Digestion In Ruminants And Non-ruminants

A cow can turn a field of coarse grass into milk and meat, yet a pig fed the same grass would go hungry. The difference lies inside their stomachs. Cattle, sheep and goats are ruminants: they carry a huge four-part stomach packed with microorganisms that break down the tough fibre in grass. A pig or a chicken is a non-ruminant, with a single simple stomach that cannot do this, so it must be fed richer, more concentrated food.

In this lesson you will follow food from the mouth to the gut in both kinds of animal. You will name the four ruminant compartments, the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum, and learn what each one does, then compare this with the simple stomach of a pig. Understanding the two systems explains why farmers feed grazing animals differently from pigs and poultry, and why it matters for the food you put in the trough.