Faridkot: Dry fodder prices soar amid shortage, farmers worried

Faridkot, April 4

Staring at less wheat yield owing to inclement weather conditions, there is an exceptional hike in the price of dry wheat husk/stem (toori) these days.

Being sold at Rs 650-700/quintal

• Last month, the dry fodder was selling between Rs 400-Rs 450 per quintal
• Now, traders and farmers, having the old stock, have increased the rate to Rs 650-Rs 700 per quintal

Last month, the dry fodder for ruminant animals was selling between Rs 400 and Rs 450 per quintal. Normally, around this time of the year, the stockists of ‘’toori’’ are in a hurry to finish their old stock in view of the upcoming wheat harvesting and threshing in the second week of April. After this, ‘’toori’’ is abundantly available everywhere.

Due to the unfavourable weather conditions, there are fears of not only less yield of wheat, but also a drastic cut in the production of wheat husk. Usually every acre of harvested and threshed wheat, produces around 12-15 quintal of wheat husk and it sells at about Rs 300 per quintal.

It is estimated that this time when the wheat crop has been flattened by repeated rain spells and hailstorms, the production of wheat husk will not be more than 7-8 quintal per acre. Farmers fear even the quality would be poor as there would be high content of mud and dust in the husk.

In anticipation of low yield and poor quality of the new stock of dry fodder, the traders and farmers, having the old stock of the husk, have increased the rate to Rs 650-Rs 700 per quintal in the past three days.

Gurinder Singh, a farmer of Golewala village of Faridkot, said the rate would be exceptionally high this season. Even the poor quality ‘’toori’’ would be sold at Rs 500 per quintal, he said.

Tarsem Lal, a dairy owner, said they would face a lot of difficulty in making arrangements for the dry fodder and have to look for alternate dry fodder — paddy husk — this season which is generally not preferred by the dairy farmers.

Dairy farmers feed cattle with wheat straw throughout the year, either alone or in combination with other feed, depending on availability. Urban dairies depend mainly on wheat straw as a source of roughage because it can be stored even in the open provided it’s protected from rain.