Cattle: Encyclopedia II - Cattle - Biology

Cattle - Biology

Cattle are ruminants, meaning that they have a unique digestive system that allows them to synthesize amino acids. This allows them to thrive on grasses and other vegetation.

Cattle have one stomach, with four compartments. They are the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. The rumen is the largest compartment. It can hold up to 150 litres of digestable feed in a mature cow (compare this to the 1300 litres of total volume in a young cow, or 1500 litres in a larger and older cow). The rumen is known as the "Paunch." The reticulum is the smallest compartment. Cattle sometimes consume metal objects which are deposited in the reticulum, and this is where hardware disease occurs. The reticulum is known as the "Honeycomb." The omasum's main function is to absorb water and nutrients from the digestible feed. The omasum is known as the "Many Plies." The abomasum is most like the human stomach; this is why it is known as the "True Stomach."

The aurochs was originally spread throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. In historical times, their range was restricted to Europe, and the last animals were killed by poachers in Masovia, Poland, in 1627, although some breeders have attempted to recreate the original gene pool of the aurochs by careful crossing of commercial breeds, creating the Heck cattle breed.

A popular misconception about cattle (primarily bulls) is that they are enraged by the colour red. This is incorrect; cattle are mostly colour-blind. The main source of this rumour is the fact that Matadors traditionally use red-coloured capes to provoke bulls into attacking. In fact, the red color is merely traditional; the movement of the cape is the attractant.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Biology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki