Buhera livestock body condition worsens

30 Sep, 2016 - 00:09 0 Views

The ManicaPost

Samuel Kadungure Farming Reporter

LIVESTOCK condition has worryingly deteriorated as grazing is now poor in Buhera District, putting to the fore the need to establish feed lots, drill and rehabilitate boreholes for both domestic, gardening and watering domestic animals.

Though no livestock deaths have been recorded of late, the deteriorating livestock body condition has left most communal farmers cracking their heads for immediate solutions to their situation which has been worsened by current extreme weather vagaries.

Livestock Production Department (LPD) head, Mr Joshua Zvoutete, said a survey had been launched to take stock of the livestock condition and possible interventions throughout Manicaland.  Mr Zvoutete said no deaths have been recorded of late, but admitted that grazing and water situation need to be looked at. Goal Zimbabwe official in Buhera, Mr Tinashe Tsepete, said livestock body condition had deteriorated.

“The livestock body condition is deteriorating, and (though) water is still available, as Goal Zimbabwe, we are rehabilitating boreholes for both domestic water use and watering livestock,” he said.

Goal Zimbabwe entered in a partnership with Makera Cattle Company aimed at improving the quality of livestock in Buhera which has been retarded by excessive inbreeding by introducing 39 pedigree bulls in 2014.

Major challenges faced by farmers in Buhera ranged from inbreeding, lack of feeds, high incidences of diseases and parasites, theft and predators, lack of cash to buy livestock pharmaceuticals, insufficient pastures to poor marketing.

Cattle, goats, sheep and chicken are major victims of inbreeding – which refers to the reproduction through the mating of parents who are closely related genetically. It can be in the form of parent-offspring crosses as well as the mating of full or half siblings and results in an increased state of having two identical alleles in the same gene, which leads to the offspring being affected by recessive or harmful traits.

“Now have over 552 calves sired by imported bulls and the birth weight has improved from an average of 25 to 40kg. The first calves have already been weaned as they reached 120kg at around seven months of age,” said Mr Tsepete.

Before the introduction of the bulls, a baseline study was conducted and one of the indicators focused on birth-weight, which at the time on average was 25kg.

The birth-weight has improved to 40kg.

The first calf of the project was born in May 2015 and since then an additional 552 calves have been born with an average of eight calves per bull.

Goats are producing at a much faster rate than cattle and by May 2016, there were more than 800 kids from the improved goat breeds. The project is now working on improved nutrition for livestock and is collaborating with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to promote the growing of legumes such as lablab, lucina and velvet bean as supplementary feed.

This will reduce the number of days required for pen fattening and increase the amount of money that the farmers can get from the sale of cattle. The project is also working with Surrey Meats to establish an irrigated pasture scheme to augment the natural grazing.

“We have introduced pen fattening and 55 farmers from wards 15, 16 and 19 are participating in the scheme. The feedlot has capacity to house 60 beasts at a time. We are working with Surrey Meats, who are providing feed to farmers and then buy the livestock after fattening. Two batches with a total of 52 cattle have so far been sold with highest prices realised by farmers being $628 for a beast, while the lowest is around $212,” said Mr Tsepete.

“Currently 21 animals are available and will be penned on Thursday. This gives farmers a chance to finish off their animals and then sell rather than middle man doing it and paying low prices. Other farmers are also free to put their livestock in the feed lot,” he said.

GOAL Zimbabwe started livestock interventions in 2012 as part of the OFDA Food Security and Livelihoods Centred Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Project, where smallholder farmers were able to buy livestock inputs as part of broadening their livelihoods base.

Following engagement of communities in Buhera in 2013, it emerged that one of the challenges faced