101 Uses Cow Dung & Urine

101 USES FOR COW DUNG

From: Bhaktavatsala HKS Bhaktavatsala.HKS@com.bbt.se

Sent: 13 October 1997 17:18

Subject: Private ownership//AND Proposal For Cow Training

[Text 845784 from COM]

PAMHO AGTSP

That reminds me of a cow story with Anantarupa. We have one ox, Yudhisthira, who got a sore on his side, on the rib-cage. He was always licking at it, as it started to heal it would itch, and he would open and agrivate it again with his rough tongue and so it wouldn't heal. Anantarupa was very concerned and tried to help the ox by applying his knowledge of ayurveda and homeopathy. Lotion and potions of all descriptions went on that sore, to no avail. Anantarupa always used ghee as the basis of his medicine. Yudhisthira loved the medicine -- ghee with 11 secret herbs and spices. After switching and changing bases, and finding that it made not much difference to Yudhisthira, he finally found the anticeptic medicine that healed the sore in no time and Yudhisthira wouldn't lick off: you guessed it -- cow dung.

YS BVD

From: ISCOWP (Balabhadra Dasa & Chaya Dasi - USA) ISCOWP@bbt.se

Sent: 17 June 1999 02:08

Subject: Fw: Check out A new use for cow dung, ENN Multimedia -- 6/16/99

[Text 2411695 from COM]

Hari bol Prabhus,

PAMHO. AGTSP!

I thought you might find this interesting:

http://www.enn.com/enn-multimedia-archive/1999/06/061699/061699arec_3764.ram A new use for cow dung, ENN Multimedia --

From: Krsnendu (das) BCS (New Varsana - NZ) Krsnendu.BCS@bbt.se

Sent: 26 July 1999 08:38

Subject: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2505736 from COM]

Excuse me if this has already been discussed. I have only recently joined this conference.

Here's a start for others to add to.

Please feel free to correct any mistakes or add further comments.

Perhaps we could add cow urine uses to the list also?

1. Fuel - cow dung patties (gootte) for cooking

2. Fertilizer - composting makes it even more powerful

3. Heat source - cow dung is naturally hot -compost makes hotter put in glass house to heat glass house or run pipes thru it to get hot water.

3. Purifier - natural antiseptic qualities

4. Floor coating - used mixed with mud and water on floors in mud houses. Improves water absorption of mud. Prevents muddy puddles resulting from spilt water.

5. Mud brick additive - improves resistance to disintegration

6. Skin tonic - mixed with crushed neem leaves smeared on skin - good for boils and heat rash (SP used it for heat rash in Mayapur.)

7. Smoke producer - smoldering cow patties keep away mosquitoes. Can also make smoked paneer over such smoke. Tastes great in pasta! :)

Ash - from patties used in cooking. -

8. Pot cleaner - used dry absorbs oil and fat wet as a general cleaner

9. Brass polisher - tamarind removes oxidation - wet ashes polishes

10. Fertilizer - alkaline - cow dung ash is basically lime with a few other mineral mixed in

11. Mud additive - dries up slippery mud puddles

12. Mud brick additive - mud and lime (cow dung ashes) becomes like cement

13. Pond PH balancer - thrown into pond neutralizes acid.

14. Tooth polish -

15. Sun-dried organic recreational-aerodynamic-device -cow patty Frisbees ;)

16. Fan for fire - large cow patties can be used as make shift fans.

17. Deity worship - ingredient in panca gavya

From: Krsnendu (das) BCS (New Varsana - NZ) Krsnendu.BCS@bbt.se

Sent: 27 July 1999 15:03

Subject: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2509525 from COM]

Another use

Seed protector- covering seeds in dung before planting helps to protect against pests.

From: Darrell Martin blue.boy@datastar.net

Sent: 28 July 1999 18:58

Subject: RE: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2518601 from COM]

Fresh Cow urine taken thirty days straight is an ayurvedic remedy for brights disease.

From: Samba (das) SDG (Mauritius) Samba.SDG@bbt.se

Sent: 30 July 1999 15:01

Subject: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2517911 from COM]

Another use Seed protector- covering seeds in dung before planting helps to protect against pests.

What about dung beetles?

From: Krsnendu (das) BCS (New Varsana - NZ) Krsnendu.BCS@bbt.se

Sent: 30 July 1999 02:42

Subject: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2516573 from COM]

Disposable camphor lamps for use during fire sacrifices.

From: Carol DGilsen@aol.com

Sent: 30 July 1999 05:15

Subject: Re: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2516768 from COM]

Another use of cow pies (and camel dung) mix with fresh water till you have a paste and apply to skin diseases it seems to work to ease the Itching of psoriasis. There is some people who tell me if you soak your feet in cow urine it will cure athletes feet I will have to try that one. Fresh, less than hours old cow urine seems to have some helpful effect on teen age pimple eruptions. Wipe on face before going to bed. That is in an old herbal book I found??? wash off in the morning!

From: Carol DGilsen@aol.com

Sent: 30 July 1999 05:06

Subject: Re: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2516745 from COM]

Haribol to the cow pattie appreciation society. Love them cow patties and organic Frisbees.

What about BIO GAS????

Enclose a volume of cow patties and urine add enough water to cover, Stir and stir till you make a creamy mixture. Put on a tight lid with a pipe screwed to the lid some where, attach a hose to the pipe, add a valve, and the other end of the hose going to an inner tube, add warmth and Presto three to fourteen days later the cow pies are magically transformed to BIO GAS. Suitable for cooking, or running a generator (its only half as hot as propane so you need twice as much). Fortunately cows are free with their organic

Frisbees so there seems to lots of it.

When the last smidgen of gas has been wrung out, open the lid and the sludge in the container is an essentially sterile odorless excellent fertilizer. Add to needy plants where they will do the most good.

Cow urine (any urine actually) is useful in bleaching cotton fabric. That is how the British bleached their cloth....But they used sheep urine sheep being smaller were housed in pens over a large vat and the urine fell through the cracks that the sheep berries couldn't get through. Cloth was boiled with soap and water to clean the fabric then soaked in urine for a period of time (no I don't know how long) the urine was wrenched out and the fabric was sun dried.

Salt peter is the white stuff directly under dried cow pies, used as one of the three ingredients of gun power.

Urine is a necessary ingredient in most organic fertilizers it is rich in nitrogen.

And last but not least gather up a fresh cow pie shape into the form of a heart. Cover with tiny hand picked flowers violets and other flowers are excellent. And offer to a gardening sweet heart. Or if you have a more diabolic tendencies proceed with the cow pie bouquet but also add lots of lighter fluid. Place your offering on the door step of an enemy ignite knock loudly on the door (be sure the victim is home) and run. Hid near buy and watch as the recipient opens the door sees a fire at his door and stomps it out HEHEHEHE :)

Carol

From: Pandava Sakha (das) JPS (Mayapur - IN) Pandava.Sakha.JPS@bbt.se

Sent: 31 July 1999 03:34

Subject: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2519481 from COM]

Excuse me if this has already been discussed. I have only recently joined this conference.

Here's a start for others to add to.

Please feel free to correct any mistakes or add further comments. Perhaps we could add cow urine uses to the list also?

7. Smoke producer - smoldering cow patties keep away mosquitoes. Can also make smoked paneer over such smoke. Tastes great in pasta! :)

Another great advantage is that this smoke from Cow-dung or coal actually increases our eyelids to close & open so many times & lot of water from the eyes comes out & the advantage is that it increases the vision life of a person to old age also ie. even my grandmother who was 100 yrs old could see my mischiefs from a great distance in the village at night.

