Name the four stomachs in cattle

Grass eating animals are called ruminant animals. Example – cow. They have special stomach to digest cellulose present in the grass. Their stomach is large and is divided into four compartments.

1. Rumen:
2. Omasum 
3. Abomasum
4. Reticulum

   Rumen is the first and the biggest compartment of a cow’s stomach. It contains cellulose digesting bacteria. When a cow eats grass as food, it does not chew it completely but swallow it and gets stored in the rumen. The bacteria present in the rumen start to digest cellulose and gets partially digested. The partially digested food/grass in the rumen of a cow is called cud. After some time, the cud is brought back into the mouth and is chewed thoroughly. That is why, a cow moves its jaws from side to side and chew continuously even when it is not eating grass.

   The process by which the cud is brought back from the stomach to the mouth of the animal and chewed again is called rumination. The animals which chew the cud are called ruminants. When the cud is thoroughly chewed in the mouth of the cow, it is swallowed and goes into the other compartments of the cow’s stomach and then into the small intestine for complete digestion and absorption.