Contented Cows Produce Wood Content
How do you go from bovine to bookcase? Turns out cows might be good at turning grass into furniture. Steve Mirsky explains. Reported by Harvey Black.
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We all know what comes out of cows. And I’m not talking about about milk. What I am talking about it so-called “bovine digested solids.” That’s the genteel term used by Jerrold Winandy of the US Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wisconsin. Who has found a new use for brown cow creations. At the recent World Dairy Expo in Madison, he displayed paper and particle board made from bovine digested solids.
Because dairy cows munch on grass, they churn out a lot of cellulose in addition to milk. And, Winandy says, there’s a big industrial demand for wood fiber, which is also made of cellulose. It’s used in inexpensive furniture, like the desk on which your computer may rest.
After the so-called bovine digested solids get further digested by bacteria to convert some of it to methane to run generators, the cellulose fiber remains. Winandy and his colleagues are looking at how well it could combine with wood fiber. A successful mix would reduce the need for wood and earn dairy farmers a much-needed extra buck. Let’s hope the idea doesn’t flop.
—Steve Mirsky, with reporting by Harvey Black
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