COW DEAL or LAND DEAL?

~ Better do you Cow Math, otherwise become Mad Cow

Excerpt from pro-BN blogger ~ Syed Akbar Ali's article

Bung Mukhtar Crosses Over?

RM76,000 Per Cow

............ RM250 million project, Government "soft loan" and 5,000 acres of land. Wow!

And only 3,289 cows were produced.

Lets do some kira-kira.

RM250 million / 3,289 lembu = RM76,000 per lembu (thus far).

If each lembu produces 200 kg of meat, that works out to RM380 per kg of meat.

Saya tahu, this is just a rule of thumb calculation.

But looking at it from the taxpayer's point of view,

the public has had RM250 million of their money (duit rakyat) squandered in a project that has yielded only 3,289 cows.

As the project stands today, the public has suffered RM76,000 per cow.

Those are very expensive cows!!

Folks I just spoke to a feedlot cow farmer.

The guy is laughing his head off about this National Feedlot Project.

Here is some quick information from this farmer :

Feedlot cows are bought when they are about 2 to 2 1/2 years old with a live body weight of about 300 kg.
After they arrive at the feedlot station, the cows are fed for three to four months where they should gain 25 kg of weight per month.

So say after four months of "feedlot" feeding, the cows reach a minimum live weight of 400 kg which is suitable for meat slaughter.

A 400 kg live cow should yield 50-55% meat.

The market price is now about RM8.00 per kg (of live weight cow).

2 to 2 1/2 year old cows can be sourced from Thailand for as low as RM2,000 per head.

This is considered a good price.

More expensive ones are imported from Australia.

However, the average price is about RM8.00 per kg for live weight cow.

So a 300 kg live weight cow will cost up to RM2,400.

After say four months feedlot feeding and reaching 400 kg weight,

the same cow would fetch a price of RM3,200.

This gives a gross margin in excess of 33% (which is not bad business).

Note: RM3,200 per Australia Cow VS RM76,000 per NFC Cow

The farmer I spoke to has a 14 acre farm where he raises 300 feedlot cows.

But his actual feedlot area is only 1.5 acres, to house and feed his 300 cows.

The remaining 12.5 acres are planted with grass ("Napier grass??) which are then harvested to feed the cows.

He says a feedlot cow needs only about 20 square feet of space each.

The guy says 30 square feet of space per feedlot cow is considered a luxury.

So even if you have 5,000 cows on your feedlot, you only need 5,000 cows x 30 sf = 150,000 square feet or less than 3.5 acres of space.

He says being a feedlot, you do not want your cows walking or running around too much.

They will not gain weight.

So what is the purpose of the 5,000 acres that was given to the National Feedlot Corporation?

The guy also said that 1 acre of land can grow enough "Napier" grass to feed 25 cows.

So if you grow Napier grass on 100 acres, that is sufficient to sustain 2,500 cows.

Going by this rule of thumb,

the 5,000 acres of land given to the National Feedlot Corporation can grow enough grass to sustain a population of 125,000 cows.

But the Auditor General's Report says 3,289 cows represents 41% of the desired target.

That means the feedlot's capacity was about 8,000 cows only.

Using the feedlot farmers numbers, 8,000 cows would only need 320 acres of grass land to sustain them.

So what was the purpose of giving the National Feedlot Corporation 5,000 acres of land?

5,000 acres of land is enough to create a substantial oil palm plantation.

Note: Feedlot area by other farmer : 14 acres farm land for 300 feedlot cows

Feedlot area by NFC : 5,000 acres farm land for 8,000 feedlot cows

So, it is 373 acres for 8,000 feedlot cows by other farmers VS 5,000 acres for 8,000 feedlot cows by NFC

Too many UMNO people and BN people are unhappy that something like this is being treated so casually.

They may not be saying much but they are not happy.

The public is even more unhappy.

Where is the Prime Minister's statement on this fiasco?

Dato Seri seems to be maintaining an elegant silence.

This is very disgraceful and if no action is taken, or heads chopped, it will cost the Government plenty of votes.

It cannot be "business as usual" like as though nothing has happened.