Miss Swiss Reports: Reticulum

Hello again, it is Miss Swiss the Brown Swiss and on our journey of discovery through the stomach of a cow our next stop following the rumen is the reticulum! The major function of the reticulum is to guide smaller particles of digested food into the next compartment, the omasum. Larger particles that can be digested further remain within the rumen and reticulum. An interesting fact about the reticulum is that the inner walls appear to look like a honeycomb, just see for yourself in the photograph below! I suspect that the folds and positioning of the reticulum allow for heavy and dense objects to wedge themselves here. This is why we are given a magnet, so if we accidentally nibble on something that is not edible the magnet will catch it in our reticulum to prevent any further stress. This phenomenon is known as hardware disease. 

Another day of learning down, next up the omasum. 

Image from University of Minnesota Extension

              Image of reticulum from 8-week-old calf credit to Mississippi State University

Today we shipped 4,761 gallons of milk

Today we had _ new calves.