Raising Mong cows - a sustainable way out of poverty

(Baonghean) -In recent years, there have been many crop and livestock models implemented in the remote Ky Son district, but very few models have been widely applied and replicated by local people. The reason is that the new models are not suitable for the production practices of ethnic minorities, complex terrain, and harsh climate. Only indigenous crops and livestock are sustainable, in which Mong cattle are livestock with high economic value. It can be said that raising Mong cattle contributes effectively to the sustainable hunger eradication and poverty reduction in this remote district.

The Mong cattle herd in Ky Son is raised in many communes where Mong people live such as: Na Ngoi, Tay Son, Muong Long, Huoi Tu, Dooc May... Therefore, people call this breed of cattle Mong cattle, or U cattle. The Mong cattle breed has a completely different appearance from the yellow cattle breed, with a moderately large head, broad shoulders, deep and wide chest, large straight legs, a tall and well-proportioned body, silky yellow or brown fur, and the weight of mature bulls is from 300 - 400kg.

Mong cows of Mr. Luong Pho Tam's family in Hat Ta Ven village, Keng Du commune.

In Huoi Tu commune, when we mentioned raising Mong cows, everyone boasted how many cows they had grazing in the mountains. The Mong people here also have their own secrets about raising cows that only the highlanders have.

Mr. Cu Ba Chu in Pha Xac village said: The family has only 2 husband, wife and a small child, but the family's herd of cows always has more than 10. People here raise cows according to the habit of free-range, but they let them roam in concentrated areas of each village. The experience of the Mong people here is that every family raises at least 2 breeding cows and some bulls for meat sale. For male calves, after 3-4 years old, they are brought back to be raised in captivity, not allowed to go far away, raised until they are big enough to sell. Because male cows often leave the herd and go far away, if released, they are very easy to lose. Mong cows are large, easy to raise, less susceptible to diseases, delicious meat, there are bulls weighing more than 400 kg, sold for over 40 million VND. Mr. Chu's family sells 1-2 bulls every year, part of the money from selling cows is used to buy household items, part is used to buy more bulls to raise. Just like that, his family's herd always has more than 10 cows. Thanks to raising local cows, his family's life gradually stabilized.

In Keng Du commune, there is the family of Mr. Luong Pho Tam, in Hat Ta Ven village. Although he is a Kho Mu ethnic group, for many years he has invested in raising Mong cows, bringing high economic efficiency. In the Nam Doc stream area, nearly 7 km from the village, in addition to digging ponds to raise fish and reclaiming rice fields, Mr. Tam also built barns to raise cows. He created a habit for the cows by calling them home every afternoon to feed them salt, then locking them in the barn. Therefore, his family's herd of cows is not lost and they can also monitor diseases, so the herd grows quickly, and every year there are cows for sale.

Huoi Tu commune currently has 818 households, of which 778 are Mong ethnic households. Mr. Vu Giong Dia - Chairman of the commune People's Committee, said: The advantage of the locality is mostly hills and mountains, so there are conditions for raising cows. Currently, the commune has 3,087 cows, an increase of more than 100 cows compared to last year. For a long time, people here have considered cow raising as a key economic development for households. Every month, there are cars from brokers coming to the area to buy cows to transport to other places for consumption.

However, raising cattle locally still faces difficulties. Although some families know how to use garden land to grow grass for cattle feed, they mainly rely on natural grasslands, trees, and free-range grazing, which affects herd growth and makes it difficult to prevent livestock diseases. The purchase price on the market is unstable and is forced down by brokers. Moreover, many families do not pay attention to breed selection, so the weight of the cattle is small and cannot be sold at a good price.

The total herd of cattle in Ky Son district is currently nearly 43 thousand (the highest compared to the herd of cattle in the district). Up to now, with the support of the State, ethnic people in the whole district have planted 750 hectares of elephant grass, VA06 to raise buffaloes and cows.

According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tri - Head of the District Agriculture Department, there is no slaughterhouse for cattle in the area, and there are few individual households slaughtering cattle in the area, so the amount of cattle sold annually to the market is mainly brought to Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City for consumption. During the process of buying, selling, and transporting, it is difficult to control livestock disease prevention. Realizing that Mong cattle farming is an economic development direction suitable for Mong ethnic people, contributing effectively to hunger eradication and poverty reduction for the people, recently, the Center for Application of Scientific and Technological Advances (Department of Science and Technology) has implemented the scientific project "Application of scientific and technological advances to develop local yellow cattle breeds (Mong cattle) in Muong Long commune". The project will help ethnic minorities to effectively select male cattle breeds, prevent diseases in cattle herds, and increase income for breeders.

Xuan Hoang