How do cows digest their food?

Answer 1

Digestion first starts in the rumen, where feed is fermented and digested by microorganisms. The cow typically likes to swallow her food whole, so the process of fermentation is twofold: one after she initially swallows or eats feed like grass, hay or grain, then again after she regurgitates the partly digested matter, re-chews it to break it down even more, then swallows it again to complete the fermentation (or rumination) process. If she has swallowed any rocks or metal objects along with her food, all that will be moved into the reticulum, where it stays for pretty much the rest of her life. The partly digested matter then moves into the omasum, where the liquid portion of the digesta is absorbed into the many "leaflets" of the omasum chamber. Then it moves on into the "true stomach" or the abomasum, where digestive juices like hydrochloric acid, peptidases and other enzymes are activated to aid in further digestion of the digesta. Nutrients are absorbed through the stomach wall of each of the chambers in the stomach, but most of the nutrients are absorbed through the small intestine into the blood stream. Other organs like the liver, the spleen, and pancreas all aid in the digestion and absorption of the digesta moving through the small intestine. Then it all goes into the large intestine or colon where once again water is absorbed out. The matter is now considered feces, once it gets into the rectum. Then smooth muscle contractions rippling down the colon send the feces out onto the ground where they will decompose into the earth for the plants to use that the cow will eat.