14. Tooth polish -

Why don't we use herbal tooth powder instead of toothpaste which is made of chemicals & dead bones of animals & crushed into powder. The moment I started using our Indian herbal tooth powder my toothaches all went away, also, lot of lust in the body is destroyed otherwise lot of lust is created due to using chemical toothpaste.

From: Madhava Gosh (das) ACBSP (New Vrindavan - USA) Madhava.Gosh.ACBSP@bbt.se

Sent: 01 August 1999 02:11

Subject: Re: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2522662 from COM]

Dung beetles operate on the surface, the seeds would be in the ground buried?

"COM: Samba (das) SDG (Mauritius)" wrote:

[Text 2517911 from COM]

Another use

Seed protector- covering seeds in dung before planting helps to protect against pests.

What about dung beetles?

From: Noelene Hawkins niscala99@hotmail.com

Sent: 12 August 1999 03:32

Subject: 101 uses of cow dung

[Text 2548260 from COM]

While I was attending an organic farming course I noticed one farmer was raising his seedlings in a very interesting seed-raising mixture. "Doesn't cost a thing" he said "100% organic, and She delivers them for free" You guessed it :cow dung!!!"

Well I didn't want to put this into the com until I had experienced some success with it myself, as I wasn't sure if it was just cow dung he used. Maybe it had sand mixed in. So I took some old cow dung patties I had put aside from my glorious days of cooking with this glorious product (I guess you'd call it a souvenir), soaked them in water for about a day, scrunched them into little bits, put seeds in and now its a few days later, and I tell youi I'm in so much bliss to see those little heads come up. Do not spend another cent on seed raising mix, or go to the trouble of getting river sand etc. (you still have to pay for the peat moss anyway). This is just SO easy, and another way to use the product of mother cow,

YS, Niscala

From: Rohita (Dasa) ACBSP (New Talavan MS - USA) talavan@com.org

Sent: 15 August 1999 00:47

Subject: Re: 101 Uses of Cow dung

[Text 2555515 from COM]

On 30 Jul 1999, DGilsen@aol.com wrote:

I have been a cowherd since 1974 (in ISKCON) have never had athletes foot or any skin problems (except sunburn) because frequently while cleaning the milk barn I do it bare foot. I also use cow dung on insect stings let it dry and then wash with hot soapy water. Cow urine can be used for stones (kidney, gall etc.) shot glass full first thing in the morning fresh from the cow for 21 days (uric acid in cow urine dissolves these stones to a manageable size.

ys, Rohita dasa

From: Bhakti Vikasa Swami Bhakti.Vikasa.Swami@bbt.se

Sent: 22 December 1999 03:24

Subject: dung

[Text 2876117 from COM]

Apparently, the traditional Indian village system of wiping the floor daily with a mixture of water and fresh cow dung assures that flies will not settle there. What about other insects? Does it repel them also?

From: ISCOWP (Balabhadra Dasa & Chaya Dasi - USA) ISCOWP@bbt.se

Sent: 03 January 2000 23:14

Subject: Re: dung

[Text 2904293 from COM]

Dear Bhakti Vikasa Swami,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

[Text 2876117 from COM]

From the ISCOWP News Summer/Fall 1997

Dr. Laxmi Narain Modi in his presentation for the Livestock Policy Perspective 2020 July 5-7 1995 to be held in India stated:

"1) Dung and urine from cows and bulls (cattle) are essential for organic manure (OM) which is used in the construction of new houses, frequent coating of floors and walls of mud houses to protect from insects, and as a base for bio-gas programs. There are innumerable other uses for traditional medicines."

Back in 1997 on the cow conference we had some discussions on the use of cow manure.

Your servant,

Chayadevi

From: Carol DGilsen@aol.com

Sent: 29 March 2000 05:23

Subject: Re: Cows, cow dung and cow/bull urine...

Haribol Samba

I have heard that cow / bull urine is a cure for athletes feet. Stand in a puddle for a while then elevate your feat till they air dry and you are on your way to fungus free feet. Of course you can pee on your own feet that is also a "cure". Urine was used to bleach wool in the middle ages up until sixty years ago. I use urine to restart a biogas plant that has "stalled" when the biocomposting won't start or fizzles out in mid process then it can be jump started by adding ammonia (a BI -product of urine). The dung ashes makes excellent tooth power. (grind them up fine first) A good "cement" is made by mixing dung with water and mixing with dirt. The salt in the dung keeps the moisture in the "cement " from drying out as easily and the "Cement" feels cool and almost damp and lowers the temp in a well insulated house by ten or twelve degrees. I first saw it done in the boys school in Mayapur. It was cool and odorless. The insulation was about 1/3 meter of palm fronds or reeds artfully tied together, in one of the music rooms (huts) the place was beautiful and timeless. Lately I have been molding fresh pies into various shapes like rabbits and frogs and selling them as art / fertilization art. Place in a flower pot and a little fertilizer leaches out with each watering and the Poo pet slowly dissolves into the soil. If I ever get Tulasi to live in my home. I will make little cows to keep her company in her pot. There are tons of other uses. They make use of every thing in India. There are books on the virtues of dung. If you make a biogas composer you can cook off the gas from the dung then when all the gas has been used up, you still have excellent compost in liquid form to place on your garden.

Carol

From: Madhusudani Radha (Devi Dasi) JPS (Berkeley CA - USA) mradha@com.org

Sent: 13 October 1997 21:50

Subject: Re: Cow dung

[Text 846424 from COM]

On 13 Oct 1997, Madhava Gosh wrote:

he finally found the antiseptic medicine that healed the sore

in no time and Yudhisthira wouldn't lick off: you guessed it -- cow dung.

YS BVD

Great story! I assume he used fresh. Works on humans ,too. Must be fresh, though. Confess I have only done it once , though; still too conditioned. That on a very minor cut.

Just a caution before everyone runs out for fresh cow dung to apply to their sores: Putting cow dung on newly cut umbilical cords in newborns is actually a major reason for infection and infant mortality in India. I have no idea if it is because they are doing it incorrectly (e.g. if it's not fresh) or because the immune system of newborns is particularly vulnerable. Let's just be careful about how, when, and to whom we recommend this practice.

Ys,

Madhusudani

From: Madhava Gosh ACBSP Madhava.Gosh.ACBSP@com.bbt.se

Sent: 14 October 1997 07:02

Subject: Re: Cow dung

[Text 846737 from COM]

he finally found the antiseptic medicine that healed the sore in no time and Yudhisthira wouldn't lick off: you guessed it -- cow dung.

YS BVD

Great story! I assume he used fresh. Works on humans ,too. Must be fresh, though. Confess I have only done it once , though; still too conditioned. That on a very minor cut.

Ys,

Madhusudani

Good point. I suspect they weren't using fresh, or fresh after it hit a contaminated surface, but I for one am not in the habit of recommending things that I don't use myself. There is also a cultural barrier anyway that isn't worth trying to breakdown.

From: Varis Lux-Kamergrauzis 100526.1600@compuserve.com

Sent: 23 October 1997 05:02

Subject: A comparison of dung

[Text 861922 from COM]

What dung from zoo animals is not suitable?

I have heard that Lions dung is the most effective means in warding off wild animals such as groundhogs around gardens.

