2007-03-22 08:45:37 · 8 answers · asked by I like stuff 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
A cow has four 'stomachs', like pretty much all ruminants do. Actually, it's just one stomach with four separate chambers (just like one heart has four chambers)... but you get the idea. The reason for all those parts, as you might imagine, has to do with what they eat.
But first, a bit of biochemistry (not too much, I promise). We all know that plants use photosynthesis to turn sunlight into energy. They also make sugar with it. And curiously enough, they also make something called 'cellulose', which is made out of sugar but which is hard and fibrous. Most plants use cellulose to give themeselves structure, and to protect themselves from creatures that would try to eat them. Even though cellulose is made of sugar, it is really, really hard to digest.
Hard, but NOT impossible. And that is exactly what the four stomach of a cow are designed to do - turn indigestible cellulose from grass and other plants into sugar! Even in cows and the like those four stomach require a huge amount of room to do what they do... the largest chamber of a cow's stomach can hold as much as 75 gallons!
In the first chamber, all the stuff can slowly soften. Cows will often urp it back up, chew it some more, and swallow it again (that's called ruminating; the same word is sometimes used to describe a person doing that with ideas).
Most of the work of digestion is actually accomplished by microorganisms that live in the various chambers... it might be more accurate to say that cows consume the byproducts of those bacteria that eat the food they swallow. Nor is this process limited to ruminants either - humans have intestinal bacteria that also help us digest otherwise indigestible foods in the some way. We just don't have the time, energy, or space to tackle the foods that cows can.
But at least we can eat the cows. Heh.
2007-03-22 09:37:46 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A cow has four stomachs: the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. The rumen is the largest stomach and acts as a fermentation chamber. The abomasum is last of the four and is comparable in both structure and function to the human stomach.
2007-03-22 08:55:10 · answer #2 · answered by leslie 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No cows have four stomachs, because they eat so much through out the day, and this aids their digestion.
2007-03-22 08:56:28 · answer #3 · answered by herbestgirl 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Cows have one stomach, but four compartments. They are the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum.
2007-03-22 08:50:02 · answer #4 · answered by William 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
no it is not, they have four, but they need 4 stomachs to break down all the grass
2007-03-22 08:50:12 · answer #5 · answered by Lex 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think they have more like four or eight stomachs. why because the eat too much
2007-03-22 08:49:45 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
have you seen the enormity of a cow??!
2007-03-22 08:54:32 · answer #7 · answered by Jordi* 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
http://www.moomilk.com/faq.htm#How%20much%20blood
2007-03-22 08:54:22 · answer #8 · answered by Alice 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