As many of you will know a cow has four stomachs. The Reticulum is the first, followed by the Rumen, Omasum and Abomasum. They all have a job to do as they are involved in fermentation of grass and other feeds to provide energy for the cow.

When you feed a cow you actually feed the bugs inside the rumen which are used to liberate the sugars and proteins form the diet which the cow can make use of. The diet needs to be balanced as well as contain all of the essential components the bugs need. Too much, or too little of one thing will cause an imbalance, and the cow will either under perform or become ill.

This particular case involved a group of cows that were all calving at the time. When a cow calves it is very important that she receives a good diet as she is having to work very hard as well as starting to produce lots of milk. Understandably if you want the cow to produce a lot of milk in her lactation then the first few weeks after she calves are crucial in allowing her to settle down. These cows were all getting a very good ration of grass silage (grass that has been mowed and then sealed in a clamp to ferment and produce a wonderful smelling fodder that will keep over the winter) and maize silage (same process but with maize - the stuff you make cornflakes out of !!) together with cereals, Soya meal and minerals.

Everything seemed perfect but the cows were not doing well. Many were unwell and producing very little milk and so we were called in to see them. When examined the vet diagnosed a displaced Abomasum. This is the fourth stomach and is the one most like our own. If it is not contracting well it can get filled with gas and 'float' around inside the cow - often getting stuck in the wrong place. Some of the cows had to have surgery to put the stomach back into the correct location, but clearly this was not a long term solution.

The diet was carefully examined, including analysis using a computer program. It showed that the cows were being fed what they needed but that crucially it was low in long fibre. Cows need long fibre in the diet to enable them to 'chew the cud'. This process takes place for several hours each day when the cow 'brings up' a lump of food from the rumen - chews it for a while - and then swallows it again - repeating the process every minute or two. The chewing produces litres of saliva each day that is high in bicarbonate which buffers the rumen against the acid produce by the fermentation of starches and sugars. Too much acid washing into the Abomasum and it starts getting floppy and full of gas.

So what did the farmer do ?  Well it was simple really - feed the dry cows more straw in their diet before they calve and continue feeding a diet with some straw and longer chop silage after calving. This extra 'scratch factor' stopped the problems at once and everybody was happy.