Cattle

He believes we have the potential, as he himself has 10 cattle heads that were bred through artificial insemination on his Muamu Farm in the Huon Gulf district of Morobe Province.

Vanchum is a regular at the Morobe Show.

He won the ‘champion bull’ award last year, and managed to defend his title this year through his four-and-a-half-year-old Brahman bull, Bamsy.

“Wok blo mi, taim mi stap lo ples, em mi wok lo intrest olgeta lo bulmakau, lo lukautim,” he stated. (I am passionate about cattle farming.)

Farmer supervisor, Kaile Korowi, said the farm employs 17 local boys;  six of whom are permanent hands, the rest are casuals. Security is minimum and there have been minor incidents, but they would like to maintain a friendly relationship with the locals.

“Comparing to other areas where I have worked and here at Launakalana, the community here are good. There is respect here. They respect the school, the workers, and the properties. There are some minor incidents that come up. However, generally the relationship with the community is good,” Korowi said.

According to Managing Director for Livestock Development Corporation Ltd, Terry Koim, the cattle have been travelling on the ship for five days. 

"The second shipment was able to make it past the Milne Bay waters and to arrive in Central Province this afternoon. We loaded 164 in Lae including the ones from Sialum and on the way to Port Moresby one of the cows gave birth so we currently have 165 cattle,” stated Koim. 

The cattle are from Sialum, in the Tewai-Siassi district, and Erap, Huon Gulf district. They were supposed to leave for Launakalana, in Central Province, last week. 

However, the trip was delayed due to bad weather.

On Friday, August 11th, 54 steers, cows and heifers were loaded from Sialum onto a barge bound for Voco Point in Lae. Bad weather slowed the trip down, with the Sialum cattle arriving at Voco Point on Monday morning.

300 will be from Erap Station, in the Huon Gulf district, while 60 were bought from farmers at Sialum, Tewai-Siassi.

Managing director of the Livestock Development Corporation, Terry Koim, outlined that the Erap Cattle Ranch was rundown and neglected until the formation of the Marape-Steven cabinet in 2019.

A year after the formation of the new government, LDC started restoration work on its cattle ranch.  

Member for Maprik, John Simon, asked Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Tommy Tomscoll in Parliament on Thursday of the whereabouts of a thousand cattle heads that were supposed to go to Wewak.

He said the previous Government had purchased just over 4,000 cattle heads from Markham in Morobe Province, which were supposed to be sent to several province, including East Sepik.

“Can the minister tell us where those cattle are?” asked Simon.

Last weekend, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock began distributing animals from the Tenavatu Breeding Station to six selected farmers from Guadalcanal.

The process will continue next year during which farmers from other provinces will be given animals to raise.

In 2011, the government imported around 400 head of cattle from Vanuatu, at a cost of $US150 thousand dollars and they have been kept at the Tenavatu Farm in Central Guadalcanal while selected farms have been rehabilitated.