Chewing The Cud

Today I received a comment that posted this question:

I'm in the middle of some serious research and I need all the help I can get. I'm not going to preach Jesus to you, but I do hope that He is your personal savior. My question has to do with the phrase "Chewing the Cud." In the book of Leviticus 11:3 they talk about hoof animals that chew the cud. What excactly is chewing the cud? Both physical like what cows do and what you mean by just chwewing the cud. I need to tie these 2 together. Living in Chicago I have never heard that statement before. Please help me. I look forward to you returned email. -Min

Instead of replying with an email, I thought this would make a great post. You'll all get to learn a little about me, hear about the brainstorming behind chewing the cud, and get to learn what cattle do too! :) Read on, and as always--let me know what you think!

1. Yes, I'm a Christian. I try to base my actions on His works. What a great role model Jesus Christ is! He teaches us to be kind, faithful, honest, obedient. He is so giving, too. I have the most loving family and great group of friends that support me in everything I do. To tie that to agriculture, I feel God gave me the abilities and strengths to produce food for the world through cattle production. By following His example, my family and I raise these cattle with best animal handling practices in mind. We truly care about the land and livestock that we raise.

2. Cattle are ruminant animals meaning they have a digestive system that allows them to utilize foods indigestible to humans by regurgitating it and rechewing the food as "cud". Cattle have four stomachs that aid in digestion: rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. I know it doesn't paint the prettiest picture, but growing up as a kid and watching the mama cows rest in the grassy pastures, I always knew they were relaxed and content as their jaws moved back in forth as they chewed their cud. Does that make sense?

3. So why name the blog Chewing The Cud? Seems pretty disgusting doesn't it? The thought behind chewing the cud as a blog name is the exact motive behind this blog. It's food for thought. In essence, I want to ask the questions to make us think about the foods we eat. When I post certain topics, its to get you to really chew on it and mull it over. Then we can discuss it and learn from each other.

My main goal is to teach you about how our food is produced and where it comes from. My hope is that through this blog, consumers learn to make educated decisions when grocery shopping, instead of basing their opinions on propaganda and silly lies spread by animal rights activists.

And for those of you in agriculture, I hope that I keep you up-to-date on some of the interesting news in the media. I try to provide you with my insight, and I encourage your feedback. Most importantly, I want to provide you with the tools needed to proudly promote agriculture to secure your future in food production.

So Min, I hope that helps. If you have any other questions about agriculture or about Bible readings pertaining to farm methods in early times, send them this way. Together we can chew the cud and enjoy some food for thought! :)

To learn about beef from pasture to plate, link here.