What is the word ending in ate that describes what a cow does when it chews the cud?

Answer 1

You are probably searching for the word: Masticate. Cattle, and other ruminants, chew their cud, which is the food that has already been chewed once and then regurgitated to chew again, sometimes multiple times. Mastication breaks down the foods with the mechanical process of chewing to shred and smash, plus enzymatic action from saliva so that as much as possible of the nutrients held in the food is extracted for easier digestion in the stomach(s). This process of chewing and breaking down foods (in cattle, humans, etc.) is called "Mastication".

Fun science with mastication:

For an experiment you can do at home to see first hand how mastication and saliva break down foods into more usable forms for digestion, get a saltine cracker and chew it without swallowing for about one minute. You will notice that what once was a salty starchy flavor has turned into a sweet flavor and it gets sweeter the longer you chew it. That is because the enzymes and mastication process have broken down the carbohydrates (starches and sugars) in the cracker into glucose, a more digestible form of the carbohydrate. Glucose tastes sweet, it is surprising how sweet a cracker can get simply by chewing it.