Horn manure 500 or the horn dung or cow dung preparation as some call it is the one preparation that those with only a passing interest in or awareness of Biodynamics seem to have heard of. Horn manure may even be considered the nursery-slope biodynamic preparation, because having mastered how to make it – bury a cow horn filled with cow manure for six months over winter then dig it up and extract the manure from the horn – and understood why it is used and how it is used in the way that it is, the rest of biodynamic theory and practice no longer seems quite so impenetrable.

To others horn manure is an enigma. To my knowledge, science has yet to explain why cow manure stuffed into cow horns and interred from autumn to spring transforms into dark, humus-rich material which is pH neutral and endowed with especially high levels of microbial life. Steiner called this preparation the ‘spiritual manure’ and implied that science would only discover why horn manure exists not simply by analysing the chemistry or biology of the cow, her manure, her horns, the soil around the pit or the pit itself but by looking at how horn manure in particular and biodynamics in general was ‘always conceived out of the totality’, meaning a combination of both physical substances and what he called etheric formative or ‘life’ forces. Hence giving the land horn manure 500 was akin to giving it a concentrated manuring force (see scientific substance versus spiritual force).

Why cow manure?: Of all the animal manures, that from the cow appears unrivalled in the powerful yet efficient way it stimulates soil fertility, plant growth and thus life. From a biodynamic perspective, manure is not simply vegetable matter that has broken down whilst passing through an animal’s digestive system but vegetable matter which has also been impregnated with an animal’s metabolic forces. Digestion releases energy as both intangible forces and tangible substances to nourish both the spiritual and physical body. Animals have no need, however, of the forces which human beings must develop in order to attain self-consciousness – as sentient beings we know we are going to die, but cows appear to be unaware their lives are finite – and they therefore release those unused forces.8 In the case of the stag, for example, these metabolic forces are released via its antlers (see yarrow 502). In the cow, however, these forces are withheld by the retaining effect of the cow’s horns and hooves. ‘If you could crawl around inside the living body of a cow … right inside the cow’s belly, you would be able to smell how living astrality streams inward from the horns. And with the hoofs, it is similar,’ said Steiner.

Steiner said that by burying the manure in the horn the life (etheric) and soul (astral) forces already present in the manure can be further enlivened by the presence of the surrounding earth. Doing this in winter is quite deliberate. Winter is when the earth recharges itself on a substance level – think about all the potential for growth, visible only in summer, stored underground during winter in roots or seeds. Winter is also the moment when the earth recharges itself on a forces level by breathing in life-giving formative forces from the cosmic environment, which Steiner said play a formative role in shaping all living things. Silica crystals form in worm galleries, showing the earth’s desire to become crystalline and how it is most inwardly alive in winter. This crystallizing process enables these life-giving formative forces streaming in from the celestial sphere to radiate into the horn manure 500. The aim with horn manure 500 is to create something capable of impacting on the earthy, mineral component of the soil rather than on the soil’s watery part which is the only part that water-soluble mineral or ‘chemical’ fertilizers are capable of reaching. Thus horn manure 500 is not fertilizer per se but provides a highly concentrated, life-giving, fertilizing force. It contains unusually high levels of enzymes, organisms which act like a living oil for the biological wheels of life. When you think of manure horns lying underground you can imagine them as being like giant worm castings whose role is soil rejuvenation.

Horn manure 500 and the lime–silica polarity: Horn manure 500 is one of two biodynamic preparations made by using a female cow horn as a sheath, the other being horn silica 501 (discussed below). Both horn preparations are intended to enhance the ability of soil and crops to receive and actualize planetary forces in particular as well as cosmic forces in general. The two horn preparations can be seen as equals and opposites, especially since Steiner said that the oxides of calcium and silicon (lime and silica) represented the two opposite poles of life chemistry.

Horn manure 500 supports what Steiner called the earthy or lime/calcium principle, while horn silica 501 supports the opposite cosmic or silica principle. Horn manure 500 works with the etheric or life-force energy of the earth itself, and comes to expression in the growth of the plant, working on the plant ‘directly’ and in a ‘building-up’ way below ground, mobilizing the roots and stimulating humus formation, allowing the forces of the nearer planets (Moon, Mercury and Venus) to help plants grow and reproduce. Balance comes with horn silica 501, which ensures that whatever is produced in the way of crops is ripe, tasty and healthful.

