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Why do Thais keep cows?


Costas2008

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I didn't bother to read all the posts in this thread. Repeat after me: these animals, cows as well as buffaloes, get sold. 30 -40 000 Baht might seem insignificant to many of you but it means all the world to a rice farmer that has not been paid for his rice, many had to sell around here, tears were shed. The meat is too expensive for most Thais, nothing religious about it at all. If I buy then I make hamburgers for the freezer. If you don't belive me, go visit Buriram slaughter house after midnight.

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Mr. Costas sorry to upset another thread devoted to milking but the cows are for eating. They sell them for slaughter.

You need to go around Khao Yai plenty of milking cows there.

Not where, I live.

The same cows have been there for years.

Beef is not widely available, except in 3 or 4 outlets, that I wouldn't dare to buy from as the flies are all over them.

They are not for slaughtering.

Do they have names,harder to kill if you know them.

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Funny thread :D

So we have:

- an investment decision gone bad, not wanting to lose face

- just generally loving cows

- the tradition from parents

- emergency fund; for when not paid for rice

Of these the emergency fund seems to make sense to me. I saw a similar but less extreme thing with old cars in Argentina. It makes sense to put a lot of work in if you're getting economically shafted every 10 years.

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There many reasons. They let the manure accumulate in the pens then dig it out and either sell it or use it for their own fields. They let them calf and then after a year or so sell the calves. They are like a gold necklace, when money is short they can be sold. They are a time consumer,when the rice has been planted and there is very little to do the farmer or his wife take them to the fields to eat grass and the farmers socialize with the other farmers doing the same thing,they sit under a tree away from the wife and drink lao kao and have a snooze.They don't cost much to keep and get big by themselves. Although normally a pig will be slaughtered for a village festival a cow can also be used for the same purpose. I have rarely seen them call a vet when the animal is ill,if it dies there is a little festival or the meat is cut up and sold at the village shop ( probably illegal,but hey we are in Thailand ). That's my experience anyway.

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My wife comes from a small village near Sakon Nakhon where cattle are kept. Her answer to this question was simple. They are an investment. They buy them young, fatten them up and then sell them on, either to a farm or for slaughter. Occasionally, if they have the time and money to invest, they allow the cow to breed and thus create a ‘rolling investment’ so to speak. Some of her own family still raise cows in this way.

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I lived in Sisaket for 2 years with my GF and I ended up buying several cows for her---I must say I was bemused by this post because I thought the exact same thing.

As my GF put it "Boy cow boom boom lady cow, and then make baby cow. Can sell baby cow."

Their family had rice farms and they also grew Isaan potatoes (the kind that look like little twigs--IDK the name)

So, yeah, it is also a status symbol of sorts. A strange type of holdover from early days. Also, it is a way for a farmer to diversify their wealth.

Oh, and since we are on the subject....Whenever I tried to sleep or read a book, or just have some thoughts of my own--every 11 seconds of the day, the neighbors rooster would crow. I would countdown 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, etc---cocka doodle doo! Every 11 seconds. I asked my GF if the rooster had an internal clock and that if every 11 seconds it would look up and say to itself "Oh, wow, that's the sun--let me point it out to everyone with ears."

My GF tilted her head and said "You funny. Boy chicken don't own a watch. Chicken can't tell time."

*Facepalm*

I was given the same answer...."Boy chicken walk around all day and boom boom lady chicken, then have baby chicken."

So that clears that up.

Man, I miss those Isaan days.

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They keep cows because they've always kept cows, and that's what they think they should do. They can sell them so they can get a small income, but it really isn't worth the effort at all. Traditionally they were a sign of wealth and prosperity. So some just do it because their parents did it back when they were valuable because they were needed to plow the fields. Most people don't keep them anymore though, the number of buffalo in Thailand is a lot less than it was 30 years ago when they were actually useful.

Is that the explanation for the unusually large number of sudden buffalo deaths in Thailand ?

