The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
LIKE most men in Nengu village in the drought prone area of Nkayi District, Matabeleland North Province, which has relatively very low annual rainfall and large tracts of infertile soils, Bekind Tshuma had no choice but to refrain from relying on cropping cereals for household food security.
Instead, like many of his clansmen, he pursued cattle production, which is dominated by indigenous animals that are adaptable to the local environment.
Their important functions being provision of food security, socio-cultural role (payment of dowry and as fines for petty crimes at the chief’s court), draught power as well as generating income through selling at least two of his beasts a year.
However, his ambition to realise meaningful returns from trading in his mixture of indigenous Tuli and Afrikaners cattle breeds have not yielded much as he had expected. Most of his cattle are selling at low prices at local cattle auction sales.
“These indigenous breeds fetch very low prices at the auctions largely because they have stunted growth, which means their carcass is very small thus I have not been getting much from selling them but one of my neighbours who managed to get a Brahman bull four years ago for cross breeding purposes gets better rewards and is now the envy of the entire village,” said Tshuma.
The highest price he has fetched at a cattle sale is $300 some two years ago while those who are selling cross breeds can fetch up to $800 per beast. He always looks at those who are reaping from these cross breeds with envy but understands that for him and other villagers to reach those levels, they have to introduce an exotic bull breed to their herds.
But the price of a good genetic breed is beyond most of these villagers’ reach with most breeders pegging the minimum price of a bull at $3 000.
However, not all is gloomy as Tshuma and the other villagers are set to start benefiting after local Member of Parliament, Sithembiso Nyoni who is also the Minister of Small to Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development donated a Brahma bull to Chief Sikhobokho early this year. Although the bull is under the custody of the area’s traditional leader it is expected to service other cows in the vicinity.
“We are very grateful over the gesture shown to us by our MP as it will go a long way in improving the quality of our animals in the area. Our breeds are inferior on the market and as such this makes us prone to unscrupulous buyers who eventually buy our animals for as low as $200, imagine,” said another villager, Sipho Nxumalo.
He said the onus was now on villagers (first recipients of the bull) to curb inbreeding, as it affects the productivity of an offspring.
“There is a need for villagers to ensure that the bull doesn’t mate with its offsprings as this might compromise the quality of their breed and as such the bull should be moved to another village after about two to three years to avoid inbreeding,” Nxumalo said.
The other major constraints identified by the villagers are high disease and parasite prevalence, low level of management, limited dry season forage availability and poor marketing management. Any improvement in these constraints may lead to a sustainable increase in communal cattle production.
Minister Nyoni said the development of communal cattle production can be a sustainable way to improve the livelihoods of the rural population in Zimbabwe.
“Livestock production is one of the clusters we promote as a ministry and this includes cattle as well. There are a number of small-scale cattle farmers, especially in communal areas and these have for years failed to make their agricultural enterprises viable largely owing to poor breeds. We are also encouraging villagers to adhere to proper upkeep and management of their animals and stand to benefit even from selling cattle hides,” she said.
Cattle auctioneer, Richard Wakefield said it was important for communal farmers to select or buy a herd bull with economic traits.
“If you put a good bull to a small cow your progeny will improve. I think a change of bulls is important. Often bulls go back to their own progeny in communal areas because of shortages,” he said.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister Paddy Zhanda who is responsible for livestock production is of the view that the best way to remain efficient in today’s beef industry is to continue to produce more pounds of product per cow exposed.
“The issue of agriculture is about efficiency of operation and our calving rate is 48 percent against what we should be doing of around 80 percent. We have five million cattle and if one assumes that out of five million, 1,5 are heifers and cows and if we achieve an 80 percent calving rate we should be having 1,2 million new cattle every year.
“If we increase the national herd on the ground as inefficient as we are, that will mean the animals are crowding, they will compete for grazing. We tend to assume grazing is for free, it’s not because unproductive animals will be competing with productive ones. What we need to do is to address the issue of genetics because the issue of conception and calving is associated with genetics and fertility of the animal,” Dep Minister Zhanda said.
However, a livestock specialist, Muhle Masuku said farmers should desist from aiming for good carcasses at the expense of production.
“I personally believe that local breeds are a very important cog in cattle production in Zimbabwe. The Nkoni, Thuli, Mashona are some of the local breeds that have adapted to the local environment and it’s turbulence such as moving long distances to the watering holes and grazing areas. They are also resistant to local diseases therefore they should be used as motherliness.
“In introducing an exotic bull on them (indigenous), one should make sure the bull must not be too big to cause dystocia but must be sufficiently big to produce a calf with faster growth rate because of good feed conversion and good fat distribution.
Our veld is fast going down hence the introduction of very big cattle can also diminish our grass much quicker in the season,” he said.
But for Tshuma and other villagers in Nengu, all what matters is to see their cattle fetching the right price to ensure that they continue being a source of income.
“Cattle is our life and we need to see the benefits of the agriculture venture. Anything to improve on that is most welcome.”
