# Applied Biodynamics — Issue 061 (Summer 2008) **By JPI Admin** · 2025-12-31 _Applied Biodynamics_ Issue 061 (Summer 2008) documents Hugo Erbe’s Cow Stomach Preparation through its historical making method, vineyard use, animal and compost observations, JPI preparation work, and practical application calculations. [**Download Issue 061 PDF**](https://go.jpibd.org/ab-061) ## Hugo Erbe #5: carrying the cow’s digestive forces into the farm organism JPI had produced Hugo Erbe #5 in small quantities for four years using Erbe’s instructions. Immediately after slaughter, the contents of all four cow stomachs are combined with rainwater and a portion of the cow’s blood. After an initial fermentation, [BD 500](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500) and compost preparations [BD 502](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502) ([guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-502)) through [BD 507](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507) ([guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-507)) are added, followed by a further fermentation. For use, a portion is strained and diluted. Erbe recommends it for compost activation, liquid manure improvement, and soil conditioning. Erbe describes the cow’s fourfold stomach as an organ of comprehensive [cosmic alchemy](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-cosmos). In his spiritual-scientific interpretation, the stomach contents carry digestive processes and the blood bears a group-soul relationship; HE #5 then supports the soil’s own “digestion” and becoming. These proposed formative mechanisms are historical biodynamic concepts, not established scientific mechanisms. ## A repeatable vineyard protocol Viticulture consultant Philippe Armenier asked vineyard clients to apply HE #5 early in spring by adding it to BD 500, stirring the two together for one full hour, and spraying the combination on the soil beneath the vines. He reported greener vines and greater dry-summer endurance after earlier separate applications, but the article gives no matched untreated blocks or measurements that would establish causation. This gives growers a practical comparison design: treat one block with the combined HE #5 and BD 500 spray, retain a nearby reference block under the same management, and record application date, weather, soil moisture, shoot color, canopy vigor, and summer endurance at consistent intervals. The issue’s emphasis is active observation across the season, so that each farm develops a reliable picture of the preparation in its own conditions. ## Practitioner observations from field use W. Jason Harris stirred HE #5 by hand in a five-gallon bucket for a full hour, reversing the vortex rhythmically through chaos and re-formation. Using a long-handled whisk brush, he applied the spray to horses, the barn and run-in, cattle, and their gathering area. He recorded the horses settling after four days. The cattle gathered around the bucket, accepted the droplets, then lay down together and remained in place for about three hours and into the evening. Lloyd Nelson reports that he often combines HE #5 with BD 500 and [Biodynamic Compound Preparation (BC)](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc), sometimes adding [Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-spray). On an anaerobic grocery-waste pile covered with larvae, he applied BD 500, BC, and HE #5; the larvae were gone the next day. In another application along a Tennessee fence line, cattle became animated and followed the spray rig in both directions. He also describes HE #5 fermenting beneath a white crust, with active juices bubbling through when the surface was opened—an expressive picture of the preparation’s alchemical transformation. These accounts are field-study starting points rather than controlled proof. Record the exact mixture, stirring time, application method, treated area, weather, animal or compost conditions, and timed observations before and after spraying; include matched untreated comparisons and replication to test whether any response is reproducible. ## Preparation making at JPI Jennifer Greene’s report from JPI’s Fall 2007 workshop presents the Institute as a living landscape of preparation work. Buildings sit along the ridge; one valley holds thousands of horns for BD 500 and X500; another supports dandelion in mesentery, chamomile in intestine, stinging nettle, yarrow in stag bladders, and oak bark in skulls placed in a swale. A quartz outcropping and grove provide the setting for BD 501. Greene describes the finished preparations as moist, fragrant, and alive. Moisture, fragrance, texture, color, storage condition, and microscopy can be recorded as quality observations; “alive” remains her sensory and spiritual interpretation. She highlights JPI’s storage, distribution, staff knowledge, education, and research potential. ## BC, X500, and Prepared 500 Hugh Courtney gives a concise working distinction among three compound approaches: - **BC:** cow manure, basalt powder, ground eggshells, and BD 502–507; it receives a full hour