-Guruttama das

From: Rohita (Dasa) ACBSP (New Talavan MS - USA) talavan@com.org

Subject: Cowdung

Date: Wednesday, July 15, 1998 8:15 PM

[Text 1511183 from COM]

On 15 Jul 1998, Gunamani dd wrote:

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Cowdung is recommended for cleaning contaminated pots and the like. But how exactly does one do that?

Comment:

Pots can be cleaned using cow dung in the same way one uses brass polish or soap. You let it dry and then rinse with water. If the smell is objectionable (to some it is) it maybe washed in soapy water. A small amount maybe put in the water when washing the floor. It must be fresh (still warm and preferable before it touches the ground).

Cow dung is antiseptic (that which destroys micro-organisms that cause disease, fermentation and putrefaction) and prophylactic (disease preventive). Experience Vets when treating cows do not use alcohol sterilization knowing the above two qualities. If they treat a horse the same way there is infection.

It seems like there is so many worms and also other living beings in the dung when one finds it on the field.

Comment:

Like most cow products dung is an ideal source of food for many living entities. This is because 50% of the dung is rich in all kinds of nutrients as is everything from the cow. The whole American Indian culture and the Asian Indian societies where well aware of these features and they built their lives around them.

None of these organisms are harmful provided the dung comes from a healthy cow. Like you they are looking for some substance, some use.

On Govardhan Puja in New Talavan we even make a form of Krishna (6 foot tall) out of cow dung create a hollow where the stomach is and fill with some food stuff (bhoga). Usually he is constructed next to Govardhan hill and is also circumambulated at the same time as Govardhan. He is non-different from Govardhan. Usually I pick out the dung beetles and put them outside.

Someone told me to get it directly when it falls from the cow, also when using it for Tulasi devi,

Comment:

Yes, it is collected as you say and water is added and the container closed and aged so that the nutrients may permeate the solution.

ys,

Rohita dasa

From: Gunamani (dd) ARD (Arhus - DK) Gunamani.ARD@com.bbt.se

Subject: Cowdung

Date: Wednesday, July 15, 1998 12:25 PM

[Text 1510186 from COM]

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Cowdung is recommended for cleaning contaminated pots and the like. But how exactly does one do that? It seems like there is so many worms and also other living beings in the dung when one finds it on the field.

Someone told me to get it directly when it falls from the cow, also when using it for Tulasi devi, but still there will be a lot of worms and worms-egg inside, or?

I would really appreciate some practical information on this.

Your servant Gunamani d.d.

From: Rohita (Dasa) ACBSP (New Talavan MS - USA) talavan@com.org

Date: Thursday, July 16, 1998 9:04 AM

Subject: Cowdung

[Text 1512499 from COM]

On 16 Jul 1998, Gunamani dd wrote:

What about dung from cows one doesn't know. What if they have been given strange thing to eat as they do nowadays?

Comment:

This is generally the case following are a few guidelines as to what is required in a cows diet:

1. Access to good quality pasture, preferably a pasture which contains more than one kind of grass and at least one legume. This field must have also been limed within the last four years.

2. Access to clean water (sweet water) with out metals in it.

3. Access to some fibrous growth, i.e. hay, silage, tree leaves (oak being preferred) or forbs.

Will the dung still be antiseptic?

Comment:

Animals that are not in good condition are more susceptible to disease and have therefore also a lower antiseptic nature.

What about dung from cows one doesn't know. What if they have been given strange thing to eat as they do nowadays?

If a cow has the above and does not receive any kind of supplements or is not under stress due to climatic extremes it will produce antiseptic by-products (milk, urine, dung, bile and salvia).

Will the dung still be antiseptic?

Comment:

Animals that are not in good condition are more susceptible to disease and have therefore also a lower antiseptic nature.

Doesn't the cow also have worms and the like in the stomach like most other animals?

Comment:

All living entities to my knowledge have worms normally present within the body (see Canto III/31/5-6 in particular). They are performing some function but when their population passes beyond a certain number it causes disturbance (disease is caused by over-eating, lack of cleanliness and stress). By improper cleanliness standards a situation is created for their propagation in larger numbers. Over-eating follows the direction "in moderation", things are good but when non-existent or in excess it causes an imbalance. So if a cow eats a diet that is deficient in the amount or quality of its requirement, there is a corresponding lowering of resistance to disease.

In this kali yuga our bodies are also occupied by other spirit souls in various different life forms (bacteria, viruses and if we are in the mode of ignorance various demoniac forms also).

From: Rohita (Dasa) ACBSP (New Talavan MS - USA) talavan@com.org

Subject: Re: Cowdung

Date: Saturday, July 18, 1998 12:25 PM

[Text 1518182 from COM]

On 16 Jul 1998, Madhava Gosh wrote:

Cow dung used for purification should be fresh from the cow. Hopefully, someone will give you better info, but my

belief has always been that the use of cow dung is sort of an auric cleansing. When I finish with the cow dung, I then clean the whatever with conventional cleansers to get the cow dung off. Not that you would wipe the pot with cow dung and then throw in some rice straight away.

Comment:

I also do like that.

Once the dung has laid on the ground awhile, it starts to change.

I don't think I would use fresh dung on Tulasi Devi personally. We always used the composted stuff.

Comment:

I do not use fresh dung, but dung that has been fermenting in a water bath for 3 weeks, then water her with the fluid. Our cows receive uneaten prasadam and vegetable scraps from the kitchen. This includes delicate plants like tomatoes. The tomato seed passes through the cows digestive system and leaves their body in the manure. A week or so later a tomato plant sprouts in the manure. So I am not worried about harming any plants by uses fresh manure on them. Care of course must be taken not to put manure on the leaves of the plants or up the stem.

Other animals stool you can not do this with, i.e. goats, sheep, horse etal. some are high in some metals, are not

antiseptic, and are high in acids that burn plants.

The point is if the cows are receiving a healthy diet (you are what you eat) their manure is not like other forms of deification. Cows are more transcendental, why else would the Supreme Person take their association?

ys,

Rohita dasa

From: Rohita (Dasa) ACBSP (New Talavan MS - USA) talavan@com.org

Subject: Re: Cowdung

Date: Thursday, July 23, 1998 6:34 PM

[Text 1531845 from COM]

On 21 Jul 1998, Gunamani dd wrote:

Dear Prabhus.

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Thank you very much for taking the time to give on your knowledge.

Now I just wonder when you make the cowdungwater for Tulasi devi, do you put the water in boiling hot in the beginning, or just normal temperature? I was told years ago that it should be boiling, what are your experiences? How often do you water with that solution?

Your servant Gunamani d.d.

Comment:

Hot water is used to activate the nutrients present much the same as when herbal teas are made. This is applicable when the 'dung tea' is made indoors. If it is made outside and is stored in a dark container it makes little difference when there is strong direct sunlight.

Watering takes place in the spring and any time the plants are indicating some deficiencies. This is used as a tonic not as a regular treatment.

ys,

Rohita dasa

From: Priyavrata (das) TKG (FFL) Priyavrata.TKG@com.bbt.se

Subject: Manure proves to be massive environmental problem

Date: Saturday, October 03, 1998 2:35 PM

[Text 1741564 from COM]

SOURCE: Vegetarian News (Internet)

Manure proves to be massive environmental problem

Scripps Howard, April 24, 1998

Manure happens. Two trillion, 730 million pounds of it every year. That, according to a report of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is the waste produced by the 58 million beef cattle, 103 million hogs, 300 million turkeys and 7.6 billion chickens that are raised and slaughtered in the United States every year.

