Cattle market gets sheds with fodder pit

Cattle market gets sheds with fodder pit

Tirunelveli Corporation has erected sheds at its weekly cattle market to enable farmers to keep their animals and feed them until they are sold to the buyers.

As hundreds of farmers bring their cows, bulls, sheep and goats to the cattle market on Melapalayam – Tuckerammalpuram road, there is a huge crowd of sellers and buyers on Monday evenings and Tuesdays. The sellers of cattle would have to pay a prescribed fee to the contractor who has taken the rights in the public auction for collecting money. This way the Corporation gets a decent revenue every year.

While the sheep and goats are brought to the market only in the early hours of Tuesdays, bulls and cows are brought in the evening of Mondays itself and the trade would take place throughout the night.

As the unsold bulls and cows are to be kept in the market till Tuesday morning and fed properly, the Corporation has built cattle sheds on an outlay of ₹90 lakh. The shed was formally inaugurated by Palayamkottai MLA M. Abdul Wahab on Tuesday.

 “Since the sheds have been provided with a pit for keeping the fodder, the unsold animals can be kept for more time at the market,” said a Corporation official.  Sufficient drinking water has also been kept there to water the animals, and also for the public coming to the market, the official said.