Raising Beef Cattle on Karst Plateau

In a land where “level ground can’t be longer than three steps, sunny sky can’t last over three days”, ploughing is considered an art and only cows can pull the plows helping the Mong people “cultivate the land of rocky caves”. For generations, cows and humans rely on each other to survive in the harsh lands. During freezing months, when even grass can’t survive, people still go to the forest to collect dead grass as tough as ropes, it will be chopped and mixed with corncob then kept in salt water until soften. This mixture is cow feed. In those days, to have a can of water can take half a day, but no matter what, every day there must be a can of 20 litres at least of warm salty water for the cows to drink.

 

This harsh rocky land, according to the Mong people, ironically is a great friend of poppy. In the old time, it was “meals from the maize field, money from the poppy field”. But after learning about the harm of poppy, the Mong people have left the crop and switched to maize, rice and cows.

 

Now buying and selling cows in Dong Van district, Meo Vac district in Ha Giang province is even easier than corn, or as being said by the Mong people, “carrying corn baskets is tiresome, cows can go to the market by itself”. Purchasing is also simple – just use the eyes! Sellers calculate the cost, minus the amount of buying breed cow, each month equals more or less VND1 million of costs, if the offered price can cover the costs then it means selling. Sellers then go to buy another smaller cow. At each gathering of Meo Vac fair, it’s estimated that there are 300 to 400 cows traded, exchanging labour value into money. With farmers of the rocky highlands, they said around 60-70 percent of families’ income comes from cows. 

 

It can be said that the dream of “house, water tank, cow” for each family in the rocky area has been fulfilled. The realisation of that dream is a result of the people’s internal resources, of which cows play the main part.

 

Those who went to the plateau about 10 years ago, if returning now would be able to see many changes, of which the most significant is the traffic infrastructure, with asphalt roads now stretching to even the furthest communes. Another development is grass, grass growing everywhere, from sides of the roads to summit. Tall grass can easily be mistaken as canes from afar. Houses’ roofs have become bigger, covered in brocade colours, standing quietly like mountain rocks, in a beautiful harmony with the landscape. There’s a fundamental change in substance: the people are gradually coming out from poverty and hunger, some are even making fortunes.

 

On the path of development, the rocky plateau has changed, from the small, remote corner of poverty to the rocky plateau representing not only a wonder of creation, but also a wonders of life and the spirit of overcoming difficulties of the people on this land. It would be no wonder if the people here can make a fortune from cows, from medicinal plants, from floral fragrance pushing its way out from between stones like wild grass, mint or crops that seem to not have much use besides beauty, like buckwheat. They gain hard-earned money thanks to farming, from surviving the hard life on the rocks, obtained from tourists coming to this land.