Students study cow’s digestive system

It’s not every day that students get the opportunity to stick their hand inside a cow’s stomach, but at North Harford, it’s not too unusual.

Two special animals that live in North Harford’s barn- Gracie, the Holstein cow, and Ernie, the Alpaca. Gracie was originally a part of a dairy herd, but was donated to the school. She now has been fistulated, which is when she has had a surgery that creates a hole in her side that agricultural students could use to study her digestive system.

“We have to put our arms in to Gracie, rotate our arms, and we get to feel the inside of the rumen,” stated Kaitlyn Hopkins, a junior in the magnet program studying large animals. “Some people also feel her esophagus and the honeycomb structure of the reticulum.”

Students have also been able to see inside of the cow’s rumen with the use of a camera. There are four compartments to a cow’s stomach. The rumen is the largest compartment and can hold up to 90 gallons of food or water. Students can also study the pH of the rumen and see how different nutrients are digested.

Typically students feed Gracie and then put her out to pasture. While she’s out, they clean her stall, provide her with clean water and do general maintenance.

This routine is similar to that of Ernie the alpaca’s. Ernie lost his eye last February. Initially when Ernie began having eye problems, the students and teachers of the Ag department were working to prevent removing his eye.

“We don’t quite know how he punctured his eye,” stated Ms. Aimee Densmore. “The vet was treating the eye, but then it ulcerated in the cornea, and the vet thought the best way to help the alpaca was to remove the eye.”
Ernie had his eye removed at the end of this past September. Despite Ernie’s eye removal, he still acts like a normal alpaca.