Last year as I was walking around picking up sticks to store for kindling, I saw some dried cow patties and thought, “I think I remember something about people burning cow patties.”
I picked up some and threw it on my fire. It’s amazing stuff; burns hot and long. I think I’d rather have a cord of cow patties than a cord of oak, it burned so well.
I was talking to a friend that just came back from India and she said people pick it up, dry it, and sell it over there for firewood.
I feel better about the cows roaming around my place now that I know they shit firewood.
Yes, the Indians love their cows, and make good use of their cow shit. It isn’t offensive at all and actually has a nice refreshing smell. The pale Hindu tikka on the forehead (applied in worship) is the ash of cow shit. The cow pies are collected daily and applied to walls of huts to dry as small patties the size of a Big Mac. I once saw a naked holy man or Sadhu in West Bengal caked in fresh cow shit. A friend and I once burned dried Bactrian camel turds, which require no preparation. They dry quickly and burn beautifully. All ungulate shit is finely shredded and compressed cellulose — plant fiber. So why doesn’t someone down here in the Sacramento Valley compress the tones of rice straw into fuel for domestic use, rather than burning it out in the rice fields all winter long.
Cow dung contains~7450 btus/lb. Wood (pine) contains 8500 btus/lb. So they are pretty comparable. One warning though:
Be careful picking up dried dung in summer in the southwest USA. Scorpions LOVE to hang out under dried cow patties.