Define Rumen Mat

Rumen content is layered so the heavier finer often more digested particles sink to the bottom to an area known as the ventral sac and the more recently ingested lighter feed sits on top in a layer called the rumen mat or floating mat.

Define rumen mat.

True ruminants such as cattle sheep goats deer and antelope have one stomach with four compartments. The rumen also known as a paunch forms the larger part of the reticulorumen which is the first chamber in the alimentary canal of ruminant animals. Most ruminants have four chambered stomachs and a two toed foot. The rumen is composed of several muscular sacs the cranial sac ventral sac ventral blindsac and reticulum.

Paunch definition a large and protruding belly. The rumen reticulum omasum and abomasums. The smaller part of the reticulorumen is the reticulum which is fully continuous with the rumen but differs from it with regard to the texture of its lining. The solid portion left behind in the rumen typically remains for up to 48 hours and forms a dense mat in the rumen where microbes can use the fibrous feedstuffs to make precursors for energy.

The upper incisors are reduced or sometimes absent. The lining of the rumen wall is covered in small fingerlike projections called papillae which are flattened approximately 5 mm in length and 3 mm wide in cattle the reticulum derived from the latin for net is lined with ridges that form a hexagonal honeycomb pattern. The rumen itself is made up of a liquid phase liquor a rumen mat or fibre raft which floats above the rumen liquor and gas sitting above the rumen mat. Ruminant any mammal of the suborder ruminantia order artiodactyla which includes the pronghorns giraffes okapis deer chevrotains cattle antelopes sheep and goats.

Cows that are feed a diet high in grain concentrates often have a very small or non existent rumen mat. Using the padded mat as a magic carpet have one child stand in the center of the mat. Pillars divide the rumen into sacs and it is the shortening of these pillars that cause rumen contractions.