CHEWING THE CUD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 669, 2 May 1952, Page 20

CHEWING THE CUD

Sir, — "Sundowner’s" articles are always a great pleasure to read; but having long waited in vain for any reference in them to the above subject I feel impelled now to broach it myself. Beyond what one gathers from brief holidays in the country, I know little of farming; but the spectacle of cows contentedly chewing the cud has always intrigued me-particularly when I began

to study the technique of bovine rumination. After a while I discovered that this masticatory process-far from being merely fortuitous-follows a deliberate pattern: i.e., the number of times the cud is chewed before being finally swallowed remains almost constant in each individual animal. In a herd of Jersey cows which I watched closely over a considerable period the number of chews per cow averaged 39-none of them chewed fewer than 37 or more than 41 times. It would be interesting, Sir,, to, learn from your fatming readers, or from "Sundowner" himself, whether it be thought that this numerical. consistency has any lactiferous significance-in other words, could one infer that the quality of milk is determined by the total of pre-deglutitionary chews? We might also inquire whether the cow exercises free will in this connection or is automatically animated-i.e., does she choose how many chews, or does blind instinct operate? Incidentally, some years ago I drew the attention of Lord, Bledisloe to this matter; he replied that it was quite new to him and thought it well worth investigation. In conclusion one might ask--as cows are allegedly influenced by musicwhether the ugly modern idiom tends to produce curdiness and rancidity in milk?

L. D.

AUSTIN

(Wellington).