We rear our cattle with full involvement and love. We give one day Oyvu (rest day for
cattle) and on that day all cows will not be milked i.e. every Monday; but calves will be
allowed to suck the entire milk. On all Mondays, bullocks also take rest and will not be
engaged in ploughing or any other work purpose. In each family, one or two animals in
the herd will be dedicated to Matheswaraswami (an incarnation/form of Lord Shiva) and
such animals will be maintained till the point of its death or allowed for free grazing in
the vicinity of Matheswaraswami temple.
Grazing system
We are living in the midst of jungle and we also have to cultivate lands. The land area
owned by a Lingayat family is on an average 1-3 acre of rain-fed land. We raise jowar,
pulses, field beans, ragi etc. When we sow crops at the onset of south-west monsoon i.e.
during the month of Adi (July-August), it is difficult for us to keep animals as they graze
in the crop land. Therefore, we take them deep into the forests after collecting all
animals. The animal herder who is having good bulls will gather cows from farmers for
temporary herding. The herder will gather a herd to a size of 50-100. The animals are
penned during the night time in places such as Karkekandi, Otithikovai etc. At present
22 such herds are being maintained by us.
In some villages like Velampatti and Kuttaiyur individual herders maintain their herds
by daily taking them to the forests and return to their respective cattle sheds situated in
their village. The dung of the animals is stored and used for manuring the cultivable land
in the hilly terrain.
Animal genetic resources
We settled in Bargur forests some four centuries ago and now we live in 36 hamlets with
size of 10-200 house-holds in each hamlet. Our native breed of cattle is adapted to this
area and can climb hills and also to a certain extent face wild animals as a herd with
their sharp and pointed horns. We also maintain buffaloes of local type which yield
about 2 litres of milk and are good in climbing hills and suitable for forest grazing. We
developed indigenous knowledge in management of animal herds, selection of bulls,
medicinal and grass species for animal nutrition and treatment.
We maintain the following breeds:
• Bargur cattle
• ‘Malai Erumai’ known as hill buffalo
These breeds are intrinsically migratory and cannot be stall-fed. They do not survive or
retain their vigour, if they are forced to stall-feed and therefore adapted to forest
ecosystem.
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