Cows spend A LOT of time chewing their cud, in fact, up to 8 hours a day!
What is cud?
Cud is regurgitated balls of coarse plant matter that cattle chew on repeatedly to break down further before reswallowing.
This step is part of the rumination process that essentially involves taking the coarsest, partially digested plant matter, regurgitating it, chewing it to further break it down then reswallowing.
This process creates more surface area on the plant matter for bacteria living in the stomach to attach to and extract vital nutrients that would otherwise be unavailable if not for their help.
By chewing cud, ruminants can utilize a larger percentage of all the plant matter they ingest, therefore, increasing their efficiency of turning grass into nutritious meat.
Just another way cows are cool!
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