Ruminant nutrition is a discipline that studies the nutritional requirements, feed utilization patterns, and nutritional regulation technologies of ruminant animals such cattle, sheep, and deer. Its core revolves around their unique multi-stomach (rumen, reticulum, rumen palates, and abomasum digestive physiology.
Its key characteristics and research focuses are as follows:
- The core digestive organ is the rumen: The rumen contains a large number oforganisms (bacteria, protozoa, fungi), which can ferment and decompose the crude fiber in feed (such as pasture, straw) that humans difficult to digest into volatile fatty acids, serving as the main energy source for ruminant animals. This is the most essential difference in nutrition between ruminant animals and monogric animals (such as pigs and chickens).
- Nutritional requirements focus on a "microbe-animal" dual level: It is necessary to meet the nutritional needs the ruminant animals themselves (such as protein, minerals, vitamins), as well as the growth needs of the rumen microorganisms (such as sufficient carbohydrates, nitrogen), to ensure the efficient conversion of feed.
- Common research directions: This includes the standard nutritional needs of different growth stages (calves, fattening period, lact period), the optimization of feed formulas (such as the ratio of concentrate to roughage), the regulation of rumen health (prevention of acidosis, ruminal blo), and the application of feed additives (such as probiotics, enzyme preparations), with the ultimate goal of enhancing the production performance (milk yield, meat yield) health level of ruminant animals.