Beef cattle are ruminants, and ruminant have one large stomach with four compartments. Those compartments are:
• the rumen, the largest of the three compartments that contains microorganisms to help digest what the animal eats;
• the reticulum, which is lined with cells that look like a honeycomb, and if a cow happens to pick up a small nail or hardware in its feed, the material ends up in the reticulum;
• the omasum, which has cells that are shaped into a leaf, and which empties into the abomasum;
• the abomasum, which functions very much like the human stomach.

Browse related FAQs by tag: beef cattle, ruminants