabharata narrates a story about how Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, came to reside in cow dung. In the legend, Lakshmi asks cows to let her live in their bodies because they are pure and sinless. The cows refuse, describing her as unstable and fickle. Lakshmi begs them to accept her request, saying that others would ridicule her for being rejected by the cows, and agreeing to live in the most despised part of their body. The cows then allow her to live in their dung and urine.[5]

The Tantric Buddhist ritual manuals Jayavatī-nāma-mahāvidyārāja-dhāraṇī and Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi recommend use of cow dung to purify mandala altars.[6]

Floor and wall coating

In several cultures, cow dung is traditionally used to coat floors and walls. In parts of Africa, floors of rural huts are smeared with cow dung: this is believed to improve interior hygiene and repel insects.[7][8] This practice has various names, such as "ukusinda" in Xhosa,[9] and "gwaya" in Ruruuli-Lunyala.[10]

Similarly, in India, floors are traditionally smeared with cow dung to clean and smoothen them.[6] Italian traveler Pietro Della Valle, who visited India in 1624, observed that the locals - including Christians - smeared floor with cow dung to purify it and repel insects.[11] Tryambaka's Strī-dharma-paddhati (18th century), which narrates a modified version of the Mahabharata legend about how the goddess Lakshmi came to reside in cow dung, instructs women to make their homes pure and prosperous by coating them with cow-dung.[5] Many among modern generations have challenged this practice as unclean.[12]

In 2021, the Government of India's Khadi and Village Industries Commission launched the Khadi Prakritik paint, which has cow dung as its main ingredient, promoting it as an eco-friendly paint with anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.[13]

Other uses

In central Africa, Maasai villages have burned cow dung inside to repel mosquitos. In cold places, cow dung is used to line the walls of rustic houses as a cheap thermal insulator. Villagers in India spray fresh cow dung mixed with water in front of the houses to repel insects.[14]

In Rwanda, it is used in an art form called imigongo.

Cow dung is also an optional ingredient in the manufacture of adobe mud brick housing depending on the availability of materials at hand.[15]

A deposit of cow dung is referred to in American English as a "cow pie" or less commonly "cow chip" (usually when dried) and in British English as a "cowpat".[16] When dry, it is used in the practice of "cow chip throwing" popularized in Beaver, Oklahoma in 1970.[17][18] On April 21, 2001 Robert Deevers of Elgin, Oklahoma, set the record for cow chip throwing with a distance of 185 feet 5 inches (56.52 m).[19]

Ecology

Cow dung provides food for a wide range of animal and fungus species, which break it down and recycle it into the food chain and into the soil.

In areas where cattle (or other mammals with similar dung) are not native, there are often also no native species which can break down their dung, and this can lead to infestations of pests such as flies and parasitic worms. In Australia, dung beetles from elsewhere have been introduced to help recycle the cattle dung back into the soil. (see the Australian Dung Beetle Project and Dr. George Bornemissza).[20]

Cattle have a natural aversion to feeding around their own dung. This can lead to the formation of taller ungrazed patches of heavily fertilized sward. These habitat patches, termed "islets", can be beneficial for many grassland arthropods, including spiders (Araneae) and bugs (Hemiptera). They have an important function in maintaining biodiversity in heavily utilized pastures.[21]

Variants

A buffalo chip, also called a meadow muffin, is the name for a large, flat, dried piece of dung deposited by the American bison. Well dried buffalo chips were among the few things that could be collected and burned on the prairie and were used by the Plains Indians, settlers and pioneers, and homesteaders as a source of cooking heat and warmth.

Bison dung is sometimes referred to by the name nik-nik. This word is a borrowing from the Sioux language (which probably originally borrowed it from a northern source). In modern Sioux, nik-nik can refer to the feces of any bovine, including domestic cattle. It has also come to be used, especially in Lakota, to refer to lies or broken promises, analogously to the vulgar English term "bullshit" as a figure of speech.

