Examining ATI Wisdom Booklets – Booklet 6: Science – Sheep!

Last updated on: October 7, 2016 at 11:39 am

October 8, 2016 by Suzanne Titkemeyer

Sheep do not swallow sticks and stones while eating. If they did, the sticks would be chewed up during rumination. The stones would sit at the bottom of the rumen or in the reticulum for the rest of their lives. In fact, the fact that heavy objects will sit in the reticulum is used to treat some diseases. Since ruminants will eat small pieces of metal – think wiring from fences – farmers have the animals swallow a magnet. The magnet will sit in the reticulum and hold any metal swallowed in place so it cannot hurt the animal.
- The process is a lot like stuffing a pill down a cat’s throat except that the cow weights over 1,000 pounds and the neck of a cow is the strongest portion of their body. It’s pretty much a wrestling match between the head of a restrained cow and the farmer and funny as hell to watch. My husband has had older cows who will “catch” the magnet in their reticulum, wait for him to walk away, then spit the magnet out into the feed bunk. It took 3 separate attempts to get one cow to finally let the magnet fall into her rumen.
Be grateful that most ruminants can’t spit up stones. If you haven’t seen a llama or an alpaca spit, look up a video on YouTube and imagine how much worse it would be if the horrible smelling rumen-juice was mixed with gravel.

Browse Our Archives