Demand for milch animals goes up at Manapparai shandy
The Hindu
Availability of green fodder cited as the reason for the demand
Demand for milch animals has gone up due to widespread availability of green fodder in different parts of the district.
Though the district receives about 48% of its total annual rainfall in the North-East monsoon between October and December, the South-West monsoon has turned out to be bountiful this year. The frequent rainfall has resulted in the emergence of green pastures in different parts of the district. Non-delta areas such as Manapparai, Marungapuri, Puthanatham and Thuraiyur too had witnessed the extensive growth of grass. So as to cash in on the availability of grass in plenty, the farmers had been showing enormous interest in buying milch animals, said a trader.
They came in large numbers to the weekly cattle shandy in Manapparai on Wednesday to buy cows. Since the traders and farmers competed with each other to buy milch animals, the prices of them went up by 10% to 20%.
In normal circumstances, the price of a ‘Sindhu’ variety of cow, which yields 20 litres of milk a day, is sold for ₹55,000. It was sold for ₹60,000 on Wednesday. Similarly, the rate of country breed (nattu madu) also went up by 10% to 15%. There were farmers, who returned to their villages without buying cows, due to heavy demand.
“Milch animal growers show keen interest to buy animals due to the availability of green fodder in open places in their locality. It has resulted over increase in their demand,” said N. Ponnusamy, a cattle trader.
According to sources, as against the arrival of about 600 milch animals, the shandy received about 1,000 milch animals. Almost all of them were sold. Business to the tune of ₹5 crore was carried out. The same trend is expected to continue in October and November too.