Why cows always chew??

Why cows always chew?


   Cows are ruminant animals. That means that they have the so-called four chambered stomach. In actuality, only one of those chambers is actually the stiomach and the others sacs off of the esophagus. 

Grass is an incredibly tough thing to eat because it contains silicon dioxide in it (basically sand) and the cell walls are difficult to process. Most grass-eating species use fermentation to break down the grass.

 Fermentation is the utilization of single-celled organisms like yeasts and bacteria to break down sugars anaerobically (without oxygen). the first chamber of the cow stomach (the rumen) acts as that fermentation tank. The cow chews its food, it enters the rumen and the bacteria take over. Grass being the tough plant that it is does not break down easily, so what the cow will occasionally miz up the contents in the rumen by passing it to the reticulum (the second chamber) and back. When that isn't enough, they regurgitate the food and chew it up some more (called chewing the cud). This breaks the grass particles up further and allows the bacteria more access to the grass to break it down further.

 

When it is sufficiently broken down, it is passed down through the reticulum, through the omasum and into the abomasum (the true stomach) - and then it is pretty normal digestion after that.