"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
Malcom "Mal" Reynolds wrote:
In article , "Farm1"
wrote:

"Malcom "Mal" Reynolds" wrote in
message

does anyone have an idea of how much protein is typically found in
cow manure?

Sorry, I don't eat cown manure so have never been interested in it's
protein level. I've only ever been interested in the NPK.

heck I don't eat plenty of things, but occasionally I'm curious about
other aspects of food other than it's taste

but thanks anyway

I think Fran's point (she may correct me) is that as a gardener one is not
interested in foodstuffs or their components, like protein, as inputs as
one might in the cases of say stockfeed or your own diet.

finds nearest soapbox
Plants are autotrophs, that is they don't eat, they take in fairly
substances (air, water, minerals etc) and photosynthesise more complex
substances using sunlight energy. Those complex substances may be food
for organisms that do eat (heterotrophs) like cows and us. The inputs we
are interested in, NPK and other elements, are often loosely called "plant
food" which can be confusing in comparison with animal nutrients such as
protein, carbohydrates etc as the two are not similar classes of
substances nor do they have the same role in metabolism. Gardening
terminology is also loose in talking about inputs as elements when to a
chemist none of them are present in the form of elements but as compounds
and molecules.

This leads us to the case of N (nitrogen) as a plant input which is what I
think you were asking about. Although it is four fifths of air plants
cannot absorb N directly as nitrogen gas is a molecule of two atoms (N2)
and that molecule is extremely stable and chemically inaccessible to the
plant. So plants need some help to absorb N. This can be from microbes
that fix nitrogen, such microbes can take in N2 from the air and produce
useable N compounds. Often such are symbiotic with plants as in legumes.
Plants can also get N as compounds as part of synthetic fertilisers,
manures and composts, and from rain during electrical storms. This is why
the N component of manures in its NPK value is of interest not the protein
content.
descends soapbox

If this was not the point of your question ask and I will try again.

:-)) Now that is a far more technical explanation than I'd have given.

But I agree with your summation. IF I ate any of the cow poop I put on my
plants or considered the poop to be human 'food', I might want to know it's
protein content. Or if one or more of our cattle were ill, I may be
interested in protein passed in the animal's faeces. When it comes to cow
poop I use on my plants, however, I am only interested in the NPK of the
poop.

(And I too wondered if the OP really might have meant to ask about the N
content of cow poop. But that was not the question asked even though asking
that question of other gardeners would make sense whereas asking about
protein didn't. Given how many trolls we've had here in the past who knows
what prompted the OP to ask such a question.......)