Management practices this season: The why and how

08 Jun, 2014 - 00:06 0 Views

The Sunday News

THIS week I just wanted to revisit some of the basic animal husbandry practices as suggested by the beef cattle management calendar, a copy of which was published on this platform.
While the beef management calendar is just a guide which explains what every cattleman should be doing at what times, we also need to look at the reason(s) why it should be done.

This particular time of the season (winter) is the time when most of the wound inflicting practices should be done because there is very little fly activity hence the wound caused by the management practice is unlikely to become septic and problematic in healing.

While most farmers know what management practices should be carried out on their animals, they usually cannot give a satisfactory explanation why it should be done.

This has led me to hypothesise that this could be the reason there is no widespread adoption of the practices because it is human nature that people want to know why they should do something before they actually do it.

Dehorning is one such practice that is preached by most extension personnel but somehow farmers cannot explain why it needs to be done.
Dehorning an animal is very important for various reasons but I will start by indicating when it should be done. Dehorning should be done when your calf starts to develop a horn bud and it’s just beginning to shoot from the head.

When the bud is just beginning to be visible or when you can clearly feel it with your hand you can dehorn. At this stage of bud development you do not even need to cut off the bud. Just bring your red hot dehorning iron and put it on the shooting bud.

The bud is still soft enough to be burned by the iron. While the ideal time to dehorn is in winter like I have alluded to above, this may not always coincide with the right age of your calves in terms of dehorning. Usually in communal areas where there is uncontrolled breeding and the bull is always running with the cows, animals tend to calve down any time of the year and as such calves are due for dehorning at varying times of the year.

However, if you have to dehorn your calves during the hotter times of the year be sure to have antiseptic substances to put on the dehorning wound such as Stockholm tar.

Dehorning improves the aesthetic value of your animals. In simpler words your animals will appear neater when dehorned and this becomes very important when you want to sell the animal. I have witnessed buyers at auction floors ridiculing animals with big horns and showering platitudes on clean dehorned animals. Also dehorned animals are easier and safer to manage as you do not run the risk of being perforated by your own animal.

Castration is one important activity during this time of the year. This should be done from one month of age depending on the method used. However, if you are using a burdizzo which is the most common method you can castrate your calves from three months of age. My preferred method is the elastrator mainly because it is bloodless and accurate. The only problem is that the elastrator ring applicator is not commonly available among communal farmers hence there is no liberty of borrowing.

Also the elastrator rings are not readily available in our rural shops. When using a burdizzo it is important for the farmer to be careful and accurate. Careful because you do not want to cut wrong veins and accurate because you do not want to realise months later that actually you castrated one testicle and left the other alive.

Lastly, I want to appreciate numerous phone calls and emails I received in reaction to my article last week, challenging researchers to come up with innovations that address daily challenges bedevilling farmers. The response was massive and for the better part of the week I was inundated with calls of appreciation. Others like my colleague Muhle Masuku suggested what I thought was a brilliant ground breaking intervention in curbing stock theft which is a perennial vice in communal farmers.

Masuku suggested that we need to move with technology and consider GPS tracking on our animals supported by our mobile phone operators such that you get a little device you stick on your livestock punch figures into your phone and now you can track your most valued assets in the comfort of your bedroom using your smart phone! I know the knee-jerk reaction is to say this is absurd and expensive but I tell you if you give it time and you do not have phobia for technology you will realise that it’s actually doable!

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