By Jerad Jaborek
You might think of this as an odd question. However, if you have ever seen cattle rolling their tongue, you might not find this all too odd, rather, you might be curious why someone might be writing about tongue rolling in cattle. Tongue rolling is recognized as a non-nutritive oral behavior or a stereotypical behavior for cattle. Greater displays of non-nutritive oral behaviors by your cattle may be an indication of a lack of dietary fiber intake.
Cattle are ruminants, animals with a four-chambered stomach complex. The first compartment, the rumen, is a large fermentation vat. Microbial fermentation in the rumen allows cattle to digest feedstuffs, such as fibrous forages, that other simple-stomached animals cannot digest. As ruminants, cattle regurgitate recently eaten feed to chew it again, further breaking it down into smaller, more digestible particles. This action of “chewing the cud” is known as rumination and is a sign of healthy nutritive behavior for ruminants, such as cattle. Research has shown there is a positive relationship between the amount of fibrous forage consumed and time spent ruminating in cattle.
Modern cattle production systems span a variety of environments and utilize a variety of available feed resources. As a result, not all cattle rely on active grazing to meet their nutritional needs. Therefore, the overall time budget of cattle raised in confinement is altered, as they need less time to consume feed than cattle that graze. As a result, some behavioral experts believe alterations to the overall time budget of cattle raised in confinement and consuming grain-based diets with low fiber content can lead to the expression of stereotypical behaviors.
While cattle can be raised in confinement structures regardless of the production sector of the cattle industry, not all cattle production sectors rely on feeding grain-based diets to meet the nutritional requirements of the animal. The most common cattle sectors that raise cattle in confinement and supply diets with minimal forage or fiber include dairy calves and finishing cattle. Both sectors utilize grain-based diets. For dairy calves, grain-based diets are used to stimulate rumen development and growth, while in finishing cattle, they are fed for rapid and efficient growth that promotes fattening.
Source : msu.edu