I’m sure you have wondered how in the world cows digest all of those crazy things they eat. Well it’s actually a pretty cool story because cows have an amazing stomach. Well actually, they have four compartments to their stomach!
Holstein and Jersey dairy heifers out on the spring pasture.
The rumen is the first compartment that food goes into and it’s also the largest compartment. Before the food can leave here, it has to be a maximum size. If you see a cow “chewing her bubble gum”, she’s actually chewing what we call cud. This cud is pieces of her feed that didn’t get chewed into small enough pieces to move to her next compartment. A cow can regurgitate those longer pieces and chew them more and send them back down into the rumen to move on.
The reticulum is the second compartment and it’s is the smallest. The reticulum is actually known as the honeycomb because it has a raised honeycomb pattern on the outside of the wall.
Omasum is the third compartment a cow has. The purpose is to take some of the water and nutrients out of the feed that has made it to this point. The nutrients are the most digestible and are the easiest to extract. It’s called many plies because it has so many grooves and creases to increase surface area and absorption.
The “true stomach” is known as the abomasum. It is the true stomach because it functions similarly to the human stomach. It finishes breaking down the feed and then sends it onto the small intestine to get absorbed.
This blog is very informative. I think it is good especially for younger people that could be considering an ag career. Some of the jobs available in the dairy profession are very advanced and interesting in comparison to the average job, and students should have available more articles of this type.
I absolutely agree that there are so many opportunities in dairy and in agriculture in general. So many youth in agriculture don’t see there being a future in the industry, which is not true at all. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!