Cow horn

What role does the cow horn play in biodynamics?

The cow horn is the vessel in which the two field spray preparations mature: horn manure 500 (cow manure, over winter) and horn silica 501 (ground quartz, over summer). Both even carry the horn in their name. The horn is filled, buried in the soil and dug up again months later. The sheath itself is not part of what is applied; in the biodynamic understanding it shapes how its contents mature. This makes the cow horn perhaps the best-known symbol of biodynamic farming.

Why a cow horn?

The reasoning comes from Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course. He saw the horn as an organ that holds back the forces released in the cow's digestion: "In this metabolism, forces are released that are held back by the horns and hooves and returned to the building of the body." In this view the cow does not "radiate" its forces outwards, but holds them back into the organism through its horns and hooves.

According to Steiner, this holding-back quality makes the horn the ideal vessel: if manure is put into the horn and the horn is buried in winter, "the forces released in the metabolic processes are also strengthened and radiated back into the manure". This is the opposite pole to the stag's antler, which according to Steiner gives off forces and is connected with the cosmic surroundings of the Earth. That is why the yarrow preparation 502 uses a stag's bladder rather than a cow horn. This idea comes from Steiner's spiritual-scientific worldview and is presented here as the original concept behind the practice, not as a scientific explanation.

One horn for two opposite poles

It is remarkable that the same organ holds two polar preparations. Horn manure 500 matures in the soil over winter, when in the biodynamic picture the Earth "breathes in" and takes up cosmic forces; it belongs to the moist earthly sphere. Horn silica 501 matures over summer, exposed to the forces of the summer sun; it belongs to the sphere of light. The cow horn is thus the vessel that can hold both poles: earth and light, winter and summer.

Which horns are suitable?

Well-shaped, undamaged horns from cows that have calved several times are used. Such horns can be recognised by their "calving rings": constrictions near the base of the horn that form once milk production starts after a calving, because the horn then grows less in thickness and more in length. A cow horn is relatively heavy and thick-walled, and twists more or less spirally up to its solid tip; the bone core is short and full of cavities.

Horns from bulls and steers are unsuitable: they have no rings, are thin-walled, taper straight and conically to the tip, and their bone core fills almost the whole horn. Boiled, misshapen or damaged horns cannot be used either. Like all preparation sheaths, the horn should stay "in the living state" and not be denatured.

Sourcing and care

Horns should come from local cows kept organically where possible; horns from conventional farms are avoided because the animals are fed and kept differently. If the horns can only be had with the bone core, the core comes away easily after five to fourteen days (in a plastic sack in the sun, under straw or in the compost heap).

Because the number of cows is falling and more and more cows have no horns (genetically polled or dehorned), the hooves of female animals are being tried as a substitute. In unpublished trials (for example by Th. Dewes), they have provisionally proved suitable as well. The hooves are buried in pairs with their openings facing each other.

Reuse

A horn used for horn manure can be used three to five times as long as it is only slightly damaged; badly decayed horns are replaced. For horn silica, a horn is usually used only once. Used horns are hard to break up; placed in the planting hole of a tree or shrub, they are a long-lasting source of food for soil life. The same preparation pit can be used again and again.

Context

The biodynamic tradition often says that each calving ring stands for one calf born. Physiologically, such horn rings are more general markers of phases of physical stress: pregnancy and calving are among them, but so are other stressors. "One ring, one calf" is therefore a traditional reading, not an exact way of counting. Steiner's reasoning for the horn as an organ that holds back forces is a spiritual-scientific concept; the material properties of the horn (keratin, anatomy) can be described factually and independently of it.