Dairy cattle basics: Part 3
Apr 27, 2020
3 minutes
Dairy cows are ruminants, and thus have a unique digestive system that can utilise forage, such as hay, silage, pastures or straw, as well as concentrated feeds, such as grains or protein sources (fishmeal, cottonseed oilcake meal, or soya bean meal, for example). The ruminant stomach consists of four compartments: the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum.
The rumen, which comprises about 80% of the stomach, has a capacity of about 160l. It is basically a large fermentation vat and contains billions of bacteria, protozoa and
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