Have you ever wanted to go stick your hand into a cow’s stomach and see what they had for breakfast? Maybe? Well, people can thanks to something called a “fistula” which is a man-made hole surgically implanted into the side of a cow. And yes, it goes straight to their stomach so that a person can literally reach in and see what’s up.
The point (in case you were wondering) is to see how the digestion process works. Sometimes agricultural folks need to get a very clear picture of how cows are digesting certain foods.
Fistulas are the window into the inner cow. Literally.
There’s some good information here if you’re interested in following up on this procedure, or you can just look at the pretty pictures instead. And yes, I refrained from using “holey cow” this whole post.