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the long eared cows bring a much higher price; there are bulls that are owned by hi/so and hi level army guys that are usd to breed all the cows... they have pics and prices at the supermarkets or posted on walls.

the male calves are for being eaten. the females are mostly sold to bring new babies... its also a face thing, like owning a small herd of long eared cows means u have money.

as for buffalo, used to be that noone would eat a buffalo as it was your friend and served you so not eaten. nowadays the good strong well fleshed out buffalo calves are slaughered and that means that there are not too many good bulls and cow buffaloes to breed althouhg there was a King's program a few years ago. (we tried to get info but never succeeded.) ...

there are some booklets put out by the agric. dept on buffalo breeding, cow breeding and other livestock...

so a serious answer to a perhaps not so serious question... real prices can be found in the farming section as there are some that keep quality bulls and cows for breeding, of the thai long eared variety.

they are not the kind ofr milk. chock chai near korat is the milk cow breeder

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Beef prices are very expensive in Thailand now. You can buy chicken or pork for less than 100 baht a kilo, but beef starts at 300 baht a kilo. A good sized cow (female/breeder) is easily worth 25,000 to 35,000 baht. So a Thai with 5 or 6 cows may have a value of 150,000 - 200,000 baht, not a shabby amount of cash for a villager.

Though most cows are of the Brahman breed in Thailand, the govt. has an ongoing program to improve the heard. We have six cows and have been cross breeding Black Angus with Brahman through insemination with the government vet.

6 years ago, I had a GF, who had 30 head of cattle. I spent time at her parent's home on five acres, plus they owned an adjacent property with a house and 3 acres. It was all grassland, and they did not grow anything on it, not even a vegetable garden, so the cows kept the fields mowed. The GF had been married off to a rich Thai man when she was a 17 yr old virgin, and the family received a very large sin sot for her, since, at the age of 17, her looks rivaled those of any international model. She was quite unusual, a beautiful girl, but also, though both her parents were clearly Thai, and her sister and brother looked like typical Isaan Thais, she looked almost more Mediterranean than Thai, and was sometmies mistaken for a farang.

From a very early age, her beauty was recognized, and her mom, anticipating the value of her future sin sot, spoiled her rotten. Consequently, she had an extremely high opinion of herself. She was also highly intelligent, and thought she knew better than anyone else, bossed people around(especially her parents and siblings), and didn't understand why she could not always have her way.

For her honeymoon, her Thai husband took her on a long tour of Europe. But the romance didn't last. After one year, he could not bear her attitude anymore. So, when she gave birth to a child, he came and took the boy from the hospital immediately, and that was the last she ever saw of him or the child, she was delivered divorce papers the next day.

What's that got to do with cows, you may be asking yourself. Well, with the sin sot, she bought 25 cattle, and 30 rai of sugar cane (an Udon Thani girl). Her brother, who was a bit of a layabout, took care of the cattle for her, as it was the least he could do for her, since he was always sponging money from her, and she paid his 100K sin sot, when he had to marry the 15 yr old he knocked up (he was 25 at the time, one year older than her).

The herd had grown to 30 at the time I visited with her parents in Udon Thani. Of course, I wondered why she had bought the herd of cattle. Why not more sugar cane land? She didn't offer any explanation, but after some time observing her behavior, I reached the following conclusion. To my way of thinking, having a herd of cattle was like having a big bank account. But better. The sugar cane paid off l at harvest time, but cash doesn't last, as she was constantly being hit up for money by her parents, siblings, aunts, and cousins. Not to mention the wat at the end of her road, where she was a steady contributor, as was her mother. also.

Consequently, the cash came and went, then they would be broke again until next harvest. Same with her father, who also had 30 rai of sugar cane. But you can't borrow cattle, and you can't hit someone up for a little piece of it, every time they need to fill their rice bowl. She spoke with her mom every day on the phone for an hour or more. By the end of it, it always sounded like an argument to me. Her mom was constantly badgering her for money, and she was constantly berating her mom for one thing or another, and if there was nothing elso to badger her about, it always came back to the forced marriage, and her lost child, which she blamed her mom for, and often threw that in her face.

