The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
INFORMED by discussions in one livestock farming social media group of which I am a member, I find it necessary to share my views regarding one important resource which is usually underestimated by most smallholder farmers.
This is the human resource component of the livestock enterprise. Most smallholder farmers do not wish to invest in appropriate human resource preferring instead to employ under-aged boys, some who are orphans to tend their livestock.
While it is tempting to discuss the moral bankruptcy of using under-aged children as cheap labour, I would like to discuss the value of the labourers instead.
As the saying goes, there is no such thing as cheap labour. You are paying for it somehow but you probably do not realise it.
What is cheap about a person who does not see the urgency of informing you of a sick animal until it’s late?
What is cheap about a person who goes indoors and sleeps comfortably while your whole 50 head is out there at night at the mercy of hyenas and lions? How cheap is a person who cannot read and administer a simple intramuscular injection? What value is a stockman who would rather sell your accaricide and buy sweets than dip your animals?
The aim of this instalment is to counsel smallholder farmers against looking for cheap labour to guard an expensive investment. A serious farmer should be able to invest in appropriate human resources. This means a person who is old enough to understand the value of investment in livestock.
He should have a minimum education to be able to be trained in some key aspect of enterprise management such as record keeping. He should also be trainable both in theory and practical of animal husbandry aspects. Your stockman is your first line of defence and must be equipped enough to render “first aid” before technical persons are brought in. Farmers should therefore invest in training their stockman to avoid losses which could have been prevented.
Another aspect is to do with appropriate provisions for the stockman such as the personal protective clothing like worksuits and appropriate footwear.
A properly clothed employee is happy and productive in most cases. Just the feeling and knowledge that the boss cares for the worker’s welfare motivates him to do more.
I am not a human resource practitioner and hence I will not dwell into the psychological aspect of human resource management.
If farmers could care for their livestock and value them like they do their vehicles, a lot of losses could be avoided. You are not willing to give an unexperienced driver your old car worth $5 000 but you can happily leave your head of 100 to a clueless 13-year-old boy!
Your 100 indigenous animals are probably worth $60 000. You can buy all the chemicals and feed but if your stockman is inadequately prepared you may not achieve what you intended to. I have seen some farmers dumping dipping and dosing chemicals and even stockfeed to the stockman and most of these are sold the minute that farmer goes back. You will come back and find your animals heavily infested with ticks but the container for the dipping chemical will be three quarters empty.
The boys have just decanted and sold to the cunning neighbour. The stockfeed bags are empty but the animals do not show any improvement. I know a farmer who on one of his rare visits to the farm got a surprise when some young girls came with two litre containers to buy fresh milk. The stockman was obviously running a dairy enterprise behind the boss’s back.
Also farmers need to treat their stockman humanly and appreciate that you are dealing with a person who has to live. I know some farmers who just dump the poor boy into these bushy resettlement areas with one week’s supply of food and disappear for three months. Then suddenly you begin to register high deaths of chickens and goats attributed to predation. The boy is munching your animals to remain alive! Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
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