Cow dung as a source of heat

[Possibilities]

It's a slow night, and I need a bit of levity after a rough day.

Many years ago I had some interesting friends. They reminded me that pioneers and even native people today use cow dung or other domesticated animals for fuel to heat their homes and cook their food. I laughed, not knowing the method. It turns out that you collect the "material" once it is well dried and seasoned. My friend would take his pickup truck out to the fields and collect old ones, and then burn them in his woodstove. Well, he was a character, and a bit squirrelly as we say in these parts, but he claimed that they burned hot and without a real smell.

If things turn out badly this winter, we can expect that many people will be out collecting all of the available firewood. I seriously doubt many of these green horns will think to collect the cow patties. You may laugh, but it may be a good source of fuel this winter. Just some old time wisdom and a chance to chuckle.

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: Cow dung as a source of heat

We post a lot of scientific articles here at FT, most relating to virology epidemiology, public health, etc. So here is a link to a scientific article relevant to the topic of dung burning.

Human Occupation in the Beringian "Mammoth Steppe": Starved for Fuel, or Dung Burner's Paradise? at: http://www.utexas.edu/research/tarl/research/CRP20_68-70.pdf

The authors consider the modern collection of herbivore dung for heating and cooking on the Tibetan Plateau as an analog for the collection of mammoth dung by the first inhabitants to cross from Siberia into what is now Alaska more than 10,000 years ago.

Unfortunately for people in Siberia and Alaska, Beringia is underwater and the mammoth are gone.