CHAPTER V 



Blood Circulation 



After the cow has eaten and digested her food the next 

 process is that of absorption or the picking up of the nutri- 

 ents, carrying and distributing them over the body where they 

 belong, according to the function of the animal. 



In this respect the blood circulating to all parts of the 

 body plays no small part in the great general plan the cow 

 adheres to in making milk. 



It is interesting to study the manner in which cattle 

 accomplish the purpose for which they are kept. At feed- 

 ing time or during the day when the cow is on pasture she 

 first gathers her food and bolts or swallows it, because she 

 is too busy at that time to masticate it. The food in this 

 condition passes into the first stomach, which serves largely 

 in the ruminant as a storehouse for the food. 



When the cow finds time she regurgitates the feed she 

 has secured during her busier hours and masticates it, which 

 is usually termed "the chewing of the cud." 



Then it is re-swallowed, further moistened, softened and 

 refined, finally reaching the fourth stomach, and later the 

 intestines. 



During this course it comes in contact with different 

 digestive fluids such as the gastric juice, the bile, the pan- 

 creatic juice and the intestinal juices, which have the power 

 of taking from the food those nutrients that are digestible 

 and converting them into a form to be picked up by the blood 

 for absorption. It is then that the importance of the blood 

 circulation asserts itself, picking up and transporting, so to 

 speak, the nutrients which have been digested from the food. 

 The blood acts as a carrier and a distributor of these nutrients. 



Every feeder of farm animals should be conversant with 

 the entire process of digestion, assimilation and the distri- 

 bution of food nutrients. The subject is of great importance 

 and a complete discussion of it would make a book in itself. 

 Up to the time when the blood of the animal starts on 

 its course of transporting the digested nutrients, the work of 

 the beef animal and the dairy animal are largely the same, 

 but at this point their paths divide and the remaining uses 

 of the food greatly differ. In the beef animal the blood for 

 the most part carries the digested nutrients, after utilizing 

 those necessary for the maintenance of the body, to the top 



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