See also

References

  1. ^ . denmark.dk. Archived from the original on 22 January 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  2. ^ John, Joseph (July 20, 2020). "Godhan Nyay Yojana: First-of-its-kind Godhan Nyay Yojana launched in Chhattisgarh". The Times of India. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  3. ^ "Holy Cow – Importance of Cow in Hinduism and Sacred Ayurvedic Texts – Sattvic Milk and Dairy Products".
  4. ^ Jain, Rupam (2010-03-08). "Cow dung and urine 'healthy'". Telegraph. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
  5. ^ a b c Isobel Julia Leslie (1989). The Perfect Wife: The Orthodox Hindu Woman according to the Strīdharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan. Oxford University South Asian Studies Series. Oxford University Press. pp. 60–62. ISBN 978-0-19-562107-5.
  6. ^ a b Jacob P. Dalton (2023). "Ritual Manuals and the Spread of the Local". Conjuring the Buddha: Ritual Manuals in Early Tantric Buddhism. Dhāraṇī-Based Ritual Methods: Columbia University Press. pp. 27–49. doi:10.7312/dalt20582-003. ISBN 9780231556187.
  7. ^ Harold Scheub (2006). Storytelling Songs of Zulu Women. Edwin Mellen Press. p. 256. ISBN 9780773457416.
  8. ^ Maia Chenaux-Repond (2017). Leading from Behind: Women in Community Development in Rhodesia, 1973-1979. Weaver Press. p. 159. doi:10.2307/j.ctvh8qzdg.11. ISBN 9781779223180.
  9. ^ Monde Ndandani (2015). "A Pick from a "Hut Vocabulary" and Hut-Visitor's Notables". Living in a Hut. African Sun Media. pp. 11–18. ISBN 9781920689629. JSTOR j.ctv1nzfxfz.6.
  10. ^ Saudah Namyalo; Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena; Kiriggwajjo, Anatole; Atuhairwe, Amos; Molochieva, Zarina; Mukama, Ruth; Zellers, Margaret (2021). Saudah Namyalo (ed.). A dictionary and grammatical sketch of Ruruuli-Lunyala. Vol. 5. Language Science Press. p. 274. doi:10.5281/zenodo.5548947. hdl:20.500.12657/52582. ISBN 9783961103294.
  11. ^ Edward Grey, ed. (2010). Travels of Pietro Della Valle in India. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 87. ISBN 9781108014939.
  12. ^ Susan S. Wadley (2000). "From Sacred Cow Dung to Cow 'shit' : Globalization and Local Religious Practices in Rural North India". Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies. 12: 1–28. doi:10.11384/jjasas1989.2000.1. S2CID 129818093. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  13. ^ "India's first 'eco-friendly' cow dung paint launched; know all about it here". Indian Express. 2021-01-13. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  14. ^ "Why Gobar (Cow Dung) Is Applied On Walls And Floors Of India". www.speakingtree.in. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  15. ^ . Archived from the original on 2007-07-06.
  16. ^ "Cowpat - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  17. ^ "Cow Chip Throwing Capital of the World". RoadsideAmerica.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  18. ^ Town of Beaver, Oklahoma 2010-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Raynor, Jessica. "Old chip-throw record is tossed". Amarillo Globe-News.
  20. ^ Bornemissza, G. F. (1976), The Australian dung beetle project 1965-1975, Australian Meat Research Committee Review 30:1-30
  21. ^ Dittrich, A. D. K. and Helden A. J. 2012. Experimental sward islets: the effect of dung and fertilisation on Hemiptera and Araneae. Insect Conservation and Diversity 5:46-56.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cattle feces.

