Farmer Hamida hopes to sell her one-and-a-half-tonne bull 'Manik' this Eid. She has taken him to market three times before without a sale and is quite disheartened, but she has not given up. She keeps raising Manik in the hope of a fair price, and dreams of starting a dairy farm with the money from selling him.

Hamida Akter, who took an honours degree in history from Sa'dat University College in Tangail, is the daughter of farmer Abdul Hamid and Rina Begum of Bhenguliya village in Ward 5 of Lauhati union, on the border of Nagarpur and Delduar upazilas in Tangail. Using local methods she has raised Manik, now a six-year-old giant bull. Her Australian Friesian cattle are growing up like members of the family.

The cattle shed has two ceiling fans and mosquito nets. Their regular diet includes straw, bran, fresh grass, malta, guava, bananas, sweet pumpkin and sweet potato. To keep germs away they are bathed every day with soap and shampoo. Manik's feed and care cost Hamida about Tk 1,500 a day.

Hamida is the eldest of the Hamid-Rina couple's three daughters. With her earnings she has paid for her own and her two sisters' education and has also taken on the running of her farmer father's household. Both younger sisters have passed the HSC; one is married and the other is studying nursing.

Her father's land, including the homestead, is only 50 decimals. As he could not bear so many household costs, in 2011 she began tailoring alongside her studies. For the past six years she has also raised cattle, geese and pigeons and run a bKash agent business. A year ago she set up a grocery shop in front of the house as her business base, where she sells various foods and runs the bKash agency, Flexiload and tailoring. The income pays for their studies and the household.

Manik needs 17 kg of wheat bran, 4 kg of chickpeas, 2 kg of broken-rice rice and half a kilogram of mustard oilcake a day, plus ripe bananas of various kinds. Meeting such daily costs has become almost impossible for Hamida.

Hamida said Manik now weighs one and a half tonnes. Six years ago two Friesian cows on her farm gave birth to two bull calves, Manik and Ratan. She decided to sell both at the last Eid market. At that time Manik weighed 35 maunds and Ratan 34 maunds, and she asked Tk 14 lakh for Manik and Tk 13 lakh for Ratan. Cattle traders came to the house and offered Tk 9 lakh for Manik, but wanted to take him on credit, so he was not sold. Manik and Ratan were later taken to Dhaka's Gabtoli market, but because of coronavirus that did not help either. Ratan was sold for only Tk 4 lakh, while Manik was brought back home.

"This time we are trying to sell the bull from home. If a buyer comes and offers a fair price, we will deliver Manik to the buyer's house at our own expense. I hope we can sell him at a good price this year," Hamida said.

Nayan and Murad, visitors from Nagarpur, said: "We have never seen such a big bull before. We don't think there is a second one this big in the district."

Jahangir Alam Buddu, the union parishad member for Ward 5 of Lauhati union, said college student Hamida had raised the bull with great effort. She has tried for two years but has not been able to sell him. "I pray the bull sells at a good price this time," he said.

Delduar Upazila Livestock Officer Dr Md Bahauddin Sarowar Rizvi said: "At this year's livestock fair we gave entrepreneur Hamida first prize for the bull. There are few buyers for such a big animal in the district. She will have to try to sell him at a sacrificial animal market in Dhaka."

He added that last year he had advised selling the bull to the Bengal Meat company by the kilogram, but Hamida did not agree. This time too they are looking for a buyer for Hamida's bull.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.