Flood makes cow fattening costly in Pabna, Sirajganj

Cattle farmers in Pabna and Sirajganj, two districts famous for rearing of sacrificial animals, are facing serious problem to fatten cows ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha as prices of fodder has shot up due to flooding of grasslands during the ongoing floods.

In Tangail, initiative to encourage farmers to fatten cows in natural ways sees remarkable success, thanks to the monitoring by the authorities concerned and awareness of the buyers.

Massive flooding of grass fields causes problem for cattle farmers as the prices of cattle feed have gone up, reports our Pabna correspondent.

Md Nur Islam, a dairy farm owner at Chhotopathail village in Santhia upazila of Pabna, started fattening four cows targeting to sell those on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha but he sold two cows for Tk 1.5 lakh last month due to the increasing cost of cattle feed.

“If we could sell the two cows before the Eid-ul-Azha it would bring us Tk 2 lakh,” said Hunufa Khatun, wife of Nur Islam.

A maund of paddy straw is selling for Tk 300 to Tk 330 during the last few weeks although it was Tk 160 to Tk 180 in last year, said cattle farmers and feed traders.

A 50-kg bag of dry feed is sold for Tk 1100 to Tk 1200 while it was Tk 700 to Tk 800 last year, they said.

Md Abdul Gafur, district livestock officer, Pabna said the fattening cost has jumped to 20 to 30 percent this year as cattle feed has got costlier due to the fodder crises in the northern districts amid flood.

“The cattle traders need not worry as the price of cattle meat this year has increased by 20 to 25 percent,” he said.

There are around 23,000 cattle farms in the district, he said.

Sirajganj DLO Harunur Rashid said there are 27,448 farms in the district.

In the two districts, over 12 lakh fattened cows are being prepared for the Eid market this year.

Our Tanagail Correspondent reports: Most of the farm owners in Tangail are now fattening their cows in natural way to sell those as sacrificial animals ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

The tendency to fatten the animals artificially with using vitamins and steroids sees decline after a good number of farmers incurred huge loses previously as their cows died of heart attacks due to fattening them with vitamins and steroids before the Eid market, said local livestock officials.

The cows fattened with vitamins and steroids cannot survive many days and people no longer want to buy the artificially fattened sick cows as sacrificial animals, they added.

According to District Livestock Office, around 60,000 cows were being fattened at 12,000 farms in 12 upazilas of the district till August 16.

Visiting several cow fattening farms at Bhuapur upazila a few days ago, this correspondent saw the cows were being fed grass, straw, molasses, chaff, chhola, oilcake and processed cattle feeds.

“I have fattened 64 Indian bulls in the last six months in natural ways after buying these from local cattle market between Tk 1.5 lakh to Tk 2 lakh,” said Dulal Chokdar of Govindasi area in the upazila, owner of a large cow fattening farm in the district.

"I have already sold 48 of the bulls in the last few days to buyers from different districts between Tk 2.5 lakh to Tk 3 lakh," he said.

Abdul Mazid of Matikata village in the same upazila said he and his brother are fattening 14 local variety cows in natural ways for selling those at the Eid market.

Cows normally get healthy if they are fed well natural fodders like grass and mixture of chaff and rice, he added.

SM Awal Haque, district livestock officer in Tangail, said, “The farm owners' tendency to use vitamins and steroids for fattening cows has decreased a lot. We along with 144 livestock officials and employees in 12 upazilas of the district are closely monitoring the activities of the cow fattening farms ahead of Eid.”