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Dairy industry fears collateral damage from cattle slaughter ban
The bill to amend laws to ban cattle slaughter was approved by the cabinet earlier this week causing an uproar between policymakers, experts, religious groups, and farmers.
In September last year, the Government proposed to ban cattle slaughter, claiming that the move was necessary to improve agriculture and dairy production.
The domestic cattle population has a 1:1 male-to-female ratio, according to Ceylon Cattle Farmers Association chief Eranga Nilhan Perera.
“About 50 percent are male and there is nothing we can do to them,” he said. “These males are slaughtered for beef when they reach about three months. Male animals are only used to identify female animals in heat and for stud purposes. This helps the artificial insemination process.’’
He added that the only milch cows sent for slaughter are those past their fifth lactation because maintaining a cow after this point is not profitable.
“A bull requires 10 percent of its body weight in food every day. An adult stud bull weighs about 400 kilograms. So that’s 40 kilograms of feed per bull every day,” he said, estimating a monthly cost of Rs. 26,000 to maintain a bull with no return on investment.
“We are going to lose 50% of our income and have a 50% increase in costs because of this,” he noted, adding that farmers were confused and concerned because of the lack of a strategic approach.
“No implementation plan has been drawn up as of yet,” said Bandara Boralessa, Secretary to the State Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government Affairs. The immediate action is the consolidation of the draft bill through amendments to the Municipal Council Ordinance, the Urban Councils Ordinance, the Pradeshiya Sabha Ordinance, the Cattle Slaughter Ordinance and the Animal Act.
However, any mechanism will have two policies operating in parallel.
“Cattle slaughter will be banned, and a solution will be given to those who want to buy and sell beef,” Mr Boralessa said, reiterating that the Prime Minister insists on a plan that is just for all Sri Lankans.
“The most viable option we see right now is the import of beef,” Mr. Boralessa said.
According to him, vendors will be allocated stalls under the purview of the Ministry of Local Government to sell beef to customers. “We’ll follow due protocols for things like meat quarantining, but vendors will most likely be able to buy beef from us to sell,” he said.
However, government officials vehemently disagree.
“This move will obliterate the local cattle farming industry, for both milk and meat,” said Dr. Manjula Magamage, chairman of the National Livestock Development Board.
He said Sri Lankans eat about 30,000 metric tonnes of beef a year. Only about 1 percent is imported.
Dr. Magamage estimates that a kilogram of imported beef would cost about Rs. 1,600 compared with local beef selling at Rs. 1,000 a kilogram.
“We’re talking about an increase in imports worth a minimum of Rs. 30 billion annually,” he noted, adding that this would be a travesty for an industry that is already self-sufficient.
“The NLDB does not have enough resources to maintain the salvage animals which will be disposed of annually,” he said.
He dismissed the Government claim that the ban would help the dairy industry.
“Beef is one of the main income sources of dairy farmers, the crumbling of one will dismantle the other,” he said.
This is so because a majority of the beef is sourced from male cattle and the only milch cows that are killed are those that had been milked over five lactations after which the cow is killed.
At least 20 percent of every cattle farm population needs to be culled annually and therefore an efficient mode of disposal must exist. Culling is necessary for dairy to succeed as selection and breeding are the cornerstones of the dairy industry. The only way to reduce the male population is to introduce sex semen insemination which would significantly reduce the male population but this still leaves a lot bulls.
“It’s clear no expert advice has been taken because this plan cannot succeed due to technical reasons,” Dr Magamage, noted. The previous discussion of this nature that the NLDB has been part of was in September 2020, where the board’s opposition had been shot down, he said.
“We are the cattle slaughter regulating body of Sri Lanka as per the 1972 Agriculture Act, but we were not consulted.
“We have advised the relevant secretaries against this because they have only made two suggestions so far, one is for the NLDB to take the excess cattle, and the second is for the cattle to be sent abroad and slaughtered elsewhere and then import.”
However, the NLDB only has two salvage farms in Kurunegala and Anuradhapura – the combined capacity of these farms is 1,000 cows at a time. About 300 cows are disposed of in Sri Lanka daily.
“The NLDB will shut down at this rate,” warned Dr Magamage, noting that even paying staff salaries is a challenge now.
Investors who come here for talks immediately withdraw when they learn about the ban. Exporting Sri Lankan cattle has its own challenges because of infections like foot and mouth disease.
He suggests ethical slaughtering of cattle. “Technology is advanced enough for the animal to be slaughtered in a painless and humane way without them knowing.” When a slaughter happens an antemortem inspection and a post mortem inspection have to be done. Before an animal is slaughtered an animal is kept under monitoring for 72 hours during which a vet must go and inspect it.
“This is a great way to curb the alleged slaughter of milking cows,” he noted.
Banning cattle slaughter will have the exact impact that pesticide bans did – black markets will form and absurd price rises will follow along with even worse slaughter conditions,” Dr Magamage noted.
Beef is regulated through Public Health Inspectors. But according to the law, vets have a huge role to play even though Sri Lanka is pitifully lacking in veterinary surgeons.
“This decision will destroy the lives of the 150,000 dairy farmers, 95% of whom are small and medium enterprise owners.”
Stakeholders agree that repercussions, including ethnic disharmony over the issue, would be very severe.