But these being Isaan folk, all the arguing in the world did not separate them, they were back at it again the next day, as in spite of it all, the bond between them was extremely strong. And my GF, like so many other Isaan girls, felt it to her bones, that she must take care of family. As much as she complained about it, that did not lessen her sense of duty one whit.

Consequently, periodically, when cash was scarce, and the weight of her mother's cries of poverty accumulated to a degree, where she could no longer bear it, she would allow her mom to sell a cow. She was getting about 20K Baht at the time for one cow.

Only her mom could ever get her to sell a cow. She paid no attention to her dad, never spoke to him on the phone, and when we were visiting the family home, I never heard her speak to him, except to yell out commands to him, to do this, that, or the other thing for her. Which he quite calmly ignored, until a certain time had passed, enough to show her he could not be treated like a servant, but then quietly, after she had finally given up yelling at him, he would do as she asked, smiling all the while, as though this was all a very polite, civil, and normal way of going about things.

So having the cows was a storehouse of value, and better than a bank, because it had nt ATM, so nobody could prevail upon her for a handout or loan. Except mom, of course, and mom and to withstand quite an ear-beating over many weeks of pleading to get her to sell a cow. The proof of that was that in six years, her herd had grown from 25 to 30 head.

So, having cows is not just a symbol of wealth and status. It is actual wealth, better than money in the bank.

This story almost put tears in my eyes sounds like a screenplay for one of those Thai soap ophra's.The cowfather part one would be a title i think.

Edited by Kudel
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The guy across the road from me has a few cows and he never seemed to do anything with them so a couple years ago I asked him what he does with them, simple answer "sell kee" so now I buy cow manure from him for my fruit trees. Before I just shovelled it off the road onto the trees, never knew I was stealing his poo, whoops.

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I enjoyed reading that story ... thumbsup.gif

6 years ago, I had a GF, who had 30 head of cattle. I spent time at her parent's home on five acres, plus they owned an adjacent property with a house and 3 acres. It was all grassland, and they did not grow anything on it, not even a vegetable garden, so the cows kept the fields mowed. The GF had been married off to a rich Thai man when she was a 17 yr old virgin, and the family received a very large sin sot for her, since, at the age of 17, her looks rivalled those of any international model. She was quite unusual, a beautiful girl, but also, though both her parents were clearly Thai, and her sister and brother looked like typical Isaan Thais, she looked almost more Mediterranean than Thai, and was sometimes mistaken for a farang.

From a very early age, her beauty was recognized, and her mom, anticipating the value of her future sin sot, spoiled her rotten. Consequently, she had an extremely high opinion of herself. She was also highly intelligent, and thought she knew better than anyone else, bossed people around(especially her parents and siblings), and didn't understand why she could not always have her way.

For her honeymoon, her Thai husband took her on a long tour of Europe. But the romance didn't last. After one year, he could not bear her attitude anymore. So, when she gave birth to a child, he came and took the boy from the hospital immediately, and that was the last she ever saw of him or the child, she was delivered divorce papers the next day.

What's that got to do with cows, you may be asking yourself. Well, with the sin sot, she bought 25 cattle, and 30 rai of sugar cane (an Udon Thani girl). Her brother, who was a bit of a layabout, took care of the cattle for her, as it was the least he could do for her, since he was always sponging money from her, and she paid his 100K sin sot, when he had to marry the 15 yr old he knocked up (he was 25 at the time, one year older than her).

The herd had grown to 30 at the time I visited with her parents in Udon Thani. Of course, I wondered why she had bought the herd of cattle. Why not more sugar cane land? She didn't offer any explanation, but after some time observing her behavior, I reached the following conclusion. To my way of thinking, having a herd of cattle was like having a big bank account. But better. The sugar cane paid off l at harvest time, but cash doesn't last, as she was constantly being hit up for money by her parents, siblings, aunts, and cousins. Not to mention the wat at the end of her road, where she was a steady contributor, as was her mother. also.

