I know the topic came up awhile back, but SStorch's post about 'sheath material' struck a chord. Before we moved back to the farm, my neighbor ran some of his cows over here. They were old and even once I had my own herd, his insisted on coming 'home' to calve. A few, as they aged, died here. When I could find them, I'd let the fire ants clean up the skulls and I'd haul them to the house. If you've ever handled a cow skull, you know the horn sheath is actually just a loose covering (after the cow doesn't need it anymore). The horn material inside is normally much like a large sponge. When the horn is alive, the sponge is blood-filled and actively moving heat and wastes through the top of the cow's head, but once the horn is dead, the material calcifies and looks like a hardened piece of coral that actually goes the length of the cow's sinus cavity. (Or so it seems to me). My question is, would 4 - 6 horns from these old, wild (and hopefully happy) cows be enough to work with the horn manure? I'd prefer them over anything my vet or a slaughterhouse would provide, I'd think. And, if I asked my neighbors for their dead cow's horns, they'd think I was either doing something highly profitable (artistically), or something involving witchcraft.