Lovel calls horn manure 500 the quintessential humus, the basis for intelligence and self-awareness, a central nervous system for the farm organism; the horn silica 501 then provides the sensory organs so that this self-awareness can be expressed and the farm manifests its own farm individuality. In wine-speak this means that each biodynamic vine, in fact each biodynamic grape, should be capable of expressing its own micro-terroir via its wine. This contrasts with our normal approach of seeing terroir expression as collective, a ‘whole vineyard rather than individual grape or vine’ thing. François Bouchet told me horn manure 500 ‘is what allows to vines create their own sense of self and self-expression, their moi [me-ness] if you like, by expressing themselves vertically downwards underground via their roots. It is the very basis of the concept of biodynamic terroir.’

Peter Proctor says that by improving both structure and humus levels in soil the horn manure 500 helps increase the soil’s water-holding capacity by making it more permeable and humic, and balancing soil pH by lowering it in alkaline soils and raising it in acid soils. The soil, whether dominated by clay or peat, will in time take on the same crumb structure, he says, so wherever one is in the world one should be able to tell if horn manure 500 is being used or not. Horn manure 500 helps vine roots grow longer, deeper, thicker and more spread out, breaking up hard pans, and allowing improved nutrient uptake and resistance to climatic stress, especially drought. Plant sap circulates more regularly, aiding primary shoot development. Horn manure 500 also attracts and stimulates beneficial soil micro-organisms like earthworms, azotobacter, bacteria and fungi, for example. Rhizobacter, bacteria which attach themselves to soil roots, become more active in soils where horn manure is being used, bringing increased nodulation in clovers, beans, peas and other legumes, and stimulating the germination of seeds like cover crops. Horn manure 500 helps regulate levels of lime and nitrogen in the soil, halting winter decomposition when used in spring, stimulating the release of trace elements just when the vines need them most. Horn manure 500 seems to work quickest in soils which are nearly permanently warm, says Proctor.

All of the above changes that horn manure 500 engenders in soil can be linked to the increased levels of oxygen it promotes. As Richard Thornton Smith points out, oxygen is a key part of alumino-silicate minerals, better known as clays. On a physical substances level, oxygen plays a role in maintaining soil friability by aiding drainage, worm activity and plant root development. On an intangible forces level,

oxygen allows formative forces which stream in from the celestial sphere and which are breathed in daily (afternoon) and seasonally (autumn– winter) to shape and form plants. Oxygen will account for at least 90 per cent of the volume of soil solids, clays and humus due to the large amounts of internal space in their layered structures. Formative forces drawn into the structures of humus and clay bathe nutrients which, when the earth breathes out daily (morning) and seasonally (spring– summer) allows these substances to be carried into crop plants and thus into our food. ‘By having a distinct biography these nutrient ions will have a different quality [author’s italics] from those deriving from NPK fertilizer,’ Thorton Smith concludes.

Making horn manure 500: When choosing the horns, Steiner suggested it was ‘best to use horns from your own locality. There is a very strong kinship between the forces present in the cow horns of a given area and the other forces at work in that area; the forces of the foreign [non-local] horns may conflict with the local forces of the Earth.’

The horns should come from female cows which have had a number of calves, as seen by calving rings. These are formed when active lactation starts after calving and a constriction develops at the base of the mother cow’s horn. This constriction continues to grow in length rather than in width, and calving rings develop.

Cow horns which still contain their bony inner core can be hung in sunny shade for a week until the core comes away before being discarded. Cow horns are relatively heavy, thick walled and slender in form, and are hollow only about two thirds of the way to their tips. Brinton concluded that the bigger the weight:volume ratio of the horn used in making horn manure 500 and horn silica 501, the better the quality of the preparation. Perhaps this is why Steiner said that bull horns were not suitable. Unlike cow horns, bull horns show no spirals, are conical in shape, thinner, ringless, larger in diameter and hollow all the way to the tips. Cow horns, in contrast, show some degree of spiralling right to the tip and their vortical shape suggests an ideal geometry for focusing the living energies of the earth on manure placed inside.