August 22, 2023
dung, this, article, about, cattle, feces, feces, used, fertiliser, manure, english, slang, word, bullshit, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, materi. This article is about cattle feces For feces used as fertiliser see manure For the English slang word see bullshit This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Cow dung news newspapers books scholar JSTOR March 2009 Learn how and when to remove this template message Cow dung also known as cow pats cow pies or cow manure is the waste product faeces of bovine animal species These species include domestic cattle cows bison buffalo yak and water buffalo Cow dung is the undigested residue of plant matter which has passed through the animal s gut The resultant faecal matter is rich in minerals Color ranges from greenish to blackish often darkening soon after exposure to air Cow dung on the groundDrying cow dung for fuelWater buffalo dung drying on the wall of a house in Yuanyang County Yunnan ChinaA mound of cow dung in India Contents 1 Uses 1 1 Fuel 1 2 Fertilizer 1 3 Religious uses 1 4 Floor and wall coating 1 5 Other uses 2 Ecology 3 Variants 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksUses EditFuel Edit In many parts of the old world and in the past in mountain regions of Europe caked and dried cow dung is used as fuel In India it is dried into cake like shapes called upla or kanda and used as replacement for firewood for cooking in chulah traditional kitchen stove Cow dung in Bangladesh Storage of cow dung cakes in PunjabDung may also be collected and used to produce biogas to generate electricity and heat The gas is rich in methane and is used in rural areas of India and Pakistan and elsewhere to provide a renewable and stable but unsustainable source of electricity 1 Fertilizer Edit Cow dung which is usually a dark brown color is often used as manure agricultural fertilizer If not recycled into the soil by species such as earthworms and dung beetles cow dung can dry out and remain on the pasture creating an area of grazing land which is unpalatable to livestock Cow dung is nowadays used for making flower and plant pots It is plastic free biodegradable and eco friendly Unlike plastic grow bags which harm nature cow dung pots dissolves naturally and becomes excellent manure for the plant citation needed From 20 July 2020 State Government of Chhattisgarh India started buying cow dung under the Godhan Nyay Yojana scheme Cow dung procured under this scheme will be utilised for the production of vermicompost fertilizer 2 Religious uses Edit Cow dung is used in Hindu yajna ritual as an important ingredient 3 unreliable source Cow dung is also used in the making of pancha gavya for use in Hindu rituals 4 Several Hindu texts including Yajnavalkya Smṛti and Manusmṛti state that the pancha gavya purifies many sins 5 The Mahabharata narrates a story about how Lakshmi the goddess of prosperity came to reside in cow dung In the legend Lakshmi asks cows to let her live in their bodies because they are pure and sinless The cows refuse describing her as unstable and fickle Lakshmi begs them to accept her request saying that others would ridicule her for being rejected by the cows and agreeing to live in the most despised part of their body The cows then allow her to live in their dung and urine 5 The Tantric Buddhist ritual manuals Jayavati nama mahavidyaraja dharaṇi and Mahavairocanabhisaṃbodhi recommend use of cow dung to purify mandala altars 6 Floor and wall coating Edit In several cultures cow dung is traditionally used to coat floors and walls In parts of Africa floors of rural huts are smeared with cow dung this is believed to improve interior hygiene and repel insects 7 8 This practice has various names such as ukusinda in Xhosa 9 and gwaya in Ruruuli Lunyala 10 Similarly in India floors are traditionally smeared with cow dung to clean and smoothen them 6 Italian traveler Pietro Della Valle who visited India in 1624 observed that the locals including Christians smeared floor with cow dung to purify it and repel insects 11 Tryambaka s Stri dharma paddhati 18th century which narrates a modified version of the Mahabharata legend about how the goddess Lakshmi came to reside in cow dung instructs women to make their homes pure and prosperous by coating them with cow dung 5 Many among modern generations have challenged this practice as unclean 12 In 2021 the Government of India s Khadi and Village Industries Commission launched the Khadi Prakritik paint which has cow dung as its main ingredient promoting it as an eco friendly paint with anti fungal and anti bacterial properties 13 Other uses Edit In central Africa Maasai villages have burned cow dung inside to repel mosquitos In cold places cow dung is used to line the walls of rustic houses as a cheap thermal insulator Villagers in India spray fresh cow dung mixed with water in front of the houses to repel insects 14 In Rwanda it is used in an art form called imigongo Cow dung is also an optional ingredient in the manufacture of adobe mud brick housing depending on the availability of materials at hand 15 A deposit of cow dung is referred to in American English as a cow pie or less commonly cow chip usually when dried and in British English as a cowpat 16 