Digestion by the cow
The compartments in the ruminant stomach and intestines combine to create a large factory that breaks down (digests) feed into substances that can be absorbed into the bloodstream. The entrance to this factory is the cow’s muzzle where the chewing movement grinds the plant material and moistens it with saliva. Waste and undigested feed components are excreted by the cow via the manure.
In between the entrance and exit are the rumen and the other compartments of a cow’s stomach and the intestines. The ruminant forestomachs (reticulum, rumen, and omasum), small intestine and large intestine each have their own, unique task in the digestive process. In order to assess the quality of the silage, knowledge of the functioning of the rumen is very important. The feed is predigested in the rumen. The majority of the feed is converted by microbial predigestion into substances that can be easily absorbed by the cow, so-called rumen degradable substances. The components that pass through the rumen in undigested state are referred to as rumen undegradable.
