Faithful find cows easier on pockets

Cost sharing for a cow popular once again.

LAHORE: Most people visiting the city’s cattle markets on the last day before Eid on Sunday preferred cows over goats and lambs pointing to high prices of the latter two as their reason.

Talking to The Express Tribune during his hunt at the cattle market, Akhter Nadeem said his family had decided to slaughter a cow after failing to get a good bargain for goats. He said he and his brother had earlier been visiting the market every day for over a week expecting a decline in the prices of goats.

“We’ll get a cow in about Rs40,000. For that money we’ll get two goats only,” he said, “the meat from the cow will be way more than what we’ll get from the goats.”

All six cattle markets set up on the outskirts of the city remained crowded throughout the day with potential buyers. The prices of animals remained steady for most of the first half of the day, falling slightly by the evening.

Except for those few dealers who had yet to sell most of their animals the majority of vendors showed little interest in bargaining. Another trend among the citizens this year was sharing the cost of a cow. The prices of cows this year started from Rs35,000.

Abdul Shakoor, a dealer, who said he had sold out his entire stock, said an upward trend in sales started as late as Saturday. Most of his animals were sold on Sunday, he added.

“Last year, most of the animals were sold before evening on the last day before Eid. Perhaps that is a reason so many people have flocked to the market earlier in the day,” he said.

He said the prices were likely to rise by night as vendors realise people will have little option but to accept their offers.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th,  2011.