Actually, cows don't have 5 stomachs. Instead, they have one stomach with 4 chambers (people commonly confuse this fact and say that cows have 4 stomachs). In the first two chambers the food and saliva are separated into liquid and solid matter. The solid stuff clumps up, forming cud, which the cow regurgitates up and chews on to break down the fibers. This broken down fiber goes into the next stomach chamber, which then breaks down this stuff even more and the water is removed. Next, this digested matter is passed down into the next stomach chamber where it's digested further.
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