Cows are ruminants (cud-chewing herbivores) and they do not have upper front teeth. They have what is called a hard, leathery dental pad in the place of upper incisors. They use their tongue to grasp the grass and pinch it off using their dental pad and lower incisors. But they have molars on the upper and lower jaw for grinding up food.
Let’s explore how cows are able to eat grass. The key to this ability lies in the stomach. After we chew and swallow our food, the stomach serves as a holding tank where digestion begins and food starts being separated into individual nutrients. Next, food passes into the small intestine where the breakdown continues and where the body absorbs nutrients. This basic digestive process is also true of cows, but there are a few extra steps along the way.
Cows are unique in that they have fewer teeth than other animals. In the front of the mouth, teeth (known as incisors) are only located on the bottom jaw. In place of the top incisors, there is a hard leathery pad (known as the “dental pad”). In addition, cattle have a relatively immobile upper lip (compared to goats and sheep). Because of this unique oral anatomy, a cow uses its tongue to grasp a clump of grass and then bite it off. Teeth in the back of the mouth (known as molars) are located on the top and bottom jaws. Plant materials sometimes contain tough stems, but because a cow chews food in a side-to-side motion, the molars shred the grass into small pieces that are more easily digested.
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