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Raising Two Calves
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<blockquote data-quote="Keren" data-source="post: 550856" data-attributes="member: 3195"><p>To add to what msscamp and farm girl said.</p><p></p><p>When a calf is born the abomasum (fourth or true stomach) is the largest and fully functional stomach, whereas the rumen (which will dominate when weaned) is undeveloped. When a calf makes a suckling action, combined with stretching out its neck, a thing called the oesophageal groove is activated, which makes the milk flow directly into the abomasum. If it were to go into the rumen it would get 'lost' and the calf would not get as much benefit. </p><p></p><p>But here's the important thing - the rumen develops by the calf licking at solid feed and ingesting microbes excreted by adult cattle. These settle in the rumen, reproduce and so the rumen grows to accomodate them. As the microbial population increases, the function of the rumen increases, the size of the rumen increases and thus the calf eats more solid feed. When calves drink from a bucket, some of the milk ends up in the rumen. The milk favours the growth of a different sort of microbes in the rumen, ones which do not enhance rumen function and actually decrease the population of the rumen-enhancing microbes. So for that reason, bucket feeding can influence the rate of rumen development and thus weaning age.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Keren, post: 550856, member: 3195"] To add to what msscamp and farm girl said. When a calf is born the abomasum (fourth or true stomach) is the largest and fully functional stomach, whereas the rumen (which will dominate when weaned) is undeveloped. When a calf makes a suckling action, combined with stretching out its neck, a thing called the oesophageal groove is activated, which makes the milk flow directly into the abomasum. If it were to go into the rumen it would get 'lost' and the calf would not get as much benefit. But here's the important thing - the rumen develops by the calf licking at solid feed and ingesting microbes excreted by adult cattle. These settle in the rumen, reproduce and so the rumen grows to accomodate them. As the microbial population increases, the function of the rumen increases, the size of the rumen increases and thus the calf eats more solid feed. When calves drink from a bucket, some of the milk ends up in the rumen. The milk favours the growth of a different sort of microbes in the rumen, ones which do not enhance rumen function and actually decrease the population of the rumen-enhancing microbes. So for that reason, bucket feeding can influence the rate of rumen development and thus weaning age. [/QUOTE]
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