Do you eat like a cow? Why do cows eat all day?
Cows are mammals which are unique group of animals that feed their young milk. They are also herbivores which are a group of animals that naturally eat only plant products such as grass.
As grass has a very low dry matter content (what is left after all the water is taken out), cows have to consume enormous amounts in order to obtain enough food. Lactating cows will consume approximately 100 kg of fresh grass each day (that is 30 tonnes of grass or approximately 52 spud boxes each per milking season!) and due to the relatively low digestibility of grass, cows or all herbivores need a special digestive system. All plant cells contain cellulose in the cell walls which is indigestible and must be broken down before it can be absorbed along with all the other soluble nutrients contained within these cells.
Cows have four stomachs, three more than us?
Why? Cows need to be able to digest large amounts of food and this occurs through the microbial digestion of plant cells. A cow has approximately 500 trillion (5,000,000,000) bacteria in their stomachs. The first three stomachs are alkaline (high pH), only the fourth stomach is like our stomach (low pH ) and is used to digest the bacteria which in turn has digested the grass. The first three are called the rumen (primary fermentation), reticulum and the omasum. The fourth stomach (acid digestion) is called the abomasum.
How often does a cow chew in one day?
40,000 - 60,000 times! Why? To assist the microbial digestion of grass, chewing increases the surface area of the grasses and ruptures some of the plant cells. Cows (and herbivores) have special teeth and a jaw designed for grinding grass. Cows also produce a huge amount of methane due to the by-products produced by bacteria.