Personalised brand marks should go together with ear tags

23 Apr, 2017 - 00:04 0 Views

The Sunday News

WHILE assisting a colleague to clear his animal for exchange in Mangwe District, last week, I had a discussion with the police officer who was facilitating the process.

The discussion centred on the enforcement of personalised brands for farmers. The officer indicated that it was the Government’s position that anytime after the end of this year, no animal shall be cleared if it does not have a personalised brand mark. This is something which I was unable to verify with the responsible authorities especially as it relates to the deadline.

However, I am aware that some of the districts in Matabeleland South have been implementing this “regulation” for some time now. The aim of this article is not to contest the move to make personalised brands (imitshiso) compulsory but to reinforce the idea by adding a dimension which will make brands effective.

The whole idea of enforcing the use of personalised brand marks is to curb stock theft cases as well as protecting a farmer’s animals from being sold as stray animals. It is well-documented and well protested that most local authorities have an insatiable appetite for auctioning farmers’ animals as stray animals.

The fact that local authorities are empowered to do that by a relevant legislation is not up for contest but the efficiency and zeal that is exhibited by most local authorities when it comes to disposing farmers’ stray animals is nauseating.

Some of these local authorities have been failing to auction derelict and redundant machinery which includes vehicles and these are found in a state of neglect in various council premises but they hardly miss an auction for stray animals!

However, I am informed that any animal with a personalised brand mark cannot be auctioned as stray as the brand should assist in locating the owner. My suggestion therefore is that personalised brand marks should go together with ear tags.

I am aware that there are efforts to adopt a specific type of ear tags under the livestock identification and traceability scheme but for the purpose of recovering a lost animal a simple ear tag with useful information such as a phone number has been known for quickly assisting.

I have heard testimonies from farmers who are using ear tags and they have been called by strangers who would have found their cattle. One farmer in Nkayi District was called to come and collect his 17 animals from about 35 kilometres away that he had been looking for, for more than three months.

It is my suggestion therefore to the generality of the farmers that they should use both the personalised brand marks and ear tags for quick recovery of lost animals. Actually identifying the owner through a brand mark is not exactly easy if the brand mark certificate is not available as is the case in most stray animals.

The brand marks are hardly visible due to either poor administration of the mark or simply due to the age of the mark on the animal. It is well-known that a mark which is branded on the animal at a young age will tend to stretch and fade with time and become not so clear eventually.

In some cases because of poor restraining of the animal due to poor handling facilities and the poor skill of the applying person, the letters are hardly distinguishable and the mark comes out as an ugly looking scar on the animal.

Also the information about the upcoming regulation as it relates to personalised brand marks should be adequately disseminated to farmers through relevant channels such as extension arms and others. This will ensure that the regulation does not become an additional compliance pain to the farmer.

It is no secret that compliance issues are a pain for most farmers because of the stringent requirements which are usually above the means of an average farmer and this coupled with some corrupt officials can be excruciating.

Extensive awareness campaigns need to be done in all districts above the new requirement as it relates to brand marks, not just to wait for an ignorant farmer after the expiry of the deadline and wave the age old cruel statement on their face that “ignorance of the law is no defence”.

Uyabonga umntaMaKhumalo.

Feedback [email protected]/ cell 0772851275.

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