The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Features Reporter
UMGUZA in the sprawling Matabeleland North is set apart from other districts in the province in that it is one that allows crop production to thrive in the natural ecological Region 5 where rainfall is not so bountiful.
Like other areas in the same region it is suitable for livestock. And for a good number of years, farmers in the district have been doing fairly well in cattle production and the recent coming in of a cattle fattening programme rolled out by the Beef Enterprise Strengthening and Transformation project (BEST) at Balu Estate in the district is expected to increase the farmers’ cattle production capacity as well as the quality of beef. The farmers are excited.
Under the project that has 50 hectares of centre pivot irrigated pastures, BEST has developed a Cattle Business Centre (CBC) being managed by the Balu Pecan and Livestock Company.
The project is one of the six projects that are supported by the 40 million Euros funding from the European Union (EU) under the Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP). The project is being implemented in Manicaland, Masvingo, Mashonaland Central, Midlands and Matabeleland North.
Mr Gift Chomuzinda, the BEST project livestock and livelihoods advisor, said they have developed an in-situ grazing initiative at Balu Estate to assist Umguza and farmers in the surrounding areas fatten their cattle from the irrigated pastures.
“At Balu Estate, we have designed an in-situ grazing initiative because the area is full of stones so we cannot do hay cutting as yet. We have rye grass and oats on 24ha and under 26ha there is a combination of rhodes reclaimer, smurts and white buffalo grasses.
“The aim is to allow farmers at a minimal fee to bring their cattle for feeding from the highly nutritious grass as part of the fattening process for pen feeding,” said Mr Chomuzinda.
He said after 40 to 50 days feeding on the grass the cattle are then taken to the CBC for finishing through feedlot and fed with a protein balanced high energy diet for a period of 10 to 20 days to improve slaughter grades and rates.
“The CBC whose construction is expected to be completed by end of September will have a drug store, dipping place, paddocks, cattle scale and cattle grading system among others. It is here where the cattle are supposed to be checked for diseases, vaccinated, and then quarantined for a certain time so that at least the diseases that are contagious are avoided. This in turn makes cattle healthier and more valuable for sale,” he added.
He said for in-situ grazing, first priority would be given to farmers that would have registered under the project and the cattle would usually be for sale through live auctions to different buyers who have interest.
With the pastures planted in December last year, Mr Chomuzinda said they had a trial run in May to June with about 71 cattle.
“The trial run was meant to ascertain the effectiveness of the programme we are about to implement,” he said.
Mr Chomuzinda said they were looking at 10 cows per one hectare, which meant that about 500 cattle would graze on the facility.
“We can have 500 cattle at a time but we will also have moments of grazing and rest. Breakdown of the year in three month periods it means we have four cycles and that translates to an average of 2 000 animals per year. But as we develop the pastures further the place will get over subscribed,” said Mr Chomuzinda.
He said the programme had various benefits in the sense that it allows farmers to save as their cattle would not be restricted in terms of the amount of pastures to feed on.
“Through our programme farmers will be able to save a lot of money because unlike standard feed-lotting which can be a bit expensive as each cow would require about 12kgs a day of protein balanced high-energy diet for a period of 70 to 120 days, we are saying they can bring their cattle here for intensive grazing where they will not be restricted to the amount of pastures they feed on,” said Mr Chomuzinda.
He noted that the BEST project aimed at bringing a revival in the beef value chain, arrest shortfalls and ills in small to medium cattle producers in terms of productivity, volume and practice.
He said they were looking at offering relief grazing that allows the cattle to gain weight at low cost, until the cattle recover and get into better conditions adding that the programme was designed to assist farmers at a time when there would be no pastures in their areas.
“We want to synchronize the facility to say during the dry season farmers can bring their cattle for grazing here and by the time the cattle leave Balu Estate, there will be enough pastures back in their areas.”
He said they were establishing a corner for hay cutting so that it could be sold at reasonable prices to cover for the production and harvesting.
The drive under the BEST is to ensure intervention in terms of growing fodder for animals to provide highly nutritious feed, competitiveness and productivity of the beef value chain by providing good feed throughout the year using locally available resources.
The Balu pasture field is a farmer learning centre that will provide access to grazing, planting materials, seeds, information and services. It will be a farmer field school from where the farmers can replicate.
The intensive pasture production will improve access to feed for beef producers which in turn will improve cattle productivity and contribution to the economy.
Mr Chomuzinda said they would continue to provide a number of critical beef value-chain services such as feed-lotting, cattle auctions, direct walk-in sales, fodder sales, bulling services, farmer training and extension.
In 2020, two out of 10 main BEST project CBCs in Buhera and Chiredzi districts fattened a total 65 cattle for 30 farmers and the project targets 600 cattle (60 per CBC) for 2021 feedlot season.
An additional 115 cattle were fattened on five satellite CBCs in 2020, while BEST project has a target of 750 cattle (15/site) by December 2021.
Kwekwe, Chiredzi and Mwenezi CBCs have been offering direct walk-in sales since 2020 with an average of 36 cattle sold per month at each site. All the 10 CBCs in the country are now functional and are expected to buy walk-ins with total target of 1000 cattle by 2021 year-end.
A total of 46 cattle were sold by 37 farmers (26 males, 11 females) at the Gokwe CBC as walk-ins in June 2021 while 250 cattle were sold for a total value of US$ 74,250 at Lapache CBC since 2020. The aim is to improve the quality of the beef cattle that are marketed by beef producers in Zimbabwe.
Using an average of 36 cattle, the project targets 360 cattle per month to be sold directly to private sector companies running the CBCs.
Meanwhile, the BEST project is also promoting adoption of fodder production and silage nationwide.
One of the BEST project beneficiaries doing fodder production and silage in Epping Forest Ward 19 in Umguza District, Mr Michael Moyo said as a group of 10 they had a bumper harvest of fodder crops.
“In total we got 116 bales, 53 were for cow peas, 43 velvet beans, 20 lablab and four buckets of sorghum fodder seed which we then shared among ourselves as 10 farmers. From the stalks we then did silage of about 1,5 tonnes,” said Mr Moyo.
He said the benefits of fodder production for them as farmers was that they were producing a higher quality feed for less money than traditional methods.
Mr Moyo said fodder production had assisted their livestock as there was increased milk and meat production.
He said the other group members were also supposed to identify and nurture 10 other members that fall under them this coming cropping season so that the number of farmers who also benefit from the programme grows.
“Silage has several advantages over hay as a mechanically harvested product. Silage has more nutrients preserved per acre because there are less field losses. Silage is also less affected by weather damage because the forage does not lie in the field drying.”
The BEST project initiated the fodder conservation through hay and silage to enhance supplementation by farmers to reduce livestock poverty deaths and to use the feeds to fatten without buying much feed from the shops.
The BEST project is a consortium partnership of World Vision, Welthungerhilfe (WHH), Sustainable Agriculture Technology (SAT), Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC), Zimbabwe Agriculture Development Trust (ZADT) and Nurture Education Trust. BEST project is closely working with the Lands and Agriculture ministry and other Government departments such as Youths, Women Affairs and Small to Medium Enterprises.
