Pabna Correspondent:

A total of 648,204 animals are ready for sacrifice in Pabna during the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha this year, according to official sources.

Farmers hope that their dreams will come true with the fair market prices of their raised animals this time.

They said there is a demand for Pabna’s cattle across the country.

In the meantime, sale of sacrificial animals has started more or less in various markets of the district. In addition, sale of cows and buffaloes has started from farmers’ homes and online.

According to the Pabna District Livestock Office, 648,204 animals have been prepared in nine upazilas of Pabna on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha this year.

The total demand for sacrificial animals in the district during this Eid is 312,826. Of them, 335,378 are surplus, which will be put on sale in the markets outside.

There are 27,101 cattle farmers in the nine upazilas of the district. They have raised small and medium-sized Holstein Friesian, Sindhi, Jersey, Brownie Sweet, Norwegian Red, Brahma and White Holstein and various indigenous breeds of animals for sacrifice during the Eid-ul-Azha .

Of the animals, 198,654 are cows, 8,480 buffaloes, 372,611 goats and 68,292 are sheep.

Official sources said after meeting the district’s demand, the surplus animals will be sold in different districts of the country, including Dhaka and Chattogram.

Every year, a large number of cattle are supplied to Dhaka and Chattogram from Pabna.

If the market situation remains favourable until Eid, the farmers and cattle raisers could make good profits, said officials of the department concerned.

After going to the spot and talking to farmers, it was learnt that cattle were fattened by feeding them straw, wheat and various types of pulse husks, green grass, corn silencer, chickpeas and natural food.

But as prices of these feeds are very high many of the farmers are thinking that the profit from selling cows will be very low.

However, if Indian cows do not enter the market illegally, the farmers hope that they will be able to make some profit by selling their animals.

Abdus Sobahan Sikder, owner of Bismillah Dairy Farm in Puran Mashumdia village of Bera upazila of the district “I have fattened five cows for Eid-ul-Azha. If Indian cows do not enter market illegally, it is expected that the price may increase from the current rate.”

Shafiur Rahman Rimon, owner of Sadid Rayyan Agrovet Farm in Notunbarenga village of the same upazila, said, “The farm’s expenses have increased due to the high price of animal feed.”

He has 40 cows of different sizes in his farm. Of them, he has prepared five cows for sale during Eid-ul-Azha.

Out of the five cows, they have decided to sell one for around Tk0.6million, one for Tk0.5 million and the remaining thee for Tk 0.15 million to Tk0.2 million each.’

He said, “Now, due to the presence of various modern farms around Dhaka, marginal farmers do not get good prices.”

Pabna District Livestock Officer Dr A KSM Musharraf Hossain “Farmers in Pabna region are quite aware of animal feed. They are fattening cows with natural food including raw grass, oil cake, husk and corns. We are constantly visiting different areas. We regularly meet farmers and advise them to be sensitive.”

“Already, several farmers have sold cows and buffaloes. They have also received good prices. Many farmers are also selling animals online. Overall, it is expected that farmers will get good prices this year,” he added.