The Sunday News
LAST week I had an opportunity to attend a bull sale which was held by a certain commercial farmer at the Trade Fair show grounds in Bulawayo.
This event produced a number of lessons which inspired this article.
One of the major illustrations made by the sale is not something we have not discussed before but seeing it in practice encouraged me to revisit it for effect.
Am talking here of planning as an important attribute by a farmer and in this case a livestock farmer. It was very clear that this farmer has an elaborate plan in his farm about what to do, when and how. The sale itself was planned way ahead and those who visit stockfeed outlets and other farming shops saw brochures and fliers advertising this event and it was no surprise that it was well attended by spectators and buyers alike.
It was not an accidental distressed sale which is very synonymous with most smallholder farmers but it was properly planned and meticulously executed. Even the animals on sale told of a careful selection process building to the sale date.
Another important lesson which I hope other upcoming farmers noticed and learnt was good animal husbandry practice as an important and integral component of livestock production.
The animals were sparkling clean, no bruises, no ticks, no scar or any other sign of neglect; they were simply manicured par excellence.
The entire herd was without horns and signs were that they were dehorned at very early stages and it was expertly done that they all appeared as if they were naturally polled animals.
The need for farmers to dehorn their herd was aptly demonstrated when two huge bulls decided to give the audience their money’s worth and converted the holding pens into a boxing ring, exchanging ferocious blows leaving the handlers almost hapless. Needless to say because both bulls were hornless no injuries were recorded but one of the bulls was rewarded with a $5 100 price tag for clearly demonstrating its “manhood!”
Another take-home lesson for the small holder farmers was the importance of record keeping. The animals on sale were well documented with their lineage clearly outlined. The catalogues gave a small brief about each bull on offer. This covered the attributes of the dam and that of the sire and these acted as marketing traits for the bulls.
Some dams were described as having never skipped a year. Who honestly wouldn’t want to buy a bull whose progeny will be dropping a calf every year?
Without properly kept and elaborate recording systems no farmer would be able to say this with confidence. Contrast this with our smallholder communal farmers, the only statistic they keep and in their heads is how many animals they have. This cannot and should not be the only important recordable aspect about your herd.
Then the breeds spoke for themselves. You just have to have the right breeds for you to turn the heads, so to speak. It was the Beef master and the Brahman for the bulls and it rarely gets better than this! Finally it was clearly demonstrated for all to see that there is money to be made in livestock production. One just has to be patient and do it properly for maximum effect. I did not attend the entire sale but the 14 bulls that were sold in my presence none went for less than $3 300 and there were over 50 bulls. You can do the maths.
My parting word of advice to the smallholder livestock farmers is that we should go beyond envying and copying the dressing attire of mostly white commercial farmers and copy their management as well. Most smallholder livestock farmers think its dressing in khakis and safari shoes that qualifies one into a successful farmer, it’s the management instead!
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