While tea plantation oxcarts are a thing of the past, the role of cows in the age of mechanisation is both rustic and future-conscious.

Throughout Asia, cows are the, ahem, workhorses of agriculture. From the water buffalo that help to till rice fields to the oxen that pull carts to transport produce, the bovine family is highly regarded as farmers’ friends. In addition to labour, these hardworking creatures also produce milk, leather and meat depending on breed.

In South Asia, particularly India and Sri Lanka, oxen have had a long history in tea logistics. They were some of the very first animals allowed on tea plantations, carting the harvest from the workers in the field to be processed in the factory and used again to take the finished tea to market. Slowly, they were replaced by motorised vehicles as the tea industry modernised.

But tea’s bovine friends were never forgotten. When microbiologists studied the soil in different tea plantations, they discovered that the application of cow manure not only improved the diversity of soil bacteria but also effectively regulated the structure of the soil bacterial community in tea plantations, making cow manure an ideal fertiliser.

As manure is considered a waste product – despite its usefulness in growing tea – it was difficult for farmers to justify the cost of having it delivered to the plantation. Thus the easiest way to apply cow manure was, of course, to have cows on site.

Ambootia Tea Estate, one of the earliest established plantations in Darjeeling, India, saw an opportunity to employ cow power in its quest to become organic. The cost of having staff dedicated to running a cowshed was prohibitive, however, until the estate management found a cyclical solution: the estate workers were given the responsibility of looking after the cows in exchange for keeping the milk. The management then ‘buys’ the cow dung and urine to use on the plantation. Cows provide milk and manure, and the workers look after the cattle and tend to the tea. Ambootia now produces tea that’s both organic and biodynamic in a model that is replicated in pockets around the world.

Today we welcome the beginning of the Lunar New Year, an event celebrated in many tea-growing nations including China, Burma, Thailand, Korea and Vietnam. According to the Chinese zodiac it is the Year of the Ox, which represents honesty, hard work and calm leadership. Thanks to the ox’s revered place in agriculture, it is perfectly fitting to salute them with a cup of tea.

This article originally appeared in AUSTCS enews 12 February 2021. Mailchimp no longer allows external links to the original newsletter.