Cow dung

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Fresh cow dung

Cow dung being dried for fuel in India.

Water buffalo dung drying on the wall of a house, Yuanyang County, Yunnan

Cow dung is the waste of bovine animal species. These species include domestic cattle ("cows"), bison ("buffalo"), yak and water buffalo. Cow dung is the undigested residue of herbivorous matter which has passed through the animal's gut. The resultant faecal matter is rich in minerals. Colour ranges from greenish to blackish, often darkening in colour soon after exposure to air.

Uses

Cow dung (usually combined with soiled bedding and urine) 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.

In many parts of the developing world, caked and dried cow dung is used as fuel.

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 elsewhere to provide a renewable and stable source of electricity.

Cow dung is also used to line the floor and walls of buildings owing to its insect repellent properties, with some types of insects (not flies or dung beetles). 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.

It was also used extensively on Indian Railways to seal smokeboxes on steam locomotives.^{[citation needed]}

Cow dung is also an optional ingredient in the manufacture of adobe mud brick housing depending on the availability of materials at hand.^[1]

Cow dung, known as "cow chips", is used in the traditional US sport of "cow chip throwing" - [1]. Another game is Cow Chip Bingo.

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)^[2].

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 from the large amount of grass that it eats. Well dried buffalo chips were among the few things that could be collected and burned on the prairie, and so were used by the Plains Indians, settlers and pioneers, and homesteaders, as a source of heat for cooking 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 (especially by the U.S. government). It probably attained this sense by association with the English term "bullshit".

See also

• Manure
• Biofuel
• Feces
• Bullshit
• Guano
• Coprophilous fungi

References

External links

• 101 uses of CowDung
• National Park Service - about bison, including information on chips.