Consequently, the cash came and went, then they would be broke again until next harvest. Same with her father, who also had 30 rai of sugar cane. But you can't borrow cattle, and you can't hit someone up for a little piece of it, every time they need to fill their rice bowl. She spoke with her mom every day on the phone for an hour or more. By the end of it, it always sounded like an argument to me. Her mom was constantly badgering her for money, and she was constantly berating her mom for one thing or another, and if there was nothing elso to badger her about, it always came back to the forced marriage, and her lost child, which she blamed her mom for, and often threw that in her face.

But these being Isaan folk, all the arguing in the world did not separate them, they were back at it again the next day, as in spite of it all, the bond between them was extremely strong. And my GF, like so many other Isaan girls, felt it to her bones, that she must take care of family. As much as she complained about it, that did not lessen her sense of duty one whit.

Consequently, periodically, when cash was scarce, and the weight of her mother's cries of poverty accumulated to a degree, where she could no longer bear it, she would allow her mom to sell a cow. She was getting about 20K Baht at the time for one cow.

Only her mom could ever get her to sell a cow. She paid no attention to her dad, never spoke to him on the phone, and when we were visiting the family home, I never heard her speak to him, except to yell out commands to him, to do this, that, or the other thing for her. Which he quite calmly ignored, until a certain time had passed, enough to show her he could not be treated like a servant, but then quietly, after she had finally given up yelling at him, he would do as she asked, smiling all the while, as though this was all a very polite, civil, and normal way of going about things.

So having the cows was a storehouse of value, and better than a bank, because it had nt ATM, so nobody could prevail upon her for a handout or loan. Except mom, of course, and mom and to withstand quite an ear-beating over many weeks of pleading to get her to sell a cow. The proof of that was that in six years, her herd had grown from 25 to 30 head.

So, having cows is not just a symbol of wealth and status. It is actual wealth, better than money in the bank.

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Ban Nong Sung has very well known beef. I have visited the butchers there and witnessed several people cutting and preparing beef. The beef is delicious. They also have an outlet in Mukdahan. I am unsure if they slighter cattle there but I assume they do as it is a rather large building. I once witness the slaughter of a cow at a small village in ( of all places) the school ground. For me it is plain why they keep cows. Since the restaurants serve beef, I am certain it is grown in Thailand.

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My brother has a cow calf operation in Canada. Every year his herd of 40 cows gives birth to 40 calves. The same cows are there for quite a few years but there is a gradual turnover with the mature breeding cows. The male calves are castrated and sold in the fall as feeder cattle. They go to someone who will sell them as mature beef or fatten them up and sell them as veal. The female calves may have the same fate or if judged particularly well will become part of the breeding herd. The bull must come from an unrelated herd to avoid birth defects. My brother will sometimes raise a bull and sell it to a neighbour's unrelated herd.

I imagine it is pretty much the same here in Thailand. A breeding cow may last 12 years. You would have to be around quite a while to notice a change.

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the long eared cows bring a much higher price; there are bulls that are owned by hi/so and hi level army guys that are usd to breed all the cows... they have pics and prices at the supermarkets or posted on walls.

the male calves are for being eaten. the females are mostly sold to bring new babies... its also a face thing, like owning a small herd of long eared cows means u have money.

as for buffalo, used to be that noone would eat a buffalo as it was your friend and served you so not eaten. nowadays the good strong well fleshed out buffalo calves are slaughered and that means that there are not too many good bulls and cow buffaloes to breed althouhg there was a King's program a few years ago. (we tried to get info but never succeeded.) ...

there are some booklets put out by the agric. dept on buffalo breeding, cow breeding and other livestock...

so a serious answer to a perhaps not so serious question... real prices can be found in the farming section as there are some that keep quality bulls and cows for breeding, of the thai long eared variety.

they are not the kind ofr milk. chock chai near korat is the milk cow breeder

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The long eared things , are the indo -Brazillan,as you say owned by the big boys,the most famous bull of all was ,"Boy Ubon",a gray with some black,threw some veay distinctive calves,his semen sold for I think about 1200 bart /straw,and as you said he was owned by a big politician when he died it make the Thai newspappers,he made the owner a lot of money

And that has started some big problems,when "Boy " was popular ,as this is Thailand every one wanted a piece of the action, all a lot of farmers where intrested in where the length of the ears .At the time beef prices where high,almost like now farmers where AI ing all they Thai Native x Brahman cows with Indo seaem,if it was a bull thay keept it back and used it as a stock bull on they own cattle,some dairy farmers evon crossed them with dairy cows ,weird looking calves to .some evon whent on to milk them.

