Saturday, October 21, 2006

Cow barn...Guernsey? Woodstock Fair, CT 2006

The cow barns and other animal barns have been rebuilt recently. The fair is tidy feeling, and clean...with just enough oddball stuff and old funky buildings to keep it real.

Do you see the cow chewing? She is chewing her cud. A cud is a wad of grass that she ate earlier in the day. It had been kept in her first stomach for awhile, then passed to her second stomach where it got softened up even more and formed into lumps called cuds. Later when she felt relaxed and lays down she will "burp" it up to have a second chew. Then she will swallow it and it goes to her third stomach and on to the fourth!!!

All these stomachs are needed because grass is really hard to digest. We can't digest it. Animals called ruminants can. Ruminants are cows and sheep and goats and camels. There are probably more but I can't think of them right now. (Look it up!)


Now you know why I say you look like you are chewing your cud when I catch you chewing gum in art class...


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