Medium-sized cows in most demand at Sherpur's Eid cattle markets

Sacrificial animal markets in the border district of Sherpur were busy in the days before Eid-ul-Azha in 2026. Visiting several markets in the district on Tuesday 26 May, Jagonews24's Sherpur correspondent found that sales were rising as more buyers and sellers turned up, and that medium-sized cows were in the greatest demand. Law enforcement agencies were working to prevent irregularities, trouble and the use of fake notes at the markets, and the district police were working jointly with the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to stop Indian cattle entering across the border.

The National Moon Sighting Committee announced on the evening of 18 May that the Zilhaj moon had been sighted, so Eid-ul-Azha would be celebrated in Bangladesh on Thursday 28 May. The scene in Sherpur's markets was therefore just two days before Eid.

According to the Jagonews24 report, the district's markets were growing livelier ahead of Eid. Animals were coming not only from Sherpur's own farms and households but every day from Islampur and Bakshiganj upazilas in neighbouring Jamalpur district and from Phulpur upazila in Mymensingh district.

Buyers said that although there were plenty of animals, prices were sky-high. Many were buying animals they liked within their means, while others were moving from market to market because of the high prices. Sellers told a different story: the markets were full, they said, but buyers were still mostly looking and bargaining.

Saiful Islam, a seller at the Nouhata municipal cattle, buffalo and goat market in Sherpur, told Jagonews24 that broken rice, rice bran, wheat bran and straw were all expensive, and that the prices buyers were offering for cattle were way off the mark; nobody could sell at a loss, he said. Other sellers said the same. Making the numbers add up was very hard that year, they said, and if Indian cattle came in it would be a disaster, so they urged the administration to keep a strict watch on the border.

The preference for medium-sized cattle was not confined to Sherpur that year. In a report broadcast on 20 May, Independent Television (ITV) said markets were filling up across the country and demand was again highest for small and medium cattle; at markets in the border district of Chuadanga, medium cows were in more demand than large ones, and sellers said profits were relatively lower because rearing costs had gone up.

Feed costs were at the centre of the sellers' complaints. Three days before the Jagonews24 report, on 23 May, Dhaka Post and The Daily Campus carried the views of farmers at the Nouhata municipal cattle and buffalo market, the Abdus Samad cattle market, the Nalitabari bypass crossing market and the Jhenaigati Sadar Bazar market. The farmers said they had reared their cattle all year in the hope of a good price, but in their words market rates were lower than in earlier years.

The farmers said the prices of rice bran, grass pea, paddy, maize and concentrate feed mixed with wheat bran had risen sharply. Because bananas are grown widely in Sherpur, they said, fresh grass is hard to find, and straw is expensive too. Add labour, electricity and veterinary bills, and their costs had risen a great deal, they said.

A farmer from the Kangsha area at the Jhenaigati market gave specific figures: wheat bran cost Tk 65 a kilogram, a sack of rice bran Tk 1,500 and a bundle of straw seven and a half to eight taka, on top of labour costs, while buyers at the market were offering very low prices. Another farmer said the price of everything from food to clothing had gone up, but asking a fair price for a cow drew objections, and that Indian cattle would cause farmers heavy losses.

Complaints about feed costs were not new. A Prothom Alo report in May 2024 said the war between Russia and Ukraine, coming after the Covid-19 pandemic, had pushed up the price of concentrate feed for cattle, that farmers were still paying those higher prices, and that electricity, labour and other costs had also risen. In that report, the then director general of the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) said that because concentrate feed prices were abnormal, the department had been encouraging farmers to feed grass. An ITV report on 15 May 2026 likewise said farmers feared lower profits that year because of rising feed prices and wanted strict surveillance to stop cattle coming in from India across the border to keep the market stable.

Earlier reports also noted an advantage for farmers in Sherpur's hill areas. On 28 May 2025 the state news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reported that in the district's three border upazilas, local cattle were raised in a natural setting on field grass and hill vegetation, and that, as every year, buyers preferred these local cattle. In May 2026 ITV also reported that local cattle were being reared naturally in the Garo Hills on Sherpur's border, and that they had buyers.

Dr Rezuanul Haque Bhuiyan, head of the district livestock department, told Jagonews24 that 20 permanent markets had been set up in the district in 2026, with a medical team from the livestock department working at each. By his figures the district needed 62,000 sacrificial animals and had a supply of about 93,000, so by the department's count the animals prepared exceeded the district's own demand.