That's 130 times more waste from farm animals than is produced by every human being in this country. It's five tons of animal droppings for every single American. And it's untreated and unsanitary, bubbling with chemicals and disease-bearing organisms.

It's got to go somewhere, and it does. It goes onto the soil and into the water that many people will, ultimately, bathe in and wash their clothes with and drink. It is poisoning rivers and killing fish and sickening people.

This is a real and growing danger -- and the federal government and most states are doing almost nothing about it. Here is the situation today as documented in Senate hearings:

--In 60 percent of American rivers and streams that the Environmental Protection Agency has identified as impaired, agricultural runoff and nutrients from animal waste are the greatest pollutants.

--Manure washed from feedlots is blamed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for impairing fisheries along 60,000 miles of streams. Surveys find animal waste is degrading 1,785 bodies of water in 39 states.

--Pollution from factory farms impairs more miles of U.S. rivers than all other industry sources and municipal sewers combined.

--During the past two decades, the number of coastal waters that host major and recurring attacks by harmful microbes has doubled.

--This runoff of nutrients from farms has created a "dead zone" of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico off the mouth of the Mississippi River, where up to 7,000 square miles of water cannot support most aquatic life.

--EPA tests found feedlot manure containing fecal streptococci and other fecal coliform bacteria "have contaminated ground water in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin."

Such problems with animal waste are complicated by the fact that manure remains a vital part of American agriculture. It is the source for much of the nitrogen needed for growing grain crops.

The National Pork Producers Council also argues that for every pound of nitrogen produced in swine manure and then applied to cropland as fertilizer there are about 2 pounds of nitrogen piped directly into streams and rivers from industrial and municipal waste water treatment facilities.

"That statistic of five tons of manure for every human overlooks something," says Andy Baumert of the pork producers council. "Two-thirds of it is distributed one plop at a time over 650 million acres of pasture and range land just like it has been for the last 100 years."

However, there does appear to be a growing danger from the remaining one-third of all that manure, which is piling up today around cattle feed lots, huge poultry barns and hog "factories."

Catastrophic cases of pollution, sickness and death are occurring in areas where livestock operations are concentrated.

Two years ago, 35 million gallons of spilled animal waste killed 10 million fish in North Carolina. Last year, pfiesteria piscicida, a toxic microbe linked to excessive nutrients from animal waste and farm runoff, killed an estimated 450,000 fish in that state.

Pfiesteria also killed 30,000 fish in the Chesapeake Bay and closed the Pokomoke River in Maryland to fishing and swimming last year. A score of people exposed to the pfiesteria suffered chronic sores, respiratory problems and memory loss. The culprit: nutrient runoff from the Delmarva Peninsula, where 600 million chickens grown every year produce 3.2 billion pounds of raw waste.

Also last year, 40 animal waste spills killed an estimated 670,000 fish in Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri.

Cryptosporidium, an organism considered particularly prevalent in calf waste, was the cause of an outbreak that left 400,000 people sick and killed 104 others in Milwaukee in 1993. Some scientists believe the state's dairy herds are to blame.

These examples point to one of the most glaring contradictions of health regulation today. Human waste is required to be sanitized. Animal waste -- rich in nitrates, phosphates and capable of harboring microbes harmful to humans -- is not.

Ever since passage of the Clean Water Act, municipalities have been under federal pressure to build more efficient sewage treatment facilities, and they have been doing so. This law demands that human sludge after treatment must meet many different requirements before it can be applied onto land.

Yet those standards are not required of animal manure. That waste is commonly spread raw across farmlands. From those fields there is, always, the risk that it may leach into the groundwater and be flushed by floods into the waterways.

Is the manure of farm animals somehow less potentially harmful to humans than human waste?

Not really.

A study of pollution strength based on biochemical oxygen demand by John Chastain, a Minnesota agricultural extension engineer, states, "The data indicates that the pollution strength of raw manure is 160 times greater than raw municipal sewage."

Pigs pose a particular danger. They contract and transmit many human diseases, including meningitis, salmonella, chlamydia, giardia, cryptosporidiosis, worms and influenza. Pathogens lethal to people pass through the digestive tracts of pigs just as they do through humans.

It is believed that the 1918-1919 Spanish flu that killed 21 million people around the world originated with swine in the United States. Pigs also are believed to be the source in 1968 of the Hong Kong flu, which has since killed some 400,000 Americans.

That hazard from hogs increases when they are packed closely together -- and that is exactly what is happening.

The problem is that agricultural and environmental regulations in force today are a generation out of date. Laws on animal waste grow out of times when farms were thought of as mom-and-pop operations, having no more than a few hundred animals, and pigs and chickens would drop their manure on the land and nature would quickly take care of it.

But the family farm is vanishing. A report by a U.S. Department of Agriculture commission acknowledges that over the past two decades, policy choices made by this federal agency "perpetuated the structural bias toward greater concentration of assets and wealth in fewer and larger farms and fewer and larger agribusiness."

There are 300,000 fewer farmers now than 20 years ago. Four firms now control over 80 percent of the beef market. Over the past 15 years, the number of hog farms has fallen from 600,000 to 157,000, though about the same number of hogs are being produced.

The result is most animals are being grown in herds and flocks of many thousands. These aren't really animal farms. They're animal factories. A hog farm typically has a number of large metal barns, each housing up to a thousand animals, where pigs spend their lives jammed jowl to jowl and attached to feeding trays, never moving except as they rock from side to side, and never seeing the sun.

Their wastes are flushed from the floors of the barn and piped outside into what agribusiness likes to call "lagoons." The idea is that gasses will evaporate and later the waste will be spread evenly over fields, where it will be absorbed into and fertilize the soil.

"But there is very little checking or enforcement," says Robbin Marks of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

That's because there are few regulations at the national level that set specific requirements for applying manure on land. There are no federal standards on the construction of the "lagoons," some of which are big enough to hold 30 million gallons of manure. EPA requires animal waste discharge permits only for operations that confine 6,000 or more animals.

Both EPA and the Agriculture Department say that Congress has refused to give them authority to strictly regulate animal waste.

The National Pork Producers Council says it supports national standards. It says it is working with EPA to agree on ways to use manure nutrients safely in crop production. "It is our position," says Baumert, "that confined animal feeding operations need to totally contain that manure."

That policy fails to satisfy environmental critics.

"Farmers spread manure on their fields as thick as peanut butter because there is no other way to use it or get rid of it," says Chad Smith, conservation policy analyst for American Rivers.

Indeed, the high concentrations of animals make it unlikely that any surrounding fields can safely absorb the layers of manure that typically must be applied on the land just to get it out of overfilled lagoons.

California's Central Valley is home to 891,000 milk cows -- up 42 percent from a decade ago. Each cow typically produces as much waste as 24 humans. So these dairy herds are soiling this valley every year with as much natural waste as a city of 21 million people.

In Utah is one hog farming operation -- home now to some 32,000 hogs -- with plans grow up to 1.2 million animals. All their waste is supposed to be contained in 80 vast open-air cesspools. Circle Four Farms says the liquid portion of the waste will evaporate in the dry desert air, and solids will turn to sludge over a 20-year period and will be sold for fertilizer, if there's a market, or disposed of in landfills.

