As the county fairs continue this summer, there will be people looking at the various exhibits and livestock and in some cases I think there is a bit of ‘people watching’ too and not just people watching other people but the critters watching all the weird humans. These two goats sure look like they are gossiping about the strange person with the camera even if they are really just chewing their cud, a necessary digestive step for ruminants.

Goats, like most ruminants do not have upper front teeth, so they graze by pressing their lower front teeth on the hard pad at the top of their mouth to pull the food into their stomach, or the first compartment of their stomach, with little chewing. The food is then mixed with saliva and softened. This softened small balls of food is called the cud. The cud is re-chewed slowly using their hind teeth, with a side to side grinding motion, before being swallowed again. Plants are hard to digest so this second cud chewing is required to get all of the nutrients from the food and to break the food down further for digestion.

Goat Gossip