Rumen physiology: the key to understanding the conversion of plants into animal products

Abstract

Ruminants have always provided meat, hides and fibre for human use, and since the development of agriculture with its associated domestication of herding ruminants, they have also provided milk and draught power. Sound interpretation of the observations of animal behaviour and performance made by the early hunters and stockmen was not possible until knowledge of physiology began to accumulate in the 18th and 19th centuries. The development of new methods about 50 years ago led to the modern era of ruminant physiology, a flowering of research which has continued to the present day. Rumen physiology is intrinsically interesting but it also has utility because it is fundamental to the understanding of ruminant nutrition. Research must continue, particularly in the areas of microbial ecology and particle kinetics, if the ruminant industries are to respond adequately to the need to produce more food for humans from non-arable land and by-products, to increase product quality, to tailor products to market requirements and, in doing so, reduce their environmental impact