ANIMALS FEEDING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4720, 4 July 1924, Page 1

ANIMALS FEEDING.

THE DIFFERENT METHODS. VARIED PREHENSILE ORGANS. Note how different are the presensili? organs of the various farm animals. The Creator furnished each with different formed organs by whicn feed is grasped, conducted into the month and then masticated. By sucti provisions many animals of different kinds originally were enabled to live in the same pastures or feeding territories. Were all to gather feed *n exactly the same way sustenance soon would become exhausted. Apart from the domesticated animals, consider the special equipment of the giraffe, elephant, tapir, ant-eater and hippotamus for the taking in of food. Then compare the prehensile organs of the horse, ox, sheep, and pig. Do all take feed alike ? What are the differences, if any ? All are similarly equipped with teeth. Do all use the lips and tongue in like manner ? Is the lining in the mouth of each identical ? We do not intend fully to discuss all of these things, but to direct the attention of the begjjiner to the subject and interest himself so that he will make examinations for himself. The' cow has thick, somewhat immobile lips, whereas the sheep, which also is a ruminant animal, has very mobile lips and the upper one is cleft. The cleft lip enables the sheep to get its teeth right down on the surface to nibble the shortest, sweetest grass. The cow does not use’her lips to any great extent in taking in feed, as does the horse. She grasps tags of grass with her tongue, draws them into her mouth, jerks them off, and chews them slightly, for the feed is later to be brought up and rechewed. The mobile lips of the horse gather the feed, and it is nipped off between the two rows of sharp rigid incisor or pincher teeth. Note that the cow has eight incisor teeth in the lower jaw only, whereas the horse has six above and below.

In the cow and sheep the upper row of incisors is absent, but instead there is a pad or cushion bf cartilaginous or gristle tissue, against which the lower incisors normally are somewhat loose, and they are directly forward or almost horizontally placed in the mouth. Were this not the case they would cut the dental pad above. Not aware that the cow’s incisors normally are loose many an owner has on examination erroneously concluded that a diseased condition is present. Often silage has been blamed for the looseness, but it has no such effect; neither does rt cause the incisors to fall out or break off.

Note too, that the cow’s tongue is very rough, and so are the cheeks. On the contrary the cheeks and tongue o£ the horse are smooth. Studding the cow’s cheeks are long projections y-‘ papillae, and the tongue arid front parts of the hard palate are fitted with saw-like projections. These are parts of the equipinent possessed by cows to make perfect mastication of feed possible. Looking further into the cow’s mouth it will be noted that the soft palate does not hang down and prevent breathing through the .mouth, as is the case in the horse. As to the prehensile organs of the hog, note the cartilaginous ring around the snout contains a special bone (or rostri) not present in other animals. Those are the provisions for rooting to obtain food from under the surface of the ground. And watch how animals chew. The dog quickly cuts meat to pieces and gulps it down. The horse chews feed slowly and verv thoroughly in scissors-like fashion, and largely by lateral action. The cow masticates by longitudinal, transverse, and vertical motions. —Hoards Dairyman.