Explain the process of digestion in cattle.


The process of digestion in cattle is known as Rumination which means regurgitating (bring swallowed food again to the mouth) food after a meal and then chewing it over and over and swallowing and digesting it.

Cattles are also known as a ruminant.

 

The word "ruminant" comes from the Latin word 'ruminare', which means "to chew over again".

Ruminants include cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, deer, etc.

 

All these animals have a digestive system that is uniquely different from our own.

Instead of one compartment to the stomach (like humans) they have four. Among the four compartments, the rumen is the largest section and the main digestive centre.

 

Ruminant animals do not completely chew the grass or vegetation they eat. The partially chewed grass goes into the large rumen where it is stored and broken down into balls of “cud”. When the animal has eaten and comes to rest they start “chewing its cud”. Then the cud is swallowed once again where it will pass into the next three compartments—the reticulum, the omasum, and the true stomach, the abomasum.


                        

Updated on: 26-Apr-2023

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