What Type of Digestive System Does a Beef Cow Have
Good nutrition for the entire herd is a key factor in producing loftier-value calves.
Because of this fact, producers demand to make every attempt to understand the ruminant digestive system and its processes.
During the 58th annual Texas A&1000 Beefiness Cattle Brusk Form, held in August of this year, Drs. Rick Machen and Ted McCollum discussed nutritional management.
The two Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service beefiness cattle specialists suggested the post-obit four areas where cattlemen should consider improving their understanding of ruminant nutrition:
- Ruminant digestive physiology
- Protein and free energy digestion and use by ruminants
- Daily protein and energy required by a beef cow
- Tools bachelor to producers to aid in decision making.
The commencement and second areas will be addressed in this article.
Ruminant digestive physiology
About two years ago, Dr. Joe Paschal, with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, pulled a cow'south digestive tract from a large plastic bag in forepart of an audition at the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) School for Successful Ranching.
Paschal laid the organs on a table in an orderly fashion and used them to explain how a cow digests her food starting with the esophagus. The post-obit paragraphs are a recap of Pascal's presentation.
It takes one to three days for food to laissez passer through a moo-cow'due south digestive tract, depending upon what she eats.
A cow briefly chews food as she eats, breaking it into smaller particles. Every bit she chews, digestive enzymes in her saliva are mixed with the food earlier it passes downwards the esophagus into the reticulum and rumen.
(Figure one shows the ruminant digestive tract in comparison to the monogastric digestive organisation).
Since digesta flows freely between the reticulum and rumen, these compartments are collectively referred to every bit the reticulo-rumen. The reticulo-rumen contains more than fifty percentage of the total digestive tract capacity.
Most feed is fermented in the reticulo-rumen, but a small amount may pass unchanged into the omasum and abomasum.
Some of the larger food particles are regurgitated, chewed again and re-swallowed. We refer to the second chewing as "chewing the cud."
Food is fermented and further broken down in the rumen by microbes. The stable environment in the rumen with a pH of 5.5 to 7.0 and a temperature range of 98.vi to 104 degrees F is conducive to microbial growth.
At that place are several different kinds of rumen bacteria and each one is very specific to the type of food they utilise and the end products they produce.
Rumen bacteria either digest cellulose, hemicellulose, starch, saccharide, organic acids, poly peptide or fat. In improver, there are bacteria that produce ammonia or methane or synthesize vitamins.
The specificity of rumen bacteria is the reason livestock specialists and animal nutritionists recommend that changes in feed exist transitioned slowly.
Populations of leaner that digest the new feed accept to be established or the cow will have agin reactions to the new diet.
Bacteria and other micro-organisms are ingested in feed or obtained from other animals. If the cow eats feed that her rumen leaner use, the population volition abound. As the population grows the cow can digest more of the nutrient they eat.
If a cow doesn't eat what her rumen bacteria utilize, the micro-organisms dice. This is why cattlemen say that they feed "rumen bugs," non the animal.
Protozoa, larger than leaner, are plant in the rumen and are classified according to their prison cell morphology. Species vary according to the type of diet, time of year and geological location.
Both bacteria and protozoa have nutrient value to the cow. Dried microbes comprise 40 to 50 percent crude protein and are over 75 percent digestible.
Digesta flows from reticulo-rumen into the omasum, which contains from 6 to 8 percent of the digestive tract chapters.
The omasum has many folds of tissue that resemble a partially open book. H2o is reabsorbed from digesta and particle size is further reduced in the omasum.
Upon leaving the omasum, digesta passes into the abomasum, often referred to as the true stomach.
The abomasum secretes digestive enzymes that break feed down into protein, vitamins, simple carbohydrates, fats and amino acids for assimilation into the small intestine.
Undigestible material passes into the large intestines where backlog moisture is reabsorbed and fecal material is formed.
Protein and free energy digestion and use by ruminants
"The cardinal to ruminant diet is meeting the nitrogen (protein) and energy requirements of the microbes," says Machen. "The cow'due south poly peptide requirements are often fulfilled when microbe poly peptide needs are met.
"Protein is one of the primary edifice blocks of the animal'southward torso. It is a major component of muscles, the nervous system and connective tissue.
Protein is composed of amino acid chains and is essential for maintenance, growth, lactation and reproduction.
"Microbes degrade plant proteins to various degrees in the rumen and use the resulting ammonia to synthesize microbial protein," Machen continues. "Escape or non-degraded proteins are passed to the lower digestive tract along with microbial poly peptide.
Digestive enzymes secreted in the abomasum intermission both institute and microbial protein into their component amino acids, which are captivated from the small intestines into the bloodstream."
Some loftier-quality proteins may be rapidly and almost completely degraded causing the created ammonia to enter the bloodstream without forming amino acids.
This activity reduces essential amino acid availability to the animal. Extremely low-quality proteins may be upgraded during digestion to a higher-quality microbial protein.
"Protein, carbohydrates and fats provide energy in beefiness cattle diets," says Dr. Jane Parish of Mississippi State Academy. "Energy is often referred to equally digestible energy, net free energy for maintenance (NEm), net energy for gain (NEg), net energy for lactation (NE) and, more often, full digestible nutrients (TDN).
"When digestible energy becomes limiting in beefiness cattle diets, intake and animal performance can suffer. Signs of energy deficiency include lowered appetite, weight loss, poor growth, depressed reproductive functioning and reduced milk product.
Providing adequate digestible energy in beef cattle diets is important for animal wellness and productivity every bit well every bit ranch profitability.
"Carbohydrates are beef cattle'due south main source of energy," continues Parish. "They are either nonstructural (readily digested past all livestock) or structural (digested through fermentation that occurs in the rumen).
Ruminant animals, including beef cattle, accept the unique ability to digest some structural carbohydrates in institute cell walls as a source of energy through microbial action in the rumen.
Structural carbohydrates include cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. Beefiness cattle can digest cellulose and hemicellulose just cannot digest lignin."
Animal diet can exist very complicated to anyone not trained in the field, so almost of us demand to continue to study and learn from the experts. 
PHOTOS
Tiptop: Hay can be a good source of energy or full digestible nutrients in cattle.
Lesser: Types of feed should exist changed gradually to give new rumen bacteria time to develop. Photos courtesy of Texas A&G University.
Source: https://www.progressivecattle.com/topics/feed-nutrition/a-cows-digestive-system-and-processes
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