The importance of dung!

Did you know?

Every year, a cow leaves enough food material in its cowpats to support an insect population equal to between 1/4 and 1/5 of the cow’s own weight.

During the course of it’s decay, each cow pat will contain about 1000 inhabitants on average. As each cow produces about 10 pats per day (or 3650 per year) it could be said that each cow produces enough dung for 3,650,000 insects each year(The majority of which are fly larvae) !!!

Why is Sheepdrove’s organic cow dung is great for wildlife?

The organic matter and minerals in cow-dung are used and recycled by a wildlife army remarkably rich in species and numbers. This important biodiversity can be harmed by chemicals used against cattle parasites, which pollute the cow dung.⁽¹⁾ Just one more reason to farm organically!

For information and expertise we must sincerely thank staff of the Natural History Museum, and Dr Davy McCracken, of Scottish Agricultural College.

Reference (1): McCracken, D.I. 1995. Short note on potential environmental problems of cattle and sheep anthelmintics. Extensive Farming Systems Unit Briefing Paper 7. Paisley, Joint Nature Conservation Committee.