Eid-ul-Azha is at the door, and buyers have already started purchasing sacrificial animals. Alongside the cattle markets, many buyers are also visiting farms to pick the animals they like.

This year RK Agro Farm in the Dhonkunda Godnail area of Siddhirganj, Narayanganj, has raised high-quality sacrificial animals. To attract buyers, the farm has named its two biggest bulls 'Pathan' and 'Zayed Khan'. Hundreds of buyers and onlookers crowd the farm every day to see them, and many take photos and videos.

Pathan, a two-and-a-half-year-old Sahiwal weighing 20 maunds, is being offered at Tk 10 lakh. The red-and-black animal is 10 feet long and five feet tall. Zayed Khan, a Sindhi bull of 18 maunds, is priced at Tk 8 lakh; it too is red and black, 10 feet long and five feet tall. Both are fed bran, green grass and straw every day.

Explaining the names, the farm's manager, Md Abdus Samad, said the bull was affectionately named Pathan when the film Pathan was released. Its build is much like Pathan's, he said, and it responds when called by that name.

On the name Zayed Khan, he said that when Pathan was released, Zayed Khan attracted a lot of attention by talking about the film. When the two bulls were kept side by side, one would butt the other, "so I thought, let's name this one Zayed Khan". The bull is now widely known on the farm by that name.

The farm's accounts officer, Md Nazir Hossain, said more than a thousand cattle of the Brahman, Sindhi, Sahiwal, Nepali bullock, Deshal and Friesian breeds have been raised on the farm, along with dumba and other sheep. Seventy per cent of the cattle have already been sold. Many buyers are leaving the animals they bought on the farm, and these will be delivered whenever the buyers wish.

He added that hundreds of buyers and visitors come to the farm every day, that the farm tries to supply only fully healthy cattle, and that many people are also ordering online. The response from buyers is better than last year, he said.

Narayanganj district livestock officer Basona Akter said about one lakh animals may be sacrificed in Narayanganj this year, and more animals than needed are ready. Besides specialised farms, ordinary farms and farmers have raised livestock at home for the Eid. Agro farms attract buyers most at present, she said, so many people now buy their sacrificial cattle from them.

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