When dry it is used in the practice of cow chip throwing popularized in Beaver Oklahoma in 1970 17 18 On April 21 2001 Robert Deevers of Elgin Oklahoma set the record for cow chip throwing with a distance of 185 feet 5 inches 56 52 m 19 Ecology EditCow dung provides food for a wide range of animal and fungus species which break it down and recycle it into the food chain and into the soil In areas where cattle or other mammals with similar dung are not native there are often also no native species which can break down their dung and this can lead to infestations of pests such as flies and parasitic worms In Australia dung beetles from elsewhere have been introduced to help recycle the cattle dung back into the soil see the Australian Dung Beetle Project and Dr George Bornemissza 20 Cattle have a natural aversion to feeding around their own dung This can lead to the formation of taller ungrazed patches of heavily fertilized sward These habitat patches termed islets can be beneficial for many grassland arthropods including spiders Araneae and bugs Hemiptera They have an important function in maintaining biodiversity in heavily utilized pastures 21 Variants EditA buffalo chip also called a meadow muffin is the name for a large flat dried piece of dung deposited by the American bison Well dried buffalo chips were among the few things that could be collected and burned on the prairie and were used by the Plains Indians settlers and pioneers and homesteaders as a source of cooking heat and warmth Bison dung is sometimes referred to by the name nik nik This word is a borrowing from the Sioux language which probably originally borrowed it from a northern source In modern Sioux nik nik can refer to the feces of any bovine including domestic cattle It has also come to be used especially in Lakota to refer to lies or broken promises analogously to the vulgar English term bullshit as a figure of speech See also EditBiomass briquettes Chicken manure Coprophilous fungi Dry animal dung fuel Imigongo Shit Museum Sigri stove stove fueled with dried cow dungReferences Edit Cow dung a energy denmark dk Archived from the original on 22 January 2014 Retrieved 14 February 2015 John Joseph July 20 2020 Godhan Nyay Yojana First of its kind Godhan Nyay Yojana launched in Chhattisgarh The Times of India Retrieved 2022 08 17 Holy Cow Importance of Cow in Hinduism and Sacred Ayurvedic Texts Sattvic Milk and Dairy Products Jain Rupam 2010 03 08 Cow dung and urine healthy Telegraph Retrieved 2019 11 13 a b c Isobel Julia Leslie 1989 The Perfect Wife The Orthodox Hindu Woman according to the Stridharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan Oxford University South Asian Studies Series Oxford University Press pp 60 62 ISBN 978 0 19 562107 5 a b Jacob P Dalton 2023 Ritual Manuals and the Spread of the Local Conjuring the Buddha Ritual Manuals in Early Tantric Buddhism Dharaṇi Based Ritual Methods Columbia University Press pp 27 49 doi 10 7312 dalt20582 003 ISBN 9780231556187 Harold Scheub 2006 Storytelling Songs of Zulu Women Edwin Mellen Press p 256 ISBN 9780773457416 Maia Chenaux Repond 2017 Leading from Behind Women in Community Development in Rhodesia 1973 1979 Weaver Press p 159 doi 10 2307 j ctvh8qzdg 11 ISBN 9781779223180 Monde Ndandani 2015 A Pick from a Hut Vocabulary and Hut Visitor s Notables Living in a Hut African Sun Media pp 11 18 ISBN 9781920689629 JSTOR j ctv1nzfxfz 6 Saudah Namyalo Witzlack Makarevich Alena Kiriggwajjo Anatole Atuhairwe Amos Molochieva Zarina Mukama Ruth Zellers Margaret 2021 Saudah Namyalo ed A dictionary and grammatical sketch of Ruruuli Lunyala Vol 5 Language Science Press p 274 doi 10 5281 zenodo 5548947 hdl 20 500 12657 52582 ISBN 9783961103294 Edward Grey ed 2010 Travels of Pietro Della Valle in India Vol 1 Cambridge University Press p 87 ISBN 9781108014939 Susan S Wadley 2000 From Sacred Cow Dung to Cow shit Globalization and Local Religious Practices in Rural North India Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies 12 1 28 doi 10 11384 jjasas1989 2000 1 S2CID 129818093 Retrieved 2023 02 24 India s first eco friendly cow dung paint launched know all about it here Indian Express 2021 01 13 Retrieved 2023 02 24 Why Gobar Cow Dung Is Applied On Walls And Floors Of India www speakingtree in Retrieved 2022 08 17 Your Home Technical Manual 3 4d Construction Systems Mud Brick Adobe Archived from the original on 2007 07 06 Cowpat Definition and More from the Free Merriam Webster Dictionary merriam webster com Retrieved 14 February 2015 Cow Chip Throwing Capital of the World RoadsideAmerica com Retrieved 14 February 2015 Town of Beaver Oklahoma Archived 2010 12 28 at the Wayback Machine Raynor Jessica Old chip throw record is tossed Amarillo Globe News Bornemissza G F 1976 The Australian dung beetle project 1965 1975 Australian Meat Research Committee Review 30 1 30 Dittrich A D K and Helden A J 2012 Experimental sward islets the effect of dung and fertilisation on Hemiptera and Araneae Insect Conservation and Diversity 5 46 56 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cattle feces Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cow dung amp oldid 1169937432, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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