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Tamil Nadu Hums |
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| Title |
Conserving Bargur Breed: Sturdiness, Spirit and Speed |
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| Details |
21114 Machine to clean carrots after harvest
Nachimathu (59), grows carrot, peas, potato, orange, beet root, banana, plums and beans in his six acre land. After harvest, farmers fill gunny bags with carrots and immerse them in running stream to remove soil particles attached to carrots. Nachimathu wanted to find an alternative solution for this laborious process. He designed a model of a carrot cleaning machine in the year 2003. The machine has a hopper with a capacity of 350 kg and requires a three HP oil engine. Nachimathu now requires only two labourers to operate this machine instead of six earlier to wash carrots from four acres land.
Nachimathu, Dindigul Distt.
21115 Conservation and development of ‘Bargur’ breed of cattle
Nachimuthu (66) owns 40 acres of land and cultivates banana, turmeric, maize and cotton. His family has maintained a herd of 150 ‘Bargur’ breed of cattle for the last 50 years. They earlier lived in a village near Kangayam in Erode district. About 60 years ago, there was famine in that area and the entire family migrated to Anthiyur near Bargur Hills. His father Karuppana also brought Kangayam cattle with him. The new area had a hilly terrain and therefore the Kangayam cattle could not climb the hills for grazing. He realized that a local breed of cattle called ‘Bargur’ was already adapted for this topography and therefore tried cross-breeding of Kangyam and Bargur breeds. Within four generations he completely adapted the breed into ‘Bargur type’. His father was careful in selecting the bulls. He selected male calves which were healthy, had red horns and also were born to such mother cows which lactated for the second time. A salient feature of this breed is that bullocks have strong hooves and need not be shoed while using them for long journey for pulling cart, unlike other breeds of draught cattle. Bargur bullocks are unsurpassable in sturdiness, spirit and speed. They have moderately sized hump, not so prominent forehead, horns that grow backwards and upwards, and well mashed dewlap and short tail. Their body colour is red and white and sometimes light grey. Eyes are dark red. The animals are not affected much if there is an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the area.
Bargur calves are in good demand in areas like Aathur and Thamampatti in Salem district. He gets six tonnes of manure from his herd every month which is priced at Rs 1500 per load. For banana cultivation, he has completely replaced chemical fertilizers with ten tonnes of cattle dung in one acre. When manure is given as basal dose, the banana and turmeric crops need not be treated with chemical fertilizers. He also observed that such practice of manuring advances maturity of red banana plantation by at least one month (instead of 13 months, he harvests mature fruits at the end of 12 months).
Nachimuthu’s father won the second prize in a cattle show at Delhi about 40 years ago for his Bargur breed. At present, Bargur stock and the bulls owned by Nachimuthu are one of the best in the breeding tract as reported by Dr Kandasamy, retired Professor of Animal Genetics, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal, a constituent college of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai.
K. Nachimuthu Goundar, Erode Distt.
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| Volume No. |
Honey bee 20(4), 28, 2009 & 2010 |
