Rumen development in the dairy calf.

Abstract

The degradation of feedstuffs, rumen microbial synthesis, and the various resulting end products have been a subject of investigation for over a century. In 1884, Tappiener (as cited in Phillipson, 1947) attributed cellulose digestion in the rumen to digestive actions of symbiotic organisms in the rumen. Much work followed these early discoveries, devoted primarily to describing the digestion of cellulose, the assimilation of various end products of the microbial population, and the various species of rumen bacteria that exist under certain rumen conditions.