Earlier, in the ITV report of 15 May, the same official said the livestock department would try to make sure farmers got a fair price. That report also said about 15,000 cattle had been prepared in three of Sherpur's upazilas that year, and that the livestock department was advising buyers to trust local cattle.

The previous year's figures give a point of comparison. According to the BSS report of 28 May 2025, the district livestock department said at the time that there were about 13,762 farmers, large and small, in Sherpur's five upazilas. For Eid-ul-Azha in 2025 the district had 111,000 animals fit for sacrifice against a demand of 85,763; the opening of the report gave the number prepared by farmers as 110,000 and the surplus after local demand as 24,523. The two years' figures were given by different sources at different times, and the sources do not say whether they are directly comparable.

In that 2025 report, the district's additional livestock officer said veterinary surgeons were advising and helping farmers before Eid and that the department was watching to make sure no farmer fattened cattle by artificial means.

Sherpur's figures can be set against the national count. At a briefing at the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock on 3 May 2026 on demand, supply and transport of animals for Eid-ul-Azha, the fisheries and livestock minister said the estimated demand for sacrificial animals that year was 10,106,334, against an availability of 12,333,840, leaving a surplus of about 2,227,506 animals.

By the ministry's figures, the animals available for sacrifice were:

• Cattle and buffalo: 5,695,878
• Goats and sheep: 6,632,307
• Other species: 5,655

The same briefing said more than 3,600 cattle markets would be held across the country, including 27 in the capital, 16 in Dhaka North City Corporation and 11 in Dhaka South, where 20 veterinary medical teams would be on duty round the clock. The government would take a hard line on extortion from trucks carrying animals, law enforcers would be on constant duty to protect markets, buyers and sellers, and plain-clothes officers would be deployed where needed. No toll or market fee would be charged on animals bought online, and professional and amateur butchers had been trained so that hides would not be spoiled, the minister said.

In earlier years, too, the animals prepared exceeded demand. Prothom Alo reported on 22 May 2024 that by the DLS count there were 12,980,367 animals fit for sacrifice that year, all of them raised by local farmers. In the same report, however, several current and former DLS officials said the data sent up from upazila level was not always accurate, because so few staff had to collect so much information.

The size of the country's livestock sector gives further context. According to the DLS publication Livestock Economy at a Glance 2024-25, Bangladesh had 25.171 million cattle, 1.532 million buffalo, 27.291 million goats and 3.981 million sheep in fiscal 2024-25. The same publication puts livestock's share of gross domestic product at 1.81 per cent at constant prices and its share of agricultural GDP at 16.54 per cent, and says 20 per cent of the country's employment depends on the sector directly and 50 per cent partly. That year the demand for meat was 7.792 million tonnes and production 8.954 million tonnes.

Additional Superintendent of Police Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan told Jagonews24 that the district police and other law enforcement agencies were working in co-ordination with the BGB to stop smuggling of cattle and other goods across the border. "Law enforcers are determined to keep cattle smuggling across the border at zero," he said.

This matters particularly in Sherpur because, as Dhaka Post reported on 23 May, the district's Nalitabari, Sreebardi and Jhenaigati upazilas lie along the border with the Indian state of Meghalaya. A year earlier, in a BSS report of May 2025, the district's additional superintendent of police said intelligence surveillance had been stepped up in the border area so that Indian cattle could not enter illegally through any part of Sherpur's border, and that plain-clothes police would watch the markets to stop fake notes.

There was a national decision on border markets as well. At the 3 May briefing, the fisheries and livestock minister said a decision in principle had been taken that year to close cattle markets in border areas to protect local farmers. In the past, he explained, foreign animals had come in through some markets close to the border and local farmers had suffered losses, so markets were not to be held in border areas.

Bangladesh's sacrificial market once relied heavily on Indian cattle. In an August 2019 Dhaka Tribune report, the then DLS director (production) said that after India banned cattle exports in 2014, Bangladeshi farmers made large profits selling cattle at Eid-ul-Azha, which encouraged them to take up the business on a larger scale. Citing BGB data, the report said about 2.3 million cattle had entered Bangladesh in 2013, while in 2019 only 75,696 had entered through the corridors up to May. Since then local farmers have met most of the Eid demand, and the prospect of cattle crossing the border is, for them, a risk of losses.