But last year at Circle Four some 80,000 gallons of manure spilled into the ground water when a pump failed and the waste backed into a water supply well. The state fined Circle Four $6,800. It wasn't more, state officials said, because "no one was hurt."

The 155,000 tons of waste from the 90 million chickens produced every year in West Virginia around the headwaters of the Potomac River officially haven't sickened the 2.5 million people living downstream. But last year Washington, D.C., began having bacteria outbreaks in its drinking water system, and for the second year in a row the Potomac is listed as one of the 20 most endangered rivers in the country because of pollution from poultry manure.

Two other rivers listed by water conservation group American Rivers as endangered because of animal manure are the Pocomoke in Delaware, Virginia and Maryland and the Apple River in Illinois, where two factory pig farms housing 12,000 hogs are being built in its drainage basin.

Every place where the animal factories have located, neighbors have complained of falling sick. In Minnesota, tests showed eight of 32 air samples taken near manure lagoons exceeded air quality standards for hydrogen sulfide. Duke University odor researcher Susan Schiffman has documented cases of people living near hog factories as suffering from headaches, nausea, tension, depression, confusion, fatigue and anger.

Stan Westbrook of Huntingdon County, Pa., is one who's felt all that, and the hog factory that's doing it to him isn't even operational yet. Westbrook operates a retirement home for 49 elderly and infirm men and women that is next to a planned hog operation that will have 2,800 sows producing 1,000 piglets a week, 52,000 in a year.

"I'll be out of business in five years," says Westbrook. "The cesspool of that pig factory is going to be just 300 feet from the highway, the main route between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. My retirement home is just a quarter mile downwind of it. The town of Mount Union is a couple miles downstream of it. The stench and the flies will be terrible.

"Tell me the sense of it. This township of 2,300 people is under government pressure to go $8 million in debt to put in a sewer system. Meantime, those operators are allowed to build an open cesspool right off the highway that will be filled with the manure of 52,000 pigs."

Georgianna Abrashoff, the Shirley Township, Pa., secretary, is similarly frustrated and furious. Her nice home sits on a knoll half a mile from a new hog operation, two metal barns housing 1,200 animals. She has stood on her deck and watched manure pour out of a cesspool and down the slope close to a stream that feeds into the Juniata River. She complains there is an open pit behind the barn where the bodies of swine who die in the crowded barns are frequently tossed.

"The Department of Environmental Protection tells me that pit is according to regulation. Well I told them, 'I've got 11 acres and if my husband dies and I put his body in a hole in the ground here, you'll come and arrest me.'"

Abrashoff contends that, like many states, Pennsylvania has deliberately weak environmental protection. "Gov. Tom Ridge was elected on a promise of a 'people friendly' Department of Environmental Protection. Well, its friendly to hog growers, not so friendly to people who have to live next to them.

"I called the governor's secretary. I said, 'Tell Tom Ridge, next time he goes traveling around Asia selling 'em on Pennsylvania pork, to sell 'em some of the Pennsylvania pollution, too."'

John Lang is a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service.

=====================================================

This article documents the fact that factory farming is not only cruel to animals and a health hazard to consumers, but it is also a major environmental menace.

That's three good reasons to become a vegetarian!

And

From: Hare Krsna dasi (Brunswick, Maine - USA) Hare.Krsna.dasi@com.bbt.se

Subject: Re: Standard 15 Use of Krsna's Properties - pasture and manure management

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 1999 2:22 PM

[Text 2200355 from COM]

Some people may be wondering about who is right about the manure distribution question. Radha Krsna prabhu seems to be saying that it is necessary to use a chain-harrow to break up and distribute the manure evenly. But Rohita prabhu and Madhava Gosh prabhu don't seem to be advocating this. Madhava Gosh mentions grazing cows on hillsides where it is not possible to use a chain harrow. So who's right? Certainly, it doesn't seem like Lord Balarama used a chain harrow when Krsna and the cowherd boys grazed the cows on Govardhana hill.

In fact, they are all correct in various circumstances. Here is a relevant passage from *Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence* (3rd Edition ISBN 0-9617807-2-X) by Bill Murphy (pp. 92- )

********************

EXCREMENT

Cattle poop 11 to 12 times and pee 8 to 11 times each day. When combined with grazing behavior, cattle and horse excretion especially can badly affect a pasture. When grazing is properly managed, manure and urine greatly benefit a pasture by returning nutrients, increasing soil organic matter, and favoring the development of earthworms and other soil life. Let's look at each part of excrement to understand the effects.

*Manure*

The daily amount of poop produced per cow can weigh 50 pounds or more. Horses are close behind with 40 pounds per animal per day. This means that during a 180-day grazing season, 9000 pounds of manure are deposited per cow, and 7200 pounds per horse! If each cow pie measures 10 inches in diameter, for example, the total area covered by one cow (assuming no overlap of pies) would be 7 square feet per day, or 1260 square feet during the grazing season!

**Loose manure from cows grazing on lush pasture doesn't affect plants very much because it spreads thinly and decomposes quickly.** But horse turds and cow pies from cows receiving grain or concentrate supplements are drier, and cause major changes by blocking sunlight and killing most plants that are directly under the manure. The area in which the plants were killed can then be invaded by surrounding plants or from seeds that were in the soil or manure. Sheep pelletize their manure, so it's spread uniformly and breaks down rapidly when their grazing is managed properly.

When a cow pie hits the ground, it immediately has a "zone of repugnance" around it that measures about 25 feet in diameter [8 meters?]! Consequently, at low stocking densities a lot of forage can be rejected around cow pies. High stocking densities can decrease the zone of repugnance down to the manure itself, but it isn't a good practice to force animals to eat right up to their manure because of the parasites it contains, and because dry matter intake probably would be decreased.

Horses deposit their manure in the same place and don't eat in that area. This causes forage in that area to become much lower in quality, unless it is mowed or grazed by other animals. Horse grazing and excreting habits especially, reflect their instinctive way of avoiding parasites present in their manure, so they shouldn't be forced to eat plants growing among their manure deposits. It is far better to graze that forage with other animals or mow and/or harrow it the same day that the horses are removed from the paddock.

At first, the manure itself causes animals to reject the herbage hear it, probably because of unpleasant odor, but later the forage become too mature and then is unpalatable because of its coarseness. In poorly managed pasture, herbage around manure patches may be rejected for as long as 18 months. **In well managed pasture, soil life becomes enlivened, and manure can be disintegrated and incorporated with the soil by earthworms and insects in about 60 days, and the zone of repugnance disappears.**

During the grazing season, each cow deposits about 38, 8, and 8 pounds of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in manure somewhere in the pasture. During the same time each horse drops 40, 10, and 24 pounds of the same nutrients in manure, usually in very limited areas of the pasture or paddock. **These nutrients are worth a lot of money** and can be extremely beneficial to the pasture and your bank account, but not when the manure is stacked up. It must be spread around. Besides releasing nutrients, spreading exposes more of the manure to sunlight and drying, which kills parasites and reduces breeding sites for flies. How it's spread is up to you.

Under management intensive grazing with cattle, the high stocking densities and the short grazing periods of paddocks usually result in more uniform grazing and distribution of manure and breadkown of manure by hoof action of the densely stocked animals.