Then the market droped, and they was no market for the long eared things so they went on to rome the county side,now the market has picked up big time , they are now getting good prices

But Indo cattle are allmost like dairy cattle they need intensive feeding for them to grow, they grow up, not out ,and now they are all these cross breed cattle about, liveing on very littal not growing, just thin and most Thai farmers do not know this, they think any beef cattle can just rome and live on not a lot,that is why most beef cattle are so thin, past breeding,look at the ears,long eared thin, shot ear's a bit fitter.

I have a Indo cross breed ,did not cone no heat ,cistic ovaries,treated it ,now in calf to my Brangus bull, not a patch on my other beef cattle all leg ,a bad buy.

At last a lot of farmers are realizing the problme and are using other breeds on they cattle ,my local shop sells Indo semen,but the owner say's hardly any one buys it,but the damage has been done it is going to take a lot of years to reverse it all.

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Kobe cattle feed on beer? Read this article. http://notesofnomads.com/kobe-beef/

However, no need to go to Japan for good beef. (beer or no beer!) I have enjoyed some excellent beef BBQs using the product from Pon Yang Kham beef farm near Sakon Nakhon. I can't make price comparisons, I not that familiar with shopping in the LOS, but I know it's good stuff. Back there in October for more of the same.

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In customary

In the past, cattle are offered as part of dowry in the rural. I married my wife with a dowry of cash ฿99k, 9 Baht of gold (roughly ฿6k+ back then) and 9 cattle.


In faming

Year 1999, I invested 10 pregnant cattle to be bred and raise into a big herd and ended up with 110 cattle in 5 years.

The UIL had a hilly plot of 35 rai. We made a plan to raise cattle. The locale community mind-set of raising cattle are view as putting money in the bank and earning interest every year... sort of like a "fix deposit" on long term basis.

As per tradition in the case of the owner not being the caretaker... the 1st born calf will goes to the caretaker and 2nd year born calf of the same mother cow belongs to the owner...and the cycle repeat itself of that same one mother cow. The same thing apply to the offspring's (owner part), but not apply to the offspring's of the caretaker who usually sells his share yearly when it reaches 11-12 month old.

In my case, the caretaker UIL agreed to my proposal regarding his share of calves (from the 10 original mother cows), after the 3rd year calves were born (that goes to him)...the 4th and 5th year calves will go to my wife. The contract is for 5 years only and we would sell all the cattle.


Breed and auctions

It's true that some cross breed are auction and champion Brahman bulls often fetches millions of ฿. Was in the news back then that one was auction for 10s of million ฿ by enthusiastic breeder/collector. (Can do a search and also TV had a few Brahman cattle threads too)

Edited by RedBullHorn
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Costas,

An Australian farmer would shoot those skinny things.......It always amazes me how thin Thai cattle get.

My goodness.

Exactly my thoughts.

But he says, don't know if I should believe him or not, he can get about 500K to 600K for each one of them.

Any experts on cows, out there?

It is the breed ,they are Indo- Brazil( google it),they become popular about 10 years ago in the LOS, at the time all the farmers where intrested in was the length of the ears some where even imported , guy near me still has some imported semen from Brazil, after ear length, it was colour ,white ,red or black.

If it has any "Boy Ubon "in the breeding they will go for a fair price, now the money is in breeding as for 500k a bit over the top.(but, do not know the breeding),but, a good bull will make good money, all on potential semen sales.

Guy with the imported semen has bull,said it is worth 1.5 millon bart ,looking at it I would only give him beefbuger price,he is tring to sell semen from him to, 300 bart straw.

As for a stake, thay are about as much use as a chocolate teapot,they are a show anaimal.

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