The Sunday News
Mhlupeki Dube Farming Issues
MANY a times I provide advisory and consultancy services to a number of farmers and beginners on a wide range of livestock issues especially beef production. The most frequently asked questions are about the cost involved in raising a certain herd size and the corresponding land holding to match the herd size. While these are obviously pertinent and indisputable parameters in livestock production in general and beef enterprises in particular, I have come to realise that there are critical decisions and choices that a serious livestock producer has to make when one intends to run his/her enterprise as a commercial entity. One such important choice is what one intends to specialise on. Most smallholder farmers tend to suffer from bambazonke (do-everything) syndrome where they do a little bit of this and a little of that.
In the end the meagre resources that are at the disposal of the farmer are spread thinly across several not so productive enterprises. One has a bunch of chickens that are clearly in conflict and expectedly so with the vegetable garden; a few goats cohabiting with sheep and a herd of cattle of extremely mixed breed.
If you want to do poultry why not go into it big time and be a force to be reckoned with in that sector, same with cattle and small ruminants. Specialisation is very important in that as a farmer you become an authority in that sector and you can even become powerful enough to influence important decisions and begin to set the pace in the industry. Besides having to decide whether to do goats or cattle one can even go further and choose which type of cattle to produce.
A farmer can choose for example to produce white Brahman, Tulis, Bonsmaras, Simbras or the Boran. Once one becomes a producer of repute for a particular breed he can easily name the price with very little resistance from the market.
At a recent national bull sale that was held in Harare, breeders of bulls smiled all the way to the banks as the highest bull fetched $7 000 with others hovering around $3 000 each. One respectable bull breeder from Bulawayo had his bulls going for $6 000 each. This is no small money by any definition considering that $6 000 can buy close to 10 heifers! While it is generally appreciated that bulls will cost you an arm and two legs, this can be explained by the fact that there are not that many breeders of bulls and hence they come in limited numbers which stimulates spirited bidding from buyers.
While it is obviously not easy for beginners who are not well resourced and experienced to go into bull breeding farmers can choose other sectors of beef production and carve their own niches. One area which seems to have a gap which farmers can tap into is the production of good quality breeds of heifers. The market has very few heifers on offer and this is pushing the price of heifers through the roof. Heifers are costing anything from $2,50/ kilogramme to $3/kilogramme making a 300 kilogramme bulling heifer go for between $750 and $900.
The reason is that there are very few heifers in the market against a huge number of farmers who are making frantic efforts to rebuild their herds following years of successive droughts.
Enterprising farmers are now importing heifers from Namibia to service the insatiable market. These heifers cost anything from $190 in Namibia and they are sold here for anything from $600. Talk of mega profits and getting rich after breaking very little sweat!
The dairy sector is another sector which farmers and breeders can choose to specialise in. It is almost impossible to get a dairy heifer in the market. There is hardly any producer of dairy animals and if anyone is selling it is invariably a cull cow which is at its last lactation or has other undesirable characteristics. The few dairy heifers that can be stumbled upon in the market are priced to kill at about $1 600 each. It is the submission of this article therefore that farmers need to identify niches which they can tap into and become fully specialised producers and have the rare luxury of naming the price with no market resistance.
Feedback: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> cell0772851275