In New Zealand, where grazing is planned and managed at a level beyond anything done yet in the USA, mowing or harrowing routinely after cattle to clip uneaten forage or spread manure isn't done because it's unnecessary. **Cattle grazing lush pasture tend to have loose manure, which spreads out thinly when dropped, and decomposes quickly.** Pastures are harrowed sometimes during the dry season, however, when cattle graze forage higher in dry matter; this results in drier manure that doesn't break down easily. On New Zealand horse farms, beef cattle at high stocking density follow horses through paddocks to graze uneaten forage and break down horse manure (Alan Henning, personal communication). So it's possible with management to eliminate or minimize the need, and therefore the expense, labor, and fuel consumption of mowing and harrowing to remove uneaten forage and spread manure after cattle.

On rough land, management is your only option for spreading manure and maintaining the sward in good condition. Part of that management can include such things as grazing cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, or turkeys together or one group behind the other. It can also include encouraging birds to feed in your pasture by putting up birdhouses for them to nest in. Birds digging and scratching in manure for insects help break it down and spread it

around.

Horses are a special problem because high stocking density doesn't work very well with them. Three possible ways of breaking down and spreading horse manure are :

1) follow horses through paddocks with heavily stocked cattle or sheep,

2) mow paddocks with a rotary mower, and/or 3) drag paddocks with a flexible tine harrow.

If the pastureland is level to rolling, you can use machinery to mow uneaten forage and spread manure if necessary. Using a flail or rotary mower breaks up and spreads manure at the same time. If you use a sickle mower or don't mow, it may be beneficial to drag paddocks with a flexible tine harrow to break up and spread manure. If you harrow to spread manure, do it in midsummer when conditions are dry, to kill parasite larvae. **If you harrow during moist spring conditions, you'll spread parasite eggs and larvae, contaminating more pasture forage.**

*Urine*

The are of pasture affected by urine varies with the soil moisture conditions, slope, and type. Urine spreads further in wetter soil, down slopes, and through sandy soils than it does in dry, level, or clay soils. Provided that affected plants are not allowed to grow rank, animals don't avoid eating plants growing in urine patches. In fact, some animals prefer plants growing in urine patches, if they weren't burned by the urine. If urine scorches or kills plants, animals avoid eating them, and the botanical composition declines in quality. (See Chapter 3.)

*Parasites*

By constantly moving to fresh grazing, wild animals avoid serious damage from parasites. Domestic livestock are restricted to grazing a limited pasture area repeatedly during a season, however, and can be adversely affected by parasitism.

The most serious threat to livestock is from worm parasites of the digestive tract, although lungworms also can be a problem. Adult parasites in the host animal gut produce variable numbers of eggs that pass out with excrement, hatch and molt to larval stage in manure or on pasture plants, and are consumed with the plants by grazing animals. Within the host animal, the cycle to egg-laying adult can be completed in less than 4 weeks.

Larvae that survive winter conditions immediately re-infect livestock when grazing begins in the spring. Animal immune systems mature with age, so young stock are most susceptible to infection and the worst effect of parasitism.

Parasitism can cause large economic losses to livestock producers. **Even if there are no obvious symptoms (subclinical), parasitism can depress an animal's dry matter intake and weaken its immune system.** Because of this, the animal grows more slowly, produces less, and becomes more susceptible to bacterial and viral infections.

*Control*

First ask your veterinarian about manure exams to determine the level of parasite contamination of your pasture. If a problem exists, learn about the correct dewormer to use and when to use it in your situation. Be careful to avoid residue in milk or meat. Be aware that some dewormers kill beneficial insects and soil organisms.

The main objective in deworming livestock is to achieve pasture that's relatively free of parasites. Parasite levels in pasture can be reduced by deworming at strategic times in the parasite life cycle and planning the grazing sequence so that treated animals can be moved to clean paddocks. Usually deworming should occur at 4 and 8 weeks after animals begin grazing a contaminated pasture.

After deworming, treated animals should be moved to land that is relatively free of contamination, if possible. For example, since hot dry weather kills parasite larvae, land that's grazed by another species or machine-harvested in spring, is safe for treated animals to graze.

Parasites are specific to animal species they infect, so alternate stocking by different species in different years can reduce parasites to insignificant levels in a pasture. Similar results can be obtained by alternately grazing and machine harvesting an area in different years. About 18 months between grazings by an animal species is needed to break parasite life cycles.

After parasite levels have been reduced on your far, monitoring manure egg counts throughout the grazing season can give you advance warning of a need for deworming.

****************************

HKDD comments:

In summary, on dry pastures and for animals which have a heavy intake of grain or supplements, dragging the pasture, in a manner along the lines suggested by Radha Krsna prabhu, will probably be a necessity. To me that indicates that under such conditions, the best thing is to pasture the animals on flat land which is accessible to machinery.

On the other hand, when cows are grazing on very lush pasture, their manure is thin, and the lushness of the pasture indicates sufficient earthworms and micro-organisms to break down manure quickly. If you remember back to Krsna Book, Srila Prabhupada often describes that Krsna and Balarama and the cowherd boys would take their cows to a new "lush" pasture each day. From reading, it seems evident that once the animals grazed in a certain area, the cowherd boys would not bring them back there for some time. Therefore, at least according to the information presented by Bill Murphy, there would have been no need for dragging the pasture to spread the manure, as the manure would have broken down quickly in such a lush pasture so that the nutrients would be quickly available to replenish the pasture growth.

One obvious problem with pasture management in many of ISKCON's farms should be evident from the above excerpt: When animals are confined for significant amounts of time to a barn or cattle shed, the nutrients in the pasture can become gradually diminished over the course of time, resulting in poorer and poorer quality of pasture, and poorer health for the cows over a period of years. In any confinement system, great care must be taken to restore the nutrients to the pasture instead of letting them go to waste in a large pile of manure next to the barn or goshalla. Also, in a system which relies heavily on confinement of animals, the very significant nutrient content of the urine is likely to be completely wasted. Thus Rohita prabhu's comments about managing the animals in such a way that they will continue to enrich the pasture grounds is very important.

Bill Murphy mentions the importance of de-worming cows who have high parasite problems. It's good to remember that there are also herbal de-worming treatments that can be produced on farm -- it does not have to be a purchased

treatment.

One note: this is a long piece, written by an American. If there are some terms which those from other countries don't understand, please ask and we will try to help you out.

Finally, I am sending a blind copy of this piece to the Y2K conference and varnasrama.development and social.and.economic.development and agriculture.and.the.environment. Well managed pasture will be an important means of providing food for Krsna's cows after 1999, in case many of our generous donors are adversely impacted by Y2K business problems. We may not be able to afford to purchase hay from outside, so we should start planning now on how to best feed the cows given the resources we already have -- our pastures. Also, I have yet to see any evidence of the understanding of sound pasture-management principles on our principle Indian projects, so I wanted to start them thinking about that topic with this excerpt from *Greener Pastures...* but I hope that those who want to continue this discussion will list cow@com.bbt.se as the only receiver and drop the other conferences so that they don't get bogged down with an extended discussion of this topic Then you can add yourself as a subscriber to cow@com.bbt.se Thanks.

your servant,

Hare Krsna dasi

Rohita das wrote:

In most grazing procedures the animals are place in too large an area where they choose the most nutritious plants and leave behind second, third .... rank grasses until all the first class is gone then they graze the next rank. This procedure will have two effects, both produce the effect commonly called over-grazing.

1. Manure is unevenly distributed, imparting an over-abundance of fertility in some areas and a shortage in others. This leads to deficiencies in the soil and soil compaction.

