Owners’ net practice provides relief to cattle

Owners’ net practice provides relief to cattle
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Kotha Guru (Bathinda), August 28
People in Punjab care for their cattle like their children. It becomes apparent in the countryside, where one can see cattle covered with colourful nylon nets.
This net is to save the cattle from a big fly-Botfly — which sucks their blood and irritates them with its sting.

During a random visit to Kotha Guru village, it was observed that this practice had been adopted by a number of villagers. Cattle tied with pegs were lying relaxed as they were covered under a huge net. A number of insects were hovering around the net cover but finding it unable to enter through it.
Paramjeet Kaur, who has four buffalos, said, "We bought this net from market paying Rs 500 for 100 meters. Its benefit is quite visible as the cattle remain calm and relaxed now, otherwise, this ‘Makh’ used to irritate them by inflicting wounds.”
Another farmer of the same village, Harbhajan Singh, who had covered his two buffalos and three calves, said, "I treat my cattle as my children. They can make the fly run away but these speechless cattle cannot save themselves on their own. So I opted for this practice, which is proving to be quite beneficial."
Surinder Singla, deputy director, Animal Husbandry department, also termed the use of the net as a good practice but expressed regret, when asked about arrangement to provide it to the farmers at subsidied rates. Further, he named an insecticide, Amitraz, which provides a cover in shielding cattle from dangerous flies by repelling them.