Ruminants

A multi compartment stomach animal (ex. cattle, sheep, goats).

The cow has four stomachs and undergoes a special digestive process to break down the tough and coarse food it eats. When the cow first eats, it chews the food just enough to swallow it. ... The cud then goes to the third and fourth stomachs, the omasum and abomasum, where it is fully digested.

Sheep, cattle, goats, deer, giraffes and llamas are ruminant animals. This means that they have a four-chambered stomach.

The rumen serves as a large fermentation vat in which bacteria and other microorganisms reside. These microbes are capable of breaking down feedstuffs that the cow cannot. As part of this process, they produce a number of by-products, such as volatile fatty acids (VFAs), which the animal absorbs and uses as energy.

o·ma·sum

/ōˈmāsəm/

nounZOOLOGY

the muscular third stomach of a ruminant animal, between the reticulum and the abomasum.