Because so much cash changes hands at Eid cattle markets, the risk of counterfeit notes rises. Bangla Tribune reported on 11 May that Bangladesh Bank had issued a circular on 10 May directing banks to set up counterfeit note detection booths at cattle markets across the country. Each bank was told to appoint a co-ordinating officer and send his or her details to the central bank by 17 May.

The circular assigned banks to the approved markets of Dhaka North and South city corporations; for markets outside Dhaka, the relevant Bangladesh Bank office would decide, and in districts without a Bangladesh Bank office the duty was to be shared among different banks. Banks were advised to run the booths in co-ordination with the local administration, district administration, municipalities and law enforcers, and to take legal action against those involved if counterfeit notes were detected.

Similar arrangements had been seen at Sherpur's Nouhata market before. In an August 2019 Bangla Tribune report, the market's leaseholder said law enforcers patrolled the market regularly for the safety of buyers and sellers, and that machines to detect fake notes and banking services were available.

According to Banglapedia, Sherpur district in Dhaka division covers 1,364.67 square kilometres. It is bounded by the Indian state of Meghalaya to the north, Mymensingh and Jamalpur districts to the south, Mymensingh to the east and Jamalpur to the west. Sherpur municipality was formed in 1869, and the Sherpur subdivision became a district in 1984. Of its five upazilas, Sherpur Sadar is the largest (356.12 sq km) and Nakla the smallest (174.80 sq km).

Citing the 2011 census, Banglapedia gives the district's population as 1,358,325 and agriculture as the main source of income (65.71 per cent). Its main rivers include the Old Brahmaputra, Someshwari, Chilakhali, Bhogai, Kangsa and Digana. The main crops of Sherpur Sadar upazila are paddy, jute, wheat, pulses, mustard, potato and vegetables.

Of the three border upazilas, Banglapedia lists Nalitabari at 327.60 sq km, Jhenaigati at 242.07 sq km and Sreebardi at 248.25 sq km; all three have Meghalaya to their north. Garo, Hajong, Hodi, Mandai and Koch communities live in Nalitabari, which is home to the Madhutila Ecopark and a rubber dam on the Bhogai river, while the Gazni recreation centre is in Jhenaigati.

The areas sending animals to Sherpur's markets also adjoin the district. According to Banglapedia, Bakshiganj upazila in Jamalpur has Meghalaya to its north and Sherpur's Sreebardi upazila to its east, with the Garo Hills in its north-east. Islampur upazila in Jamalpur has Sherpur Sadar and Sreebardi upazilas to its east. Phulpur upazila in Mymensingh has Sherpur's Nakla upazila to its west, and the Sherpur-Nakla-Phulpur-Mymensingh road (R371) links the two districts.

Strong demand for small and medium cattle at Sherpur's markets had been reported before. On 11 August 2019 Bangla Tribune reported that the town's largest cattle markets, Nouhata and Kusumhati, were packed with buyers and sellers a day before Eid. A trader from Sreebardi said at the time that medium and small cattle were in greater demand. Citing buyers and sellers, the report said there was particular interest in red cattle and in cattle from farmers in Sherpur's hill areas. Many buyers said most people wanted to buy a cow for Tk 35,000 to 60,000, but prices were somewhat higher than that.

In the same report a seller from Jhenaigati said sacrificial animals could not be priced by the kilogram like meat, as each cow cost farmers a great deal to raise, though at the market small cows were fetching higher prices than large ones.

Big cattle also drew attention in the district in the 2026 season. Prothom Alo reported on 17 May that people were crowding every day to see a black-and-white bull of about 33 maunds named 'Banglar Don' at a farm in Kapashia Paschimpara in Nalitabari upazila. By the farm's account the bull was about 11 feet long and six feet two inches tall and ate about 40 kg of grass and 15 kg of oil cake a day, along with various kinds of bran. The farm's manager said its price was being set at more than Tk 1.3 million, at Tk 1,000 a kilogram of live weight. The farm had prepared 70 cattle for Eid, of which 66 had already been sold online to buyers in Dhaka, a person in charge of the farm said.

In that report the Nalitabari upazila livestock officer said people were becoming more interested in animals fattened in safe and healthy ways, and that the livestock department had advised the farmer regularly. Even amid such talk of giant bulls, most buyers at the markets on 26 May were looking for medium-sized cows.

Photo: Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Dhaka Post, The Daily Campus, ITV, The Business Standard Bangla, Bangla Tribune, Samakal, Prothom Alo, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Dhaka Tribune, Department of Livestock Services, Banglapedia