Cow dung

{{Short description|Waste product from a cow (or cattle in general)}}

Cow dung, also known as cow pats, cow patties, cow pies, cow poop 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.

File:Cow next to a road in Eswatini.jpg

Uses

= Fuel =

File:Tibet-5874 - Something smells here! (2212605065).jpg

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 {{lang|hi|upla}} or {{lang|hi|kanda}}, and used as replacement for firewood for cooking in {{lang|hi|chulah}} (traditional kitchen stove).

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.{{cite web|url=http://denmark.dk/en/green-living/sustainable-projects/cow-dung-a-source-of-green-energy/|title=Cow dung – a energy|work=denmark.dk|access-date=14 February 2015|archive-date=22 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122042124/http://denmark.dk/en/green-living/sustainable-projects/cow-dung-a-source-of-green-energy/|url-status=dead}}

= 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.{{cn|date=February 2023}} 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.{{Cite web |date=July 20, 2020 |first=Joseph |last=John |title=Godhan Nyay Yojana: First-of-its-kind Godhan Nyay Yojana launched in Chhattisgarh |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/raipur/first-of-its-kind-godhan-nyay-yojana-launched-in-chhattisgarh/articleshow/77063907.cms |access-date=2022-08-17 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}

= Religious uses =

In Hinduism, cow dung is believed to have antiseptic properties and is used to clean homes as well as being used in rituals.{{cite journal | pmc=8239506 | date=2021 | last1=Daria | first1=S. | last2=Islam | first2=M. R. | title=The use of cow dung and urine to cure COVID-19 in India: A public health concern | journal=The International Journal of Health Planning and Management | volume=36 | issue=5 | pages=1950–1952 | doi=10.1002/hpm.3257 | pmid=34037266 }} Cow dung is used in Hindu yajna ritual as an important ingredient.{{cite web|url=http://ayurveda-sedona.com/knowledge-center/spirituality/holy-cow/|title=Holy Cow – Importance of Cow in Hinduism and Sacred Ayurvedic Texts – Sattvic Milk and Dairy Products}}{{unreliable source|date=February 2023}} Cow dung is also used in the making of pancha-gavya, for use in Hindu rituals.{{cite web|last=Jain |first=Rupam |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7398029/Cow-dung-and-urine-healthy.html |title=Cow dung and urine 'healthy' |publisher=Telegraph |date=2010-03-08 |access-date=2019-11-13}} Several Hindu texts - including Yājñavalkya Smṛti and Manusmṛti - state that the pancha-gavya purifies many sins.{{cite book |author=Isobel Julia Leslie |title=The Perfect Wife: The Orthodox Hindu Woman according to the Strīdharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan |series=Oxford University South Asian Studies Series |year=1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDkEAQAAIAAJ |pages=60–62 |isbn=978-0-19-562107-5 }} 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.

The Tantric Buddhist ritual manuals Jayavatī-nāma-mahāvidyārāja-dhāraṇī and Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi recommend use of cow dung to purify mandala altars.{{cite book |author=Jacob P. Dalton |chapter=Ritual Manuals and the Spread of the Local |title=Conjuring the Buddha: Ritual Manuals in Early Tantric Buddhism |year=2023 |pages=27–49 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231556187 |doi=10.7312/dalt20582-003 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GBpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT34 |location=Dhāraṇī-Based Ritual Methods }}

