Cow dung

When cow dung excrement of cattle are called. The single intestinal excretion of a cow is the cow dung, which in Austria also the Kuhflade.

Description

A typical cow dung has a diameter of about 30 cm and weighs wet up to two kilograms. An animal produces eight to ten cakes a day. In wet weather, the cakes decomposed in two to three months, is habitat for many insects and is used by them both as a nutrient ( coprophagia ), as well as to lay their eggs in order to use the object created by the heat of decomposition. Around a cow patty is over- fertilization. The grass grows very luxuriantly, but is not eaten by animals, it creates a horny bunch. When the weather is dry cow dung can also dry out and can then be used as fuel.

Use

Due to its organic components of cow dung is used in Central European agriculture as a fertilizer; additionally, the methane produced during the fermentation of manure under anaerobic conditions used for the production of biogas. A cow dung contains as much thermal usable chemical energy that you can generate from 0.1 kilowatt -hours of electricity.

In some treeless high mountains and plateaus of the Alps, Tibet, India and Turkey had or have cow dung considerable economic importance, since they find dried as fuel use. Since they can be used as fertilizer of more value but is trying to create through the development of effective solar cooker spare. On the treeless holms this fuel was called Ditten.

Also applies cow dung an excellent building material, either as an aggregate for Construction clay, or pure in large areas of Africa as plaster of Flechthütten. In India, fresh cow dung was used traditionally as a floor covering, especially in kitchens - you spoke to him in cleansing effect. These were applied daily to the earthen floor of the room, a thin layer of manure, which solidified after a short time to a hard and odorless surface.

Cow dung is also used in mixtures for the tree paint.

Natural decomposition

Appear immediately after depositing various flies and beetles as the Common dung beetle ball and the Common dung beetles to lay their eggs. Their larvae develop rapidly in the semi-liquid substrate. In a second phase, stand on the already traversed by feeding and Kotgängen, still wet cow dung fly another one, including the golden haired dung fly ( Scathophaga stercoraria ). Only their larvae are dung -eaters, the flies themselves living partly predatory. Various Rove and their larvae prey on other Kotbewohner.

The external hard now, but still moist on the inside and covered with cakes programs developed there types of mushrooms such as the grained cow dung peel fungus, yeast and bacteria that degrade it further. He eventually crumbles, grass grows through, mites, centipedes and earthworms live in the subsoil. The remains are chopped up by birds in search of food or buried by dung beetles.