Why are cows’ horns important?

Most breeds of cattle naturally develop horns, which continue to grow throughout their lives and contribute to their overall health. Like our fingers, they represent a cow’s individuality, and are far more than simply an appendix to their heads. They are sense organs which not only have a stream of blood flowing through them, as seen when one is damaged or removed, but also are connected to the sinus system of the cow allowing air to also circulate through the bone. They thus make a subtle but important contribution to the well-being of the cow and to the quality of her digestion and metabolism. And, of course, it is the extraordinarily power of the cow’s digestive system to build farm fertility that is the reason that cow manure is so valued. In biodynamics, we thus perceive a cow’s horns to be of huge functional and spiritual importance – a perspective that comes naturally in countries such as India. This is why we never remove our cows’ horns and this is why we also use the cow’s’ horns to make the horn manure (500) spray preparation. Some evidence suggests that people allergic to milk can safely drink unpasteurised milk from biodynamic horned cattle, click here for the article.

Cattle with horns are more awake and discerning of fodder. Horns … through their unique form have the capacity to prevent the dissipation of vital forces released through the animal’s metabolism. These are instead reflected back, digested once again and incorporated within the animal’s excretory products.

Plaw Hatch newsletter, Milk from horned cattle is more digestible, quoted in Biodynamics in Practice, Tom Petherick, Rudolf Steiner Press, 2010