The process of ruminating cattle

Ruminant refers to herbivores in food digestion before the food mass through the rumen back vomit into the mouth, re-chewing and re-swallowing activities, including reverse vomiting, re-chewing, re-mixing saliva and re-swallowing four processes, rumination mainly occurs in mammals Artiodactyla part of herbivorous animals, such as sheep and cattle, let's take a look at cattle ruminate it!

When the cow has finished eating grass or lying down, people will see that the cow's mouth keeps chewing into a food ball and swallowing it again. It takes about 1 to 2 minutes each time. The cow needs about 6 to 8 hours to ruminate every day. Rumination can thin and soften large amounts of forage and pass it faster through the rumen to the later digestive tract, so that cattle can eat more forage.

Ruminants generally eat in a hurry, especially coarse feed, most of which are swallowed into the rumen without sufficient chewing. After soaking and softening in the rumen for a period of time, the food returns to the oral cavity through vomiting, and after rechewing, it is mixed with saliva again and swallowed again into the rumen.

50% of healthy cattle are ruminating. When cattle are sick, overtired and strongly stimulated from outside, rumination behavior can be weakened or completely stopped. Once rumination stops, food remains in rumen, often due to the gas produced by fermentation can not be discharged, which causes rumen swelling.

Cow rumination is due to the special setting of the cow stomach, which is divided into rumen, reticulum, abomasum and abomasum, of which only abomasum is the part that secretes gastric juice. The rumen volume of cattle is 100~300 liters, accounting for about 80% of the four parts of the stomach. There are a large number of microorganisms in the rumen, including protozoa (mainly ciliates) and bacteria. The rumen itself does not secrete enzymes. All enzymes in the rumen are produced by microorganisms. The fiber in the forage is fermented and decomposed under the action of enzymes produced by these microorganisms. Most of the lower fatty acids formed are absorbed by the rumen wall. Reticulum in front of the rumen, against the diaphragm and liver, the inner wall of the reticulum is honeycomb-shaped, the same in the reticulum for microbial digestion.