Cows relocated due to use of weed killer

MUAR: A cattle breeder with more than 600 cows reared under an integrated farming scheme at a plantation near Grisek has been forced to relocate the herd.

Barnin Sawo, 46, from Kudang Ulu, said although no official notice was issued to him to relocate the cattle, workers had started using weed killer in the plantation.

He said this method to control undergrowth endangered the animals.

He had asked the plantation management not to use the poison to no avail.

No choice: Barnin looking at some of his cows reared at the plantation in Kundang Ulu recently

“I have an agreement with the plantation to rear the cows on a 500ha plot, but the agreement ends on October 30.

“I started the scheme with the plantation in 2004 and the workers have never used week killer near the area where the cows were confined,” he said in Kundang Ulu recently.

However, Barnin said that things changed recently when the plantation changed its management and the workers were directed to use the weed killer.

After several appeals to the management failed, he started relocating the cows to the Kundang Ulu Youth Felcra scheme where he owned a 1.2ha plot, he said.

The Felcra scheme covered less than 40ha and his herd would ravage the grass within two months, he said, adding that he needed at least 400ha.

His involvement in cattle breeding started eight years ago after calls by former Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said the Government planned to increase the nation’s beef and mutton production and cut imports amounting to more than RM1bil annually.

He started the venture with 300 head of Brahman cattle.

The Muar Veterinary Department later provided him another 300 head under a scheme called Pawah.

The animals were bred to produce new generations of Brahman cows for distribution to farmers as the Government wanted to cut beef imports from India and Australia.

SOURCE: THE STAR, 9 SEPTEMBER 2008