Buffalo - the tractor of the east
I GREW up in an urban setting because of my father who was a government officer. Born in Tawau, my early childhood was in Kibabaig, Penampang and I got educated in Papar, Beaufort and Kota Kinabalu.
My school holidays were mainly spent in Kg. Kiranau to be with my grandmother. Here, I learned how to swim and used the ‘rakit' or bamboo raft to cross the Moyog river. I picked up the trick on how to catch the edible green frogs from my cousins. These frogs are boiled with ‘kakatung', a plant growing on the paddy field, and the soup was delicious.
My favourite recollection was to place a sack of paddy on the back of a buffalo and ride it back to the ‘tangkob' or paddy barn. My cousins did not teach me everything, because when I fell off the buffalo with the sack of paddy while going down the steep bank of the river, they had a good laugh. Only after that did they tell me to hold on to the tail of the buffalo when going down a steep slope.
It was here that I learned of the importance of buffaloes to the Kadazan community. They are part and parcel of the Kadazan heritage in funeral and wedding ceremonies.
I learned that a female buffalo must be given away as dowry to the bride. It made lot of sense. This female buffalo will multiply, work in the field and as fast cash when needed. She has something to depend on if, for whatsoever reasons, the husband was not with her.
There was flexibility in the gender of the draft buffalo. However, the recent law on animal welfare is favouring only male buffaloes as draft.
It was my time in the village that I saw how the buffalo pulled the plough and other implements with such power and ease even in the thick muddy field. It was a sight to behold seeing the farmer skilfully manoeuvring the ‘trained' buffalo around the padi field. Unlike now, I never saw them being treated by animal doctors.
As a government veterinarian, I was tasked to train our staff in meat inspection. It was here that I saw many buffaloes being slaughtered. I found that buffalo meat was much preferred by the locals. I also came to know that their population was dwindling fast. There was a policy of not allowing female buffalo or cattle to be slaughtered unless approved by the vet department. Sadly, I saw many buffaloes coming into the abattoir with broken legs. To relieve their pain, we had to approve them for slaughter.
I learned too that stealing of buffalo was a lucrative business. I recalled a case where the owner came and managed to identify his buffalo in the slaughterhouse! Buffaloes in the villages were identified by cuts on their ears which were peculiar to their owners. Today we can microchip the animals to discourage stealing of animals.
The decrease in buffalo population has an impact on the Kadazan culture and tradition. Many would go to the next world without the assistance of the buffalo (and also the male goats) if they go extinct. The buffaloes were fondly referred to as the ‘tractor of the east' but with the advance of mechanization, they were let loose to fend for themselves.
I remember how my uncle's buffaloes were stolen after he passed away. He used to stand on the balcony of his house in Kg Kambau and count his buffaloes every evening. He had a close relationship with his animals. People came looking for him when there was a funeral or wedding.
I was looking after the buffaloes at Sook and later, when I was with KPD Holdings, I was involved in the training of buffaloes and supplied them to oil palm plantations. We brought in some buffaloes from Darwin using our Desa ship. Although they had a good size and body conformation, the Aussie buffaloes were difficult to train as compared to our smaller local buffaloes. Our buffalo trainers would call them ‘keras kepala' or hard headed. Business was good as we had steady orders from oil palm plantations in the east coast.
Just when I thought that the swamp buffalo may go extinct, my optimism went up when I got myself involved in livestock farming in oil palm plantations.
My task was to train plantation officers and workers on basic animal husbandry, namely cattle and buffalo. The idea of livestock oil palm integration became a very popular subject and many plantations heeded the government's call to increase cattle production in oil palm plantations. I think the cattle production can be vigorously promoted further if the government can gradually reduce the imports of frozen beef. The buffalo production on the other hand is mainly for draft.
A draft buffalo is usually leased to a worker. He will take care of the animal, which is his after the payment is completed. Ironically, the retired old buffalo continues to fetch a good price. A buffalo can pull about 100 tons of fresh fruit bunch or FFB per month and gives extra income to the worker-cum-owner of the animal.
Today, with the policy on roundtable sustainable palm oil or RSPO and so forth, these buffaloes must be given veterinary care while the owners are given basic husbandry training.
There are oil palm plantations that are keeping few hundred heads of buffalo. I know of one that is breeding them and training the males for draft. At the moment these animals work very efficiently and effectively in areas and terrains that are not conducive to machines.
Whatever it is, the Kadazan community must thank the oil palm plantations for rearing and breeding the buffaloes and preventing it from local extinction. The buffalo in the Kadazan customs and traditions will continue forever.