# Horse Poop vs Cow Poop



## Reiningcatsanddogs (Oct 9, 2014)

Fellow forum members! Got a rather random and strange question for all of you that was formulated while sitting around with friends enjoying a few adult beverages the other night.

Why does cow manure smell so much more pungent than horse poop?
Theoretically, they eat the same things mainly forage and some grains (or in the case of some horses and grass fed cattle, not). 

I know that if you grew up around cow poop that the smell isn’t any more “offensive to the senses” than horse poop but, I always found it to have an intensely sharper smell regardless of the diet fed. 

Is it the differences in the digestive system producing a more acidic poop or is it just psychological on the part of the individual?

Those in the know, please do enlighten!


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

Well, cow poop's a lot wetter. When it becomes the same consistency as horse poop, it doesn't smell much at least to me.

Some people hate the smell of horse poop too, although they are probably smelling old urine, not poop. Which is not a nice smell no matter whose it is. These people are typically wearing city shoes and pretending not to be afraid. 

As you say, bovine and equine digestive processes are entirely different.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

I too live in cattle country. 
One of my neighbors is a dairy farm currently "low" in head count at around 2000 head of milk cows.
These cows are fed "feed" daily. 
Not sure what it is truthfully but a loose granular feed poured out of the bucket of a very large bucket loader into troughs in the pasture.
Right now pasture is just returning so also fed round bales that were wrapped to resemble large marshmallows in size...
The manure out in the field to me is no more offensive than my horses...
What I do notice smells and has odor is where the cows stand often peeing and pooping..._at the round bale locations._
Compressed ground that does not drain and seep as easily with much urine & poop added makes for smell.
Now, when they mound that mushy mess up, slam the windows and catch your breath if the wind blows my homes direction for a hour or so as the ripest, freshest stench abounds...after a few hours of air movement and sunshine applied...no smell or little that I classify as offensive.
But then, my nose is accustomed to my horses poop and urine 200' feet behind my house. When wet and rainy season it _{horse}_can get ripe too. :icon_rolleyes:
When out-of-town family visits, we just close the windows. 
Welcome to the country, leave your offensive to me city "stenchies" behind atmosphere.
:runninghorse2:...
_jmo..._


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## RegalCharm (Jul 24, 2008)

cows have 4 different parts to their stomachs and each compartment does a specialized part in the job of digestion. After the cow patties dry in the sun and air they make good fire material. In the days when people were going west in wagons they would gather the buffalo paddies for camp fires. 

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...78BEB1325ED8130A1D8B78BEB1325ED8130&FORM=VIRE


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## ducky1234 (May 2, 2017)

Great Dane poop was the worst I ever smelled....


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## Hondo (Sep 29, 2014)

I think of horse poop as part of a compost pile. Really. A cows seems to be much more processed beyond the compost stage. Just my thoughts. As fertilizer, horse poop is the gentlest. Chicken manure can burn plants. Cow poop seems to be in between. We used all three in various ways when I was growing up in our garden but the whys are long lost if I ever actually even knew. I just wanted to go play.

I helped milking cows night and morning so was used to cow poop and did not mind. Chicken poop was a feature about every 12 weeks when houses were cleaned and it did reek. I never noticed anything unpleasant about horse poop smell and still don't. I like every smell about a horse. Yes, I think part of that may be psychological.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

When I was a kid growing up in Southern California, I remember Chino being dairy country. OMIGAWD the whole town reeked. But! As my daddy used to say when we passed through, "Hmmmmmm, I smell MONEY!". So now I just remind myself that it all smells like money and it's not so bad. So yeah, I vote for the psych component too.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Well, if you have spent time milking cows I can't assure you that you soon get use to the smell and, at times the taste! 

The fact that cow poop is always loose cannot be because of them having four stomachs because sheep, deer and many other ruminants have firm pebbles. 

Sheep poop has a very pungent odour. You don't smell it unless they are gathered together as they spread their poop. 

What a subject - poop first thing on a Sunday morning! LOL


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

I don't know about poop but I do know that I love the smell of horse breath and think that cows breath stinks.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

Some of it is the feed that is given too. When cattle are kept just on grass it is not as bad, but still stinky! Must be related to the different digestive process. 

As we all know, horse poo doesn't stink no matter what those city folk think  

However, horse poo does have a stinky cow odor when the horses are fed cattle feed. Recently got in a skinny mare and she stunk badly for two days. Today, not so bad and she is passing actual manure balls instead of sloppy cow-type smelly stuff. 

As mentioned above, horse manure is gentle to the crops, but not as gentle as the pelleted mammals like rabbits and goats. I think it is the small size of the pebbles that make it the easiest on crop land. 

The original feed 'n seed fertilizer :rofl:


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## JoBlueQuarter (Jan 20, 2017)

Honestly, I love both smells! I love the smell of cows in general, so I've never had any problems, but yes, cow poop is a bit more pungent, probably because like someone said, it's not 'hard' like horses'.


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## Dustbunny (Oct 22, 2012)

LOL How many adult beverages?????
My guess would be digestion. All I really know is that I hate to step in it...and best to keep the dog from rolling in it.


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## Reiningcatsanddogs (Oct 9, 2014)

Dustbunny said:


> LOL How many adult beverages?????
> My guess would be digestion. All I really know is that I hate to step in it...and best to keep the dog from rolling in it.


LOL. Enough that we were sitting around positing questions about poop!


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## Hondo (Sep 29, 2014)

There is fresh cow poop and old dried out cow poop. I will have to admit that back when I was living in the city, anytime I was driving out in the country and went by a barn that had cows I inhaled deeply and loved the smell. It reminded me of where I was raised and where I wanted to be.