of stirring during preparation and requires a twenty-minute stir before field use. - **X500:** manure pre-stirred before it is placed in the horn; this also reduces the final field stir to twenty minutes. - **Prepared 500:** finished BD 500 with the six compost preparations added; it still receives the full one-hour stir and is introduced after two years of regular BD 500 treatment in the protocol described. For a small garden, Courtney recommends beginning with BC, following with regular BD 500 or X500, cultivating or raking after application to carry the droplets into the soil. [Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-spray) offers another practical route because it combines a high proportion of BD 500 with BD 502–507, needs no stirring, stores simply, and supports repeated applications. ## How to calculate Pfeiffer Compost Starter Each unit of [Pfeiffer Biodynamic Compost Starter](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-compost) treats approximately one to one-and-a-half tons. Courtney works through an 18 × 4 × 3 foot windrow: - 18 × 4 × 3 = 216 cubic feet. - Reduce by one quarter for a triangular or trapezoidal pile: 216 − 54 = 162 cubic feet. - Divide by 27 to convert to cubic yards: 162 ÷ 27 = approximately 6 cubic yards. - Using 1 ton = 1⅓ cubic yards, the pile contains about 4 to 4.5 tons. - Use 3 units of Compost Starter for each pile of that size. ## Goethean observation as living science Christy Korrow’s review of _Extraordinary Plant Qualities for Biodynamics_ by Jochen Bockemühl and Kari Järvinen presents Goethean science as disciplined, participatory observation. The exercises begin with one’s own thinking, feeling, and willing, then move through branch form, landscape mood, habitat, season, scent, growth gesture, medicinal qualities, and the preparation plants in their whole surroundings. The method is learned by doing. Repeated observation can sharpen descriptive attention, while imaginative perception belongs to the book’s Goethean and anthroposophical framework rather than ordinary experimental measurement. Its exercises help practitioners form an independent relationship with the preparations instead of treating them as a fixed collection of techniques. ## Key Topics Covered Hugo Erbe #5 materials, fermentation stages, dilution, historical intended uses, and spiritual-scientific rationale. Early-spring vineyard application with BD 500 and reported vine greenness and dry-weather endurance without matched controls. W. Jason Harris’s animal-area observations and Lloyd Nelson’s compost-pile and fence-line reports. JPI’s preparation-making landscape, sensory quality observations, storage, teaching, and research possibilities. Practical distinctions among Barrel Compound, X500, Prepared 500, and Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray. Exact windrow calculations for Pfeiffer Compost Starter and Goethean observation as a participatory discipline. ## Repeatable Practice 1. Define treatment and matched comparison vineyard blocks, compost piles, livestock areas, or garden plots before application; use randomization where feasible. 2. Record preparation batch, mixture, dose, dilution, stirring time, equipment, area, weather, soil moisture, animal or compost condition, and every co-intervention. 3. Measure fixed outcomes such as vine color, canopy growth, water status, yield, compost temperature, odor, larvae counts, animal position and behavior, microscopy, and soil indicators. 4. Repeat across dates and sites, report unchanged or adverse responses, and distinguish sensory or spiritual interpretations from independently measured effects. ## Explore Related Resources - [Hugo Erbe #5 — Cow Stomach Preparation](https://go.jpibd.org/product-erbe-5) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-erbe-5) - [BD 500 Horn Manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-500) - [Biodynamic Compound Preparation](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bc) - [Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-spray) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-pfeiffer-spray) - [Pfeiffer Biodynamic Compost Starter](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-compost) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-pfeiffer-compost) ## Articles - Insights into Hugo Erbe’s Cow Stomach Preparation  - Extraordinary Plant Qualities for Biodynamics (J. Bockemühl and K. Järvinen; reviewed by C. Korrow)  - Vineyard Consultant Puts Cow Stomach Preparation (Hugo Erbe #5) To Work (H. Courtney)  - The Cow Stomach Preparation (W. Jason Harris; field report by L. Nelson)  - Preparation Making at the Josephine Porter Institute (J. Greene)  - Anecdotes and Antidotes — Biodynamics at Work (H. Courtney)  ## Citation Source: _Applied Biodynamics_, Issue No. 61, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Summer 2008. **Tags:** Applied Biodynamics Archive, Livestock, Orchards and Perennials --- > Source: [The Josephine Porter Institute](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/blogs/applied-biodynamics/applied-biodynamics-issue-061-summer-2008)