When a cow takes a bite of grass, it chews it briefly, mixing it with a large amount of saliva. The grass then passes to the rumen, which is a large pouch. Yes the word COW can be expressed in 13 letters. The cow has four stomachs and undergoes a special digestive process to break down the tough and coarse food it eats.
The unchewed food travels to the first two stomachs, the rumen and the reticulum, where it is stored until later. When the cow is full from this eating process, she rests.
One of its four hearts, a branchial heart, pumps blood to the entire body while the other three are considered accessory pumps. They thrive on the bottom of the ocean floor, where oxygen is scarce, scavenging for fish or even dead carcasses to feed on. Grasses and other roughage that cows eat are hard to break down and digest, which is why cows have specialized compartments.
Each compartment has a special function that helps to digest these tough foods. Actually, all animals have just one stomach; it may be divided into parts that perform different digestive functions.
There are no animals with 7 parts to their stomachs. Ruminant stomachs have four compartments: the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. Rumen microbes also produce B vitamins, vitamin K and amino acids. The reproductive tract of a cow is composed of the vulva, vestibule, vagina, cervix, uterus and ovaries. The ovaries, under control of the hormones FSH and LH from the pituitary, mediate events of the reproductive cycle and reproductive tract through secretion of ovarian hormones, estrogens, progesterone and relaxin.
Nov 6. Nov 5. Nov 4. Nov 2. Nov 1. Oct Comments Kasey says:. Lawson McCoy says:. Thank you for the info! Very interesting Reply. The LaViolettes says:. Thank you for the information! We were trying to figure out how a cows digestive system works! Fabian says:. Thanks for the clear explanation. Geen Rao says:. GNRAO says:. Many many thanks to those who breed cows and take good care of them. Krang says:. So…do they have four stomachs or not? Marissa V.
Gaspar says:. Good Short Article and focused on what the title says. Because of this unique oral anatomy, a cow uses its tongue to grasp a clump of grass and then bite it off. Teeth in the back of the mouth known as molars are located on the top and bottom jaws. Plant materials sometimes contain tough stems, but because a cow chews food in a side-to-side motion, the molars shred the grass into small pieces that are more easily digested.
Diagram 1. Diagram 2. Use the letters that label the stomach parts in Diagrams 1 and 2 to identify the similarities and differences between the two stomachs. Notice that the letters do more than identify the structures; they also map the path food travels on its digestive journey. In the cow, rather than having a single pouch, there are four interconnected pouches, each with a unique function.
When a cow first takes a bite of grass, it is chewed very little before it is swallowed. This is a characteristic feature of the digestion in cows. Imagine a large gallon trashcan. In a mature cow, the rumen is about the same size! Its large size allows cows to consume large amounts of grass. After filling up on grass, cows find a place to lie down to more thoroughly chew their food.
The reticulum is directly involved in rumination. See Figure 1 for a close-up look. With a simple stomach, the dog, and even man, cannot digest many plant materials. In fact, millions of tiny organisms mainly bacteria naturally live in the rumen and help the cow by breaking down plant parts that cannot be digested otherwise. These tiny organisms then release nutrients into the rumen.
Some nutrients are absorbed right away; others have to travel to the small intestine before being absorbed.
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