Animal Body Science

It was Little Thunder's turn to write the farm newsletter, and he wanted a big science story.

"Did you know cows have four stomachs?" said Spike, looking up from a library book.

Little Thunder's eyes went wide. "Four? I only feel one rumbling!"

Nairobi the cow laughed gently. "It is really one stomach with four parts," she explained. "The first part is the rumen. It is like a giant mixing tank where tiny microbes help break down grass."

"Then the reticulum," added Spike, "which catches anything that shouldn't be there and sends food back up so we can chew it again. That's chewing the cud."

Suzy wrinkled her nose. "Chewing your lunch twice?"

"It is how cows get goodness from tough grass," said Nairobi. "Then the omasum squeezes out water, and the abomasum digests food, a lot like a human stomach."

Little Thunder scribbled notes. Then the friends visited the chook house. Spike explained that a hen makes an egg in about twenty-five hours, and that she needs calcium from shell grit to make strong shells.

At the woolshed, Suzy showed them how a sheep's fleece keeps growing all year, which is why sheep need shearing.

"And goats?" asked Little Thunder.

"Goats have a rumen too," said Nairobi, "and very curious lips for testing everything."

That night, Little Thunder finished his story. He called it "Amazing Bodies on Our Farm." At the bottom he wrote: "Every animal's body is built for the life it lives. Science helps us look after them properly."

Spike read it twice. "That," he said proudly, "is front-page news."