Understanding Ruminants
The Four Functions of the Rumen
Rumen Function No. 1
Fibre digestion: From the perspective of tonnage, fibre constitutes the greatest amount of nutritional plant material on earth. There are three types of fibre – cellulase, hemicellulose and lignin. Lignin is indigestible even for ruminants (maturity in pasture). Rumen bacteria contain enzymes to penetrate fibre cells exposing their content for nourishing the cow. To assist this process, ruminants chew cud, further ‘crusing’ fibre. Ruminants are most efficient at extracting energy from fibre.
Rumen Function No. 2
Conversion of non-protein nitrogen (NPN) to protein. Rumen microbes can convert NPN to amino acids which the microbes then use to manufacture proteins. These microbial proteins are then broken down to amino acids the cow can use and are absorbed in the lower digestive tract. Only ruminants can convert NPN, which humans cannot use, into animal proteins such as milk and meat. In our pasture based system, and especially grass silage, we have a massive oversupply of NPN; far in excess of rumen microbes capacity to convert to proteins. The net result is excessive rumen ammonia that has a high energy cost to excrete from the cow, and alkalises blood reducing fertility. Dairytech Nutrition manufacture a feed ingredient called Rumen Calm to deal with this problem (dramatically reduce excess rumen ammonia) and enhance digestive bacterial activity through its yeast content.
Rumen Function No. 3
Water-soluble B vitamins are essential, such as thiamine, biotin, niacin, pantothenic acid, etc, for metabolic processes. The rumen can manufacture these themselves, with the exception of B12. Vitamin B12 must have cobalt as a nucleus for the rumen to produce it. Cobalt is an ingreedient in all our dairy premixes for this purpose.
Rumen Function No. 4
Detoxification. The plant world is rife with toxic compounds. Rumen microbes can degrade or alter toxin molecules to be less toxic or non-toxic. The rumen also contains a large amount of fluid which also dilutes toxins. Obviously, this rumen activity is constrained to reasonably low levels of toxins and excessive loads from certain plants and particularly mouldy feed require more powerful methods of detoxification as discussed last month with Refined Fractional Carbohydrates which we use in our Calfmax product.