For the manure, collect fresh cow pats in autumn directly from the pasture before the animals are moved inside for winter. Ideally the cow pats will be firm, well-shaped (having a spiral form), and without straw, and from animals fed sufficient roughage by grazing on pasture or on a clover/grass mixture supplemented with hay and straw. Silage or beet leaf feeding is not recommended. The manure should come from your own land. Biodynamic cows never have their horns removed while alive and eat only a vegetarian diet. The manure can be put into the horns fresh, on the day it is collected, or may be kept for up to two days (frost free) before being used. Manure can be stuffed into the horns by hand, with the help of a wooden spatula or dowel. Banging the horns every so often during filling helps the manure to reach right to the end of the available space.

The filled horns should be buried in a pit up to 75 centimetres deep. As horn manure 500 will take on some of the characteristics of the earth in which it is buried, the soil must be neither too clayey or too sandy.22 The middle of a rich pasture treated with the biodynamic preparations for some time in which cows graze is ideal. The same pit can be used over and over again.

Bury the horns with the wide opening lower than the tip, to prevent rainwater seeping in. Pack the soil around each horn, burying them in layers if need be, so that every horn is surrounded by earth. There is no limit to how many horns can be buried in a single pit, as long as all the horns are covered by 30 to 45 centimetres of soil. Each horn should be fully in contact with the surrounding earth so the horns should not touch each other.

The filled horns are usually buried at autumn equinox and dug up at spring equinox six months later. The horns thus remain buried during the entire winter, the season when the earth’s forces are inwardly directed (centripetal), as Steiner indicated. Ideally this ‘earth remedy’ is buried in the afternoon and under a descending moon, and for those following the sidereal moon as well when this stands in a root/earth constellation: Virgin in the northern hemisphere and either Goat or Bull in the southern hemisphere.

When the horns are dug up six months later their contents should be dark brown to brownish black in colour, supple, colloidal and elastic in texture,23 and smelling pleasantly of humus. If the material inside is still wet, green and smells of manure, put the horns back in the ground for a few more weeks. If the colour is still greenish – due perhaps to water seeping into the filled horn – but the smell is right the most likely problem is a lack of air. The manure from such a horn will usually, if emptied and exposed to air for as little as twenty-four hours, acquire a more acceptable colour.24 Horn manure 500 should always smell the same wherever in the world it is made, says Proctor, if one remembers that it is the bacteria, the life of the preparation, that give the smell.

Scrape away the earth from the outside of the horn before gently knocking the contents out to avoid inadvertently mixing the two. A wooden spatula can help dislodge the horn’s contents. Steiner said horns for horn manure 500 ‘lose their forces after having been used three or four times’.25 Between fillings, store them in the cow barn for the six months when they are not in use, ideally in a string sack which allows air to get to them. Chipped, damaged or rotten horns should be disposed of. As used horns are extremely difficult to break up they are usually buried beneath newly planted trees or shrubs, providing them with a long-term source of nitrogen.

Storing horn manure 500: Horn manure 500 is normally kept in glazed earthenware jars placed in a wooden box lined with peat and stored in a dark, cool, frost-free place. The lid of the jar should be loose fitting as this preparation needs to breathe.

Fresh horn manure 500 should be made every year, although well-stored horn manure 500 which maintains a level of moisture will last up to three years. Small amounts left over from the previous year may be mixed in with fresh material.

Using horn manure 500: A useful rule of thumb is that the contents of one horn are enough for one hectare of vines per year, otherwise a figure of 30 to120 grams per spray is normal. Demeter’s biodynamic standards suggest a total of 300 grams per hectare per year.

The water: The preparation is diluted in 25 to 120 litres of water, the exact volume depending on how much water is available, what kind of spray apparatus is being used to diffuse it and how much land there is to cover. Lower volumes of spray per hectare are usual on larger estates to save time and make handling easier.

Stirring: The water is dynamized for one hour (see Chapter 4). Pierre Masson suggests stirring is best done in open air and light, in an area with good acoustics. Crumbling the required dose of horn manure 500 in a small bucket of water before pouring it into the stirring vessel ensures it is thoroughly mixed, and avoids lumps of this preparation falling to the bottom where they will be neither stirred nor mixed.