2. The gradual disappearance of the desired grasses and the emergence of grass species that are tolerant of the change in soil conditions, these grasses are usually inferior in nature as cow feed. Also other plants that are not grasses will become more prominent. This leads to a decrease in the carrying capacity of this area.

Comment:

This is why it is so important to distribute the dung evenly by using the chain harrow. A practice I have not yet witnessed in ISKCON. The rank grasses are -produced by such deposits of dung just left on the field. The animals would rather starve than eat this kind of grass.

There has just been an outbreak of E-Coli (517) on a dairy farm in GB. 20 people are in hospital. This is why it is so important to farm very well in order to avoid disease.

Here's a quote from an agricultural title: Climate of GB.

'The Value of grazing; the relationship of clovers to grasses; the ability of clovers to feed the grasses with nitrogen...

Compost is an inevitable process on a farm which produces, as we do, some fifty ricks of straw a year, besides all the vegetable waste of every kind from the ditches. the hedgerows, roadsides, woodlands and various other places....all of which should be turned into compost. Compost is invaluable whether it is shallow ploughed or disced into the arable land, or used as a surface dressing for the oncoming grasses and clovers. (personally, I prefer the use of the disc harrow, as it is quicker and less likely to do damage by the plough going too deep., RKD.)

....The mechanization of compost making is the way by which it can be economically performed under modern conditions, when wages are such a serious item in the cost of running a farm. (I have made reference to this point in my book also).........

There is no method of manufacturing humus better than the four years' ley, and grazing that ley with a mixture of livestock in a highly scientific way........

The value of, and the scientific reasons for the periodical grazing of pastures containing large mixtures of clover particularly wild white clover and American Sweet clover are the subject for discussion and writings by many authorities.'

This is why humus manufacture is so important, as as Rohita prabhu says if this is not done then weeds (like couch etc.,) and other inferior grasses will emerge. This is why it is good to plough grassland after some time and sew fresh grasses. from what I can see this is of much importance, whereas old pasture, or permanent pasture often becomes diseased and over grazed and compacted. Tenth Canto states that the cows were always in search of fresh grasses....?? (These are the most nutritious.)

From: Ram Prasad (Dasa) (?) ramprasad@com.org

Sent: 20 January 2000 08:19

Subject: Cow Dung aint no B.S.

[Text 2944752 from COM]

Dear Radha Krishna Prabhu:

In reading some of your comments on the ISCOWP site, I became less clear on one thing: is cow dung superior to other dungs because it is antiseptic? Is this an old wise tale?

It seems that your attitude is that any dung will do, and it's the composting technique that's important. My impression is, however, that the cow dung is completely pure. I've even eaten the fungus from cow dung (surprisingly it was fun and enlightening--oh, not recently by the way).

Now, other dungs--no thank you.

Is the scientific evidence there to support the following statements:

1. composting is the way to turn trash into land.

2. land is wealth.

3. cow dung keeps the rotting compost antiseptic.

rpd

From: Madhava Gosh (das) ACBSP (New Vrindavan - USA) Madhava.Gosh.ACBSP@bbt.se

Sent: 20 January 2000 18:30

Subject: Re: Cow Dung aint no B.S.

[Text 2947051 from COM]

Dear Radha Krishna Prabhu:

In reading some of your comments on the ISCOWP site, I became less clear on one thing: is cow dung superior to other dungs because it is antiseptic? Is this an old wise tale?

Fresh cow dung is pure. Other dungs need to be composted to be purified. Composting is a purifying process.

From: Hare Krsna dasi (Brunswick, Maine - USA) Hare.Krsna.dasi@bbt.se

Sent: 21 January 2000 00:32

Subject: Re: Cow Dung aint no B.S.

[Text 2947115 from COM]

Dear Radha Krishna Prabhu:

In reading some of your comments on the ISCOWP site, I became less clear on one thing: is cow dung superior to other dungs because it is antiseptic? Is this an old wise tale?

Fresh cow dung is pure. Other dungs need to be composted to be purified. Composting is a purifying process.

-- As long as the dung is heated up hot enough (needs plenty of plant material to provide sufficient carbon to balance the nitrogen content of dung) and as long as it is heated long enough (one year is safest, but shorter time is possible if you

are an expert such as Radha Krsna prabhu).

ys,

hkdd

From: Samba (das) SDG (Mauritius)

Date: 23-Apr-00 03:56

Subject: Gobar floors

Can anyone tell me what proportion to mix cow dung, and earth, for covering floors and walls as is done in India?

I want to create an area for drying grains etc, and for my kid to play, partialy covered, and partial open to rain.

Seeing as the cover larger parts ot the gurukula in it, I presume it does not wash away in the rain very easily?

YS Samba das

From: Carol DGilsen@aol.com

Sent: 24 June 2000 02:20

To: Samba (das) SDG (Mauritius); Agriculture and the Environment; Cow (Protection and related issues); Practical Varnasrama

Subject: Re: Manure Tea

Samba old boy long time no hear

Manure tea is great stuff at least here out in the dry desert. If your manure is well rotted it "generally " has never damaged my crops. My rule of thumb for my climate is if the plants are heavy feeders I feed once a week with 20 liters of water and three liters of dry poop. Let soak in for a night and pour it on in the morning. I put my manure in a a ladies stocking and hang in the water. I use the same "tea bag" for about five to ten uses. The then "spent " manure is unceremoniously dumped on the most needy plant in the area where it still does some good. I then make up a fresh batch. As the tea gets weaker with use I use it on plants that have a low need like orchards any way it works for me. I hope this helps. Say are your potatoes getting lots of water? When I scrimped on the water my potatoes turned up small also.

Carol

From: Samba (das) SDG (Mauritius) Samba.SDG@pamho.net

Sent: 25 June 2000 04:26

To: DGilsen@aol.com; Agriculture and the Environment; Cow (Protection and related issues); Practical Varnasrama

Subject: Re: Manure Tea etc.

Samba old boy long time no hear

Hare Krsna!

OK this is a bit clearer, but I don't yet get the dosage. you give one plant 20 litres of water, or one bed? We have beds of 100 Sq feet each, or 4'X 25'. I would have thought that I would need a good bit more than 20 litres for that. In general I give such a bed about 40 litres, beyond that (at a reasonable delivery speed) and the water starts to run off.

I've been real busy up there on the land. There's lots to learn. After 3 weeks of weeding, you start to think of ways to avoid getting into that situation again. Greenhorns like me, are really wooly behind the ears (whatever that means!) So much to learn.

Let me introduce you to the wooly thinking of a greenhorn. We learned about double dug raised beds, and how good they are for root development. We have to add a process to the general making of such beds, which is putting all the earth through a sieve to get the stones out (each sieve-full is one quarter stone) and move the stones out the way. Consequently it takes an age to make a bed. At this rate it will take us at least a year to make two acres of beds (that timeframe includes doing all our fencing, irrigation laying, and compost shed making). But then I figured that not everything is best suited to such beds. I am just coming to grips with the fact that it seems it will take too long to manually deal (using hand spades, forks etc) with 2 acres of raised beds. We are going to have to start thinking about using some machines to sow seeds, prepare the soil etc. Animal drawn machines of course, or small mechanical machines, until we can get an ox.

So I started to think just now, about semi de-rocking an acre of the land. Getting one of those rototillers out (do they actually turn the soil, and is that good?) and making one acre of semi prepared soil, and then planting out a variety of crops, in strips (companion style), instead of insisting on making these great, yet time consuming beds. Does that make sense?