Now I'm gentling three cows coming fresh soon and they are now sticking their noses right up in my face sniffing and I haven't smelled any bad breadth at all.

I did "cut my foot" big time once this morning.

Anybody on here know what "cutting your foot" means and where it came from?


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

Hondo said:


> Anybody on here know what "cutting your foot" means and where it came from?


2 thoughts on this one. #1 - less embarrassing to say you cut your foot than to say you were so dim you stepped in cow poo (being the flop is usually pretty good sized, hard not to see) and #2 - Because it contains ammonia (an antibacterial) it has been used as a poultice for injuries, cut foot, athlete's foot. Not sure where it originated though.


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## Hondo (Sep 29, 2014)

This is an old 'sayin' in NW Arkansas where I was raised. And here's the story as it was related to me several years, make that many many years, ago.

And to really get the full meaning out of the story, one has to have experienced stepping in a fresh warm pile while barefoot.

So as the story goes, someone was going barefoot when they stepped in one of these warm piles and someone said something like, "Hey watch out! You stepped in a cow pile!"

To which the 'stepper' is said to have replied, "Thank goodness! I thought I had cut my foot and was bleeding to death!"

Not sure, but maybe there was some moonshine involved. Don't know. But it was common for someone to see a person with a 'soiled' shoe and comment, "Looks like you cut your foot".

Sorry, but hey, what can you expect from a horseforum thread about cow poo?


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

When you're a farm kid, stomping on fresh cow patties barefoot is considered a form of entertainment.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I did evening milking for a farmer friend. 
He had a cow that came in with a very swollen face, vet couldn't find a reason and it was thought to be an added bite. This is very rarely ever fatal to a cow and very unusual for one to get bitten. 
Said cow was shut in a stable and the swelling got a lot worse over 48 hours. Whilst I was milkimgmshe went berserk, smashed out the stable, through a metal gate into the cow yard, went through the cows waiting to be milked amd through two rails into the slurry pit. (A drop of about 6 feet)

It ended up with Ron, the farmer and me swimming across the slurry to the cow and roping her whilst Jill, his wife, hauled her out with the tractor. The cow died about an hour later. She had a massive tumour in her brain. 

I swear I stank of cow poop for days and took longer to get rid of the taste!


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## Samson5261 (Jul 25, 2013)

I love the smell of cow poop lol. I remember when my grandparents had their little farm they would pay us to go catch worms under the patties to use for fishing. The dry ones where easy to just flip over and grab em, but we use to dare each other to try to flip fresh ones up. We almost always ended up coming back covered in cow poop and grandma would hose us off before being aloud back in her house!
@Hondo I actually live in NW Arkansas and have never heard that but I am going to have to ask my grandma about that


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I don't know why but the thought came to me after writing the above, that I have been more buried in cow poop than horse poop amd considering I was dealing with horses way way more than cattle it says something!

Out hunting we were charging through a farmyard when the horse I was riding dropped dead. He staggered for a couple of strides and then went down - fortunately it was by the muck heap in which we both landed. All was way more liquid than a horse manure heap. 

Another time was after I had been to a horse show. I had taken a farming neighbour's two children with me and on returning them home as we drove in to their place I saw a cow on the calving box was well under way. 

John went and checked and she was in trouble, BIG calf. 

We got her outside into the crush. It was summer, there was a water shortage and hosepipe usage was banned so the cow yard was pretty messy. The crush was alongside the cow yard. 

John roped the calf and put the brace on her. The cow went down, he had the nose and front legs out the cow and was at the end of the brace. I moved the ropes to above the calf's knees this meant joining John sitting behind the cow. Eventually a very big bull calf came away from the cow. 
There had been much cussing and yelling from John but cow and calf were fine. 

John would get in a temper when he was worried and even after the calf was born he was moaning at his wife and children. Chris, (wife) and even though she had been at the front end getting calcium onto the cow, she was covered. John was plastered and I knew I was too. 

John ranting and wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, just spread all sorts of mess further. That was it, I started to laugh, the kids and Chris did too which made John rant more which made me laugh harder. 

Eventually he gave up ranking and asked what was funny. I told him to look at me and realise he too was covered in poop. Only then did he see the funny side.


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## Hondo (Sep 29, 2014)

Samson5261 said:


> @Hondo I actually live in NW Arkansas and have never heard that but I am going to have to ask my grandma about that


Could have been a local story. I lived in the NW corner of the NW county, Benton County, about 10 miles from Bentonville, Walmarts headquarters.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I had to deliver a filly we had started to the race trainer. I arrived at lunch time and there was no one around. I walked past the back of the stables towards the house and as I passed the muck heap I was astounded to see a human head on the heap - it was alive, just buried up to hos neck in manure. 
I asked what the heck was going on. 
The lad was very new to racing, he wasn't very Street wise either. He couldn't really even ride but the lads had told him that they had heard the governor talking and saying that if this lad weighed 90lbs he would give him a ride in an apprentice race. 
The lad weighed just over so they told him the best and cheapest way to sweat of the pounds was to be buried in the muck heap, hence the head! 

I asked the trainer about him and was told that he couldn't even canter yet!


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

Pigs. You really have not lived until you've tried to carry two 5 gallon buckets of slops across the concrete floor of a pig sty while being mobbed by two combined litters of weaner pigs. 

What I did every morning when I lived on a Cape Breton farm the summer I was 17. Floor was very slippery with . . .


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## Samson5261 (Jul 25, 2013)

Hondo said:


> Samson5261 said:
> 
> 
> > @Hondo I actually live in NW Arkansas and have never heard that but I am going to have to ask my grandma about that
> ...


That's the same area I live in and it could be I had heard it when I was younger and just don't remember lol.


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