Livestock raising difficulties in Artvin: Sacrifice sales are low, shepherds cannot be found

UĞUR İSTANBULLU

(ARTVİN) Tarık Bozkurt, a cattle breeder in Sakarya village of Artvin’s Ardanuç district, said, “We are working on sacrificial and breeding animals, but unfortunately we could not open any animals this year. In the past years, I sold 35 animals in these seasons, but this year I could not sell any. Again, there are over 20 sacrificial animals, but “There is no one asking, no one looking, no one looking after our property, and we cannot find a shepherd,” he said.

Tarık Bozkurt, a medium-sized cattle producer in Sakarya village of Ardanuç district, said that they came to the point of quitting animal husbandry, complaining about the high feed costs, the difficulties they had in hiring shepherds and the bad sales of sacrificed animals.

“HALF OF THE COST IS ALREADY FEED”

Tarık Bozkurt said:

“We are working on sacrificial and breeding animals, but unfortunately we could not open any this year. In the past years, I sold 35 animals in these seasons, but this year I could not sell any. Again, there are over 20 sacrificial animals, but no one asks, calls or looks after our property. No matter how many liras you give to the shepherd, there is no one working. Me and my wife are herding the animals. I am 61 years old, I have been doing this job for 25 years. I think we are trying to make it to the last day. We cannot afford it anymore. You buy 10 sacks of feed, it costs 10 thousand. I have to buy at least 200 sacks for 20 animals, and we can’t handle it for sacrifice. Now, look, I only told you about one sack of feed. Feed: At least one sack is enough for an animal for five days. Calculate accordingly. We don’t count the grass and hay as we already have it. We only count it as feed, but there is no profit, it is over yet. We are confused about what to do in the face of this inflation and this expensiveness.

“ONE COW GOES FOR 4 MONTHS’ WAGE OF A SHEPHERD”

The topic of the shepherd is as follows; The people who work here do not come. It is not in our interest to bring it from outside because the problems of people outside are bigger. There are more different people. Don’t let people you don’t know, that is, people you don’t trust, sit in charge of your capital and enjoy it. Neither do we work for minimum wage. A shepherd wants 25 thousand and we cover everything from food, drink, clothes, shoes to underwear. We pay 25 thousand and still can’t find a man. For example, a normal cow sacrifice costs 100 thousand; one cow goes every 4 months just for the shepherd’s salary. “We now pay for his food and drink ourselves, and we don’t consider it as money.”