Steiner suggested using warm water when stirring horn manure 500, warm meaning no warmer than the temperature of human blood (around 37C). The water should be warmed gently to the correct temperature by heating, rather than by adding boiled water to colder water, because water hotter than 37oC loses its ability to assimilate and transmit life forces.28 However, those who prefer cold water argue that the warmer the water becomes, the less able it is to absorb the oxygen which carries the life forces present in horn manure 500 onto the farm.29

Passing the dynamized horn manure 500 through a tea strainer on its way to the spray tank reduces the risk that any lumps or undigested grass seeds will enter spray apparatus where they might block the nozzles. Time unblocking nozzles is problematic, because once stirred the dynamized spray should be applied within four hours at the absolute maximum. It should be dripped onto the soil in the form of large droplets rather than as a fine spray which is the case with horn silica 501. Horn manure 500 can be mixed with some other soil sprays, notably stinging nettle liquid manure. When spraying by tractor, Pierre Masson suggests avoiding piston pumps, whose jerky return movements disturb the dynamized liquid, in favour of an electric diaphragm pump connected to the tractor battery. Attaching a speed regulator and manometer controls pressure and flow, he says.

When to spray: The prevailing weather and the moisture level of the soil are the two major practical factors determining when horn manure 500 is sprayed, and a far more relevant guide as to when to spray it than the lunar calendar. Aim to spray it on an overcast afternoon with little or no wind, and on soil which is moist but neither wet, frozen or likely to be heavily rained on immediately afterwards, and which has recently been or is about to be ploughed. In hot climates it can be sprayed in late evening, when the soil is warm but when the air is not so hot as to cause the preparation to evaporate before it reaches the ground.

As well as breathing in and out seasonally – in autumn and spring respectively – the earth breathes in and out on a daily basis too, exhaling in the morning and inhaling again in the evening.31 This is a breathing in of forces rather than of air. The physical manifestation of this is the falling dew. Poppen says that the forces the manure acquired in the horn are transferred to the dew (if present) via the water it was stirred in.32 Biodynamic growers report that there is often a marked increase in the dew the morning after an application of horn manure 500 anyway.

As the beneficial effect of horn manure 500 is enhanced by spraying it during the ‘autumn’ of the day, it is common practice to spray it in the autumn of the year too, as soon as possible after harvest, as both the seasonal and daily movement of the sun’s arc in the sky becomes ever downward as the earth inhales. For this reason spraying when the moon is descending, and therefore in its autumn–winter phase, makes added sense. Growers will also try to spray horn manure 500 when the sidereal moon stands either in the root/earth constellations (Virgin in the northern hemisphere, and Bull or Goat in the southern hemisphere) or in the fruit–seed/warmth constellations (Ram in the southern hemisphere, Lion in the northern hemisphere, or Archer in either hemisphere).

Peter Proctor recommends spraying horn manure 500 during a descending moon phase one to two days before moon opposition Saturn (see  moon opposition Saturn). Andrew Lorand sprays horn manure 500 during the first three or four months of the growing season, from spring equinox to summer solstice, targeting the fourteen-day periods before the full moon when nature forces favour reproduction and growth which this preparation enhances. Its use is therefore essential when new vineyards are being prepared and planted. Lorand’s timing does allow wider windows of lunar opportunity for spraying compared to Maria Thun’s indications to follow the sidereal cycle, albeit with a greater risk of spraying horn manure 500 in hot midsummer conditions when both the air and soil will be dry (see p.33 for Lorand’s views on when horn silica 501 should be sprayed).

Spraying horn manure 500 at least once is the bare minimum for a Demeter-certified biodynamic farm. Two or three annual applications are usual, one or two in autumn and a final one in late winter or early spring, before the earth begins to exhale once the sun’s arc begins to widen and horn silica 501 becomes the horn spray of choice. Horn manure 500 can be sprayed intensively in the first few years of conversion to biodynamics. [Jan Erbach of the Pian dell’Orino winery in Montalcino sprays Horn manure 500 by hand using a back sprayer. ‘I spray it rhythmically and in a figure of eight and it is important that the person who is spraying gets into this rhythm. On a practical level spraing this way also ensures the Horn manure spray gets right under the vines and around the vine trunks, rather than just being sprayed only on the middle of the row,’ he says.]

Rudolf Steiner was clear that spraying horn manure 500 was not to be seen as a substitute for spreading compost but as a means of enhancing the effect compost has on the land.

Horn manure 500 soil spray in brief:

  • Made from cow manure
  • stimulates soil activity
  • promotes root growth
  • activates the soil’s own life
  • supports soil loosening
  • supports water and nutrient absorption
  • promotes nitrogen fixation of the nodule bacteria

Bibliography

L’Agriculture Bio-Dynamique (Deux Versants, Paris, 2003) by François Bouchet