You could say Kevin Floate really knows his, er, stuff..The Lethbridge-based researcher for Agriculture Canada published what is considered a landmark work on something most Prairie dwellers know all too well, if they’ve ever stepped in one..In Western Canada they’re called cow chips, to pie and pats. Now Cow Patty Critters: An Introduction to the Ecology, Biology and Identification of Insects in Cattle Dung on the Canadian Prairies, has it covered, so to speak.. Cow patty coverNew book explores ecology of cow patty culture. .The graphically illustrated 224-page opus illuminates the host of various coprophilous (‘dung-loving’ is the literal translation) insects found in BFM and their role in the ecology typified by the cow pasture — both beneficial and harmful — in language intended for the lay person. .The acronym ‘BFM’ — or ‘bovine fecal matter’ — is defined by the Urban Dictonary as ”a lovely way to say ‘bullsh*t’.”.The guide exhaustively covers more than 300 species of insects on Canadian pastures. Some have beneficial impacts that help break down manure and nutrients to the soil while others are pests, including wasps, that can spread diseases to both livestock and people..In the foreword, Floate said he’d wondered what the biological function of cow manure was and its significance in food chains..In it, Floate hopes to find ways of maximizing the benefits to farmers and ranchers while avoiding some of the pitfalls. Identifying those ‘critters’ can also lead to broad assessments of overall herd health..“My first question was ’What is that?‘ My second question was ’What does it do?’”.He complained most available information was focused on relatively few insects — dung beetles, mainly — and relied on line drawings and sketchy black and white photos to illustrate them. Another problem is the term ‘dung beetle’ is a broadly generic term that varies from region to region and applies to multiple species.. Varieties of dung beetles‘Dung beetle’ can refer to dozens of different species, says new book. .A dung beetle in Africa is not the same as one in Canada, for example, and could refer to any one of dozens of species in Canada, the US or anywhere else..“With this in mind, I undertook to write a guide that would serve as a ‘doorway’ through which readers could pass to learn more about the cow dung community. I set out to include a range of topics of interest to farmers and ranchers, but also to students wishing to pursue further study of dung-breeding insects,” he wrote. .“I took pains to include high-quality colour photographs to showcase the diversity and beauty of these insects, and I included an extensive list of references.”.Floate said he hopes his book will form the basis of a more exhaustive study of the insects, not just in Canada but also the US as well. “It it is my hope for the future that someone will undertake to expand its contents to make the guide equally useful throughout North America,” he said..The book is available as a free digital E-Pub on the www.agriculture.Canada.ca website.
