The owner of a lovingly raised bull is worried about selling it before this Eid-ul-Azha. Many buyers have crowded to his house to see and bid for it, but it has not been sold because he has not been offered the price he wants.

Momin Munshi, a farmer from Bagbaria village in Kachhundi union of Sadar upazila, has raised the bull like his own child and affectionately named it "Kalu". But the bull has left him in a bind, and the closer Eid gets, the more his worry grows, it was found on Friday (15 May).

"I have raised Kalu like my own child for the past three years. I will sell him ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. People come from different areas every day to see him and make offers, but because I haven't got the price I hoped for, he hasn't been sold yet. The bull is 5 feet tall and 10 feet long and weighs about 20 maunds. Because he is black, I lovingly named him Kalu," Momin Munshi said.

He said he raised the bull naturally on fresh grass, oil cake, bran, maize, pulse powder, straw and molasses. Given the current situation in the country, it is not possible to take him to Dhaka or Chattogram to sell.

"Raising the bull for three years has cost me a lot of money. Right now I spend Tk 800 a day on him. I'll sell him at the current market price. It isn't possible to take him to market, so he will have to be sold from home," he added.

Raju Ahmed of Bagbaria village said the bull is very big and that Momin Munshi and his family have raised it with great effort. If he cannot sell it at a good price now, he will face a loss, he said.

Magura district livestock officer Dr Mihir Kanti Biswas said farmers are being encouraged to fatten animals in safe and natural ways. "We have visited Momin Munshi's farm. The bull has been raised hygienically using local feed. The farm has a black bull that is estimated to weigh around 20 maunds," he said.

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