= 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.{{cite book |author=Harold Scheub |author-link=Harold Scheub |title=Storytelling Songs of Zulu Women |year=2006 |publisher=Edwin Mellen Press |isbn=9780773457416 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJjfAAAAMAAJ |page=256 }}{{cite book |author=Maia Chenaux-Repond |title=Leading from Behind: Women in Community Development in Rhodesia, 1973-1979 |year=2017 |publisher= Weaver Press |isbn=9781779223180 |doi=10.2307/j.ctvh8qzdg.11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-cvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159 |page=159 }} This practice has various names, such as "ukusinda" in Xhosa,{{cite book |author=Monde Ndandani |title=Living in a Hut |chapter=A Pick from a "Hut Vocabulary" and Hut-Visitor's Notables |year=2015 |pages=11–18 |publisher=African Sun Media |isbn=9781920689629 |jstor=j.ctv1nzfxfz.6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOq9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 }} and "gwaya" in Ruruuli-Lunyala.{{cite book |editor=Saudah Namyalo |title=A dictionary and grammatical sketch of Ruruuli-Lunyala |volume=5 |year=2021 |publisher=Language Science Press |isbn=9783961103294 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.5548947 |hdl=20.500.12657/52582 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SXhMEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA274 |page=274 |author1=Saudah Namyalo |last2=Witzlack-Makarevich |first2=Alena |last3=Kiriggwajjo |first3=Anatole |last4=Atuhairwe |first4=Amos |last5=Molochieva |first5=Zarina |last6=Mukama |first6=Ruth |last7=Zellers |first7=Margaret }}

Similarly, in India, floors are traditionally smeared with cow dung to clean and smoothen them. Purananuru, generally dated 150 BCE,{{Cite book|last=Zvelebil|first=Kamil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ&q=info:3mNeiVqlnhoJ:scholar.google.com/&pg=PR9|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India|date=1973|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-03591-1|language=en}}{{pn|date=November 2024}} mentions women of Tamil Nadu smear cow dung on the floors at the 13th day after her husband's death to purify the house.{{cite web | url=https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/purananuru-part-249 | title=Poem: Purananuru - Part 249 by George L. III Hart }} 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.{{cite book |editor=Edward Grey |title=Travels of Pietro Della Valle in India |volume=1 |year=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108014939 |page=87 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GAewGKxcLp4C }} 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. Many among modern generations have challenged this practice as unclean.{{cite journal |author=Susan S. Wadley |title=From Sacred Cow Dung to Cow 'shit' : Globalization and Local Religious Practices in Rural North India |journal=Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies |volume=12 |year=2000 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.11384/jjasas1989.2000.1 |s2cid=129818093 |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjasas1989/2000/12/2000_12_1/_pdf/-char/en |access-date=2023-02-24 }}

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.{{cite news |title=India's first 'eco-friendly' cow dung paint launched; know all about it here |date=2021-01-13 |publisher=Indian Express |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/nitin-gadkari-launches-india-first-eco-friently-cow-dung-paint-7144973/ |access-date=2023-02-24 }}

= 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.{{Cite web |title=Why Gobar (Cow Dung) Is Applied On Walls And Floors Of India|url=https://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/why-gobar-cow-dung-is-applied-on-walls-and-floors-of-india |access-date=2022-08-17 |website=www.speakingtree.in}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/technical/fs34d.htm|title=Your Home Technical Manual - 3.4d Construction Systems - Mud Brick (Adobe)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070706132354/http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/technical/fs34d.htm|archive-date=2007-07-06}}

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".{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cowpat|title=Cowpat - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary|work=merriam-webster.com|access-date=14 February 2015}} When dry, it is used in the practice of "cow chip throwing" popularized in Beaver, Oklahoma in 1970.{{cite web|url=http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2188|title=Cow Chip Throwing Capital of the World|work=RoadsideAmerica.com|access-date=14 February 2015}}[http://www.beaveroklahoma.net/CowChip.html Town of Beaver, Oklahoma] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228165853/http://www.beaveroklahoma.net/CowChip.html |date=2010-12-28 }} On April 21, 2001 Robert Deevers of Elgin, Oklahoma, set the record for cow chip throwing with a distance of {{convert|185|ft|5|in}}.{{cite web|url=http://amarillo.com/stories/042201/usn_oldchip.shtml|title=Old chip-throw record is tossed |website=Amarillo Globe-News|first=Jessica|last=Raynor}}

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).Bornemissza, G. F. (1976), The Australian dung beetle project 1965-1975, Australian Meat Research Committee Review 30:1-30

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.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.

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.