When you have never tried to make a go of any land whatsoever, what to speak of two acres or more, it is really baffling how to go about it, and I admit to being pretty baffled, although some light does get through occasionally.

I'm, not giving up, far from it, I am really relishing this adventure, it just gets frustrating when an oversight ends up in three weeks of repetitive weeding or something. I just wish I had someone with a lot of experience to come over here, and show us the ropes.

Another problem I am not sure how to resolve. We are at 500 meters elevation. I took the soil temperature the other day and in the morning the soil is only at about 10 degrees Celsius. At mid day it can rise to about 18 or maybe 20, but on a rainy day it wont get much above 14 or 15.

This is a difficult climate to germinate seeds in. The temperature is a bit low, but if I made a greenhouse it might get too hot. Because there is no long term tradition of farming in the country, the locals just grow what does well with chemicals and know nothing else. Most of the books written deal with cold northern climes or the tropics, its difficult to get data on a transitional zone like ours. If I was an experienced farm hand, I would probably not have much problem adjusting, but being a rank neophyte, its just another baffling problem on top of the others!

Anyway, I guess I will just have to request all of you who's heart goes out to a fellow Bhakta in distress, to pray that the Good Lord Sri Krsna, may enlighten me in these matters!

YS Samba das

From: Carol DGilsen@aol.com

Sent: 25 June 2000 19:40

To: Samba (das) SDG (Mauritius); Agriculture and the Environment; Cow (Protection and related issues); Practical Varnasrama

Subject: Re: Manure Tea and reality

Hare Krsna!

OK this is a bit clearer, but I don't yet get the dosage. You give one plant 20 litters of water, or one bed? We have beds of 100 Sq. feet each, or 4'X 25'. I would have thought that I would need a good bit more than 20 litres for that. In general I give such a bed about 40 litres, beyond that (at a reasonable delivery speed) and the water starts to run off.

No! silly, you give your plants how ever much (Manure) water they normally need Perhaps twice or three times a week. That recipe is just an idea of how to mix up manure teas. I use 20 liter buckets because I have access to them very cheaply. And also as I get older those buckets seem to get heavier each day. You can avoid hauling buckets and water cans if you get a two hundred liter metal or plastic drum and fill it with manure tea and syphon it out to your plants through a long hose. Or a series of drums and hoses. Scattered

handely around your beds.

Samba my friend do not beat your self up. We were all beginners at one time in our lives. You seem to have the misfortune to be alone without near by help or advice. Well, That is how I started out my self! Welcome to the club it is cold and lonely when you are alone. But you are just a mouse click away from some kind of help. All climates are different. Where I live the temp can change forty degrees F in a day And we haven't had but two inches of rain in ten months. ( our monsoon has just started) that is tough to grow in. We each have our trials. Well, then lets roll up our sleeves and see what we can do to help. TaTa Ta Cyber farmers to the rescue!!

Let me introduce you to the wooly thinking of a greenhorn. We learned about double dug raised beds, and how good they are for root development. We have to add a process to the general making of such beds, which is putting all the earth through a sieve to get the stones out (each seive-full is one quarter stone) and move the stones out the way. Consequently it takes an age to make a bed. At this rate it will take us at least a year to make two acres of beds (that timeframe includes doing all our fencing, irrigation laying, and compost shed making). But then I figured that not everything is best suited to such beds. I am just coming to grips with the fact that it seems it will take too long to manually deal (using hand spades, forks etc) with 2 acres of raised beds. We are going to have to start thinking about using some machines to sow seeds, prepare the soil etc. Animal drawn machines of course, or small mechanical machines, until we can get an ox.

So Samba don't knock your self out Remember the K.i.s.s. theory (Keep it simple stupid) Do what you have to do to survive. Make one rased bed a week or month and just work the soil however you can. Given love, manure, water and protection most plants that are suited for an area will grow quite well inspite of the books and well established farmers with lots of help and advice. Your plants need nutriments and water and protection from praetors. Not much else Oh if you had an ideal climate and lots of money and laborers you could have a beautiful trophy farm but the yield might not be any better than yours but it might be. Do what you can and get on with it.

So I started to think just now, about semi de-rocking an acre of the land. Getting one of those rototiller out (do they actually turn the soil, and is that good?) and making one acre of semi prepared soil, and then planting out a variety of crops, in strips (companion style), instead of insisting on Making these great, yet time consuming beds. Does that make sense?

Yes, Samba it really does make sense. While a trophy garden would be wonderful an occasional attack of common sense will save your farm. In a real world where life was not as wonderful as we would like, it would be Ideal to have such beds. Reality however frequently rears its ugly head and saves you. Rototiller (the good ones) really do work. They save your back, which you must have and time which is what farmers never seem to have enough. I have had times when I just dumped straw and manure tea on top of it and planted seeds into the straw no tilling no prep nothing, and to my amazement it worked. Inspite of what all the farming books and old farmers say no body is always correct. I always dreamed of a beautiful trophy garden raised beds and all. But alas, It was never to be. my gardens were always messy and ugly. I however did have a great yield. I used straw and manure, some hand turned rows some machine turned some tractor plowed land. If you want to be a purest it is a lot of work and while it looks beautiful the only thing that counts is the yield and the health of the land. REMEMBER THAT! Yield and the health of your soil is the two most important things you need to concentrate on. Loose soil makes the seeds "dig in" better. But then in the wild plants grow and fruit and drop its seeds and if they find good..... not Ideal circumstances they germinate and hopefully grow. The farmer is a shepherd to the plants. We make it easy for them to get started and protect them from enemies such as drought, heat, predators and poor soil. Seedlings can grow in really tough environments if given proper nutrition and adequate soil. So if you need a green house build one. If you do not have the time or money to build such an edifice. A simple cold frame will work. A cold frame is just a box dug into the ground You fill it with soft soil and mulch and manure and treat it like it was in the rows. You can let it lay on top of the ground with insulation around it and a sheet of glass or plastic doubled to let in the heat and trap it there. The box will be tilted to the North in your neck of the woods. The top is hinged with a glass or plastic lid. When the day warms up you must open the glass or plastic lid to keep from cooking the seedlings, you of course close it in the late afternoon to trap the heat. When the seedlings get to transplantable size you start little by little leaving the top cracked up higher till the plants have "hardened off." Then transplant!

I'm, not giving up, far from it, I am really relishing this adventure, it just gets frustrating when an oversight ends up In three weeks of repetitive weeding or something. I just wish I had someone with a lot of experience to come over here, and show us the ropes.

Well, Samba It has been my experience that no one ever gets the help they need when they need it. If the helping hand you need isn't at the end of your arm it probably wont be there. A sad but true fact!

From: Radha Krsna (das) ACBSP GB (Great Britain) Radha.Krsna.ACBSP.GB@pamho.net

Sent: 28 June 2000 23:48

To: Agriculture and the Environment; Cow (Protection and related issues); Practical Varnasrama

Subject: Manure Tea

Here in England we are growing potatoes solely on compost made from Prasad waste and leaves and pine needles, swept up from all the roads around the Manor.

So far we have thriving large plants and one dust bin I cut the bottom off has a three foot plant in it. It seems you must not cover too much of the plant when you fill up with compost. This is low Ph which potatoes prefer. No ash was added to this compost. We have also found slow worms and a 3 foot grass snake basking on top of these metaphylic heaps.

Potato results - will let you know.

This site was last updated 10/24/07