wood of cow

[corndog-44]

While growing up on the farm I built some campfires for both cooking and heating with wood of cow. Better known as buffalo chips or cattle chips. They must be kept dry, because if it gets wet it's no longer chips and won't burn.

[FVR]

Alot of documentation of this type of fire on the plains in the 1800's with the western expansion.

Buffalo, cow, horse, heck, most of their diet is grass. From what I've read, the fires did not stink, burned quite well, just don't throw that steak on the coals.LOL.

[NorthWindTrails]

Interesting aside ... in India after British rule, the government there was concerned with the fact that population growth had almost completely outstripped the fuel supply (in this case, wood for cooking/heating). The Brahmas there are considered sacred, so they don't eat them. But they burned the dung for the purpose (they call it Gobar). Problem was the people using these fires were going blind from the elements in the smoke. This led to the development of capturing methane from the dung instead of burning it. It even makes a great fertilizer after the methane has been produced! The magazine Mother Earth News ran a series of articles on the subject years ago. Google "methane production" and see what you find. I'm sure the use of cow chips would be good temporarily, but I'd be looking for somthing safer for long term use. Thanks for the heads-up, corndog, on a good "Emergency" heat source! NorthWind

[TrappinGal]

i know of one person whoowns a ranch in Wyoming who actually allows them to "cure" then burns them for heat. i was surprised that they didnt smell as i thought they would.

they burned em in a regular old wood stove.

[crashdive123]

The dried "chips" of any grass feeder can be used as fuel on the fire.

[Sourdough]

:rolleyes:To a woodstove these "chips" are fast food. Or maybe "past" food....:rolleyes:

[TrappinGal]

lol,they work real well when starting a fire to get it going. kinda like corncobs.

did i mention he has 7000 + steers and heifers? lol so he has alot of chips available to him.

[Rick]

He could also use the manure from the barn and convert it to methane to run the farm and still use the chips from the field. Now that would be a win/win all the way around.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/26/methane_digester/