How fast will a cow decompose?

[Alex]

I can't udder believe it how mooving this subject is. You would think something like this was black and white. :spank:

 

[thomasr]

Your being a bit bullish  now pitlamp

 

[blackshiver]

I think he should Mooooove on now.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

When digging at Weston Super Mare Edwardian rubbish tip with an excavator we came across a buried herd of cows. They looked to have been buried in lime or something but the hide had not decomposed at all. Perhaps being buried under sand inhibited decomposition. Anyway it sparked a full crisis anthrax scare but that did not turn out to be the case.

 

[Pitlamp]

Your being a bit bullish  now pitlamp

 

[SamT]

I herd about this thread in the pub and I dont wont no beef like.. but  I think you're  milking it somewhat.

 

[mole02]

We had a number of cow bones/skulls etc in a pit years back.
Figured they may have been dumped in the f&m scare?
Took some time to clear them with all the spoil.
Later digging revealed large lumps of rock hard white fat!
The stench would make you vomit when broken, be warned!

 

[Andyj23UK]

attempting to interject someting usefull .

on the subject of maggots - i suspect that boxes of " ready for fishermenn " maggots bought from a shop will be ineffective - you need to get " fresh hatched " - a lot of fishing shops breed their own - or at least used to - or ask them for contacts for thier supplier

lastly - it occurs to me - that fly egg laying // magot development // activity = quite temperature specific - andvice from an expert might be inorder [ via a uni cave club ??? ] - and if you go with a " maggot based solution " - a test - under controled conditions mimicking the temp etc - and see if your magoots of choice will actually eat at the temp the cow is going to be at

 

[maxf]

How about some vultures ? Apparently without them the world would be a rotting mess according to a documentary I saw recently

 

[Fulk]

I've heard that in some parts of the world vultures are being killed off (by ?Homo sapiens? ? wise man, huh) or dying out because of the activities of Homo sapiens, with disastrous consequences.

 

[Andyj23UK]

How about some vultures ? Apparently without them the world would be a rotting mess according to a documentary I saw recently

f*** to civlity and atempting " useful " posts - lets bring in the fooking hyenas - 5 of them will devor a cow in one meal - who cares that they has rabies and will kill 3 children 34 pets 176 farm animals and a baby

 

[mikem]

I'm assuming this is a vertical shaft, so the hyaenas could only get cavers after the carcass was finished!

Tony suggested selling the meat, but I'm pretty sure you can only give it away without proper records...

 

[Wet Spaniel]

A site we were intending to visit evidently had a cow fall down it a while back. Assuming it's at cave temperature (around 9 degrees C) what's the consensus on how long it'll take to decompose?

Is there anything which might be done to accelerate the decomposition? I've heard a useful method is to pour on a tub of maggots from a fishing tackle shop; has anyone tried this or is it just anecdotal?

Thanks, in anticipation of any information or suggestions.

I?ve used half a pint of maggots from a fishing shop to clean a red stags head, in a matter of weeks they did a cracking job on it leaving literally just the very clean skull.