Why do cattle chew their cud? What is cud? Are they born knowing how to do it? What triggers this response? For us humans with our simple stomachs, it can be a little hard to understand what goes on in the digestive system of a ruminant animal. You may have thought about these questions – and others – before, but it may have been hard to find clear answers. Let us spend some time talking about cattle and their cud! First of all, we know that cattle are ruminant animals. This is commonly described as having four stomachs, but that is not entirely accurate. It is more like they have a four-compartment stomach. Each compartment has a different job, looks different, and is a slightly different size. This impacts what kinds of foods they can eat, and the amount of nutrients they can get from that food. The four compartments of a ruminant stomach are the reticulum, rumen, omasum, and abomasum. Food will first be chewed, then sent down the oesophagus (like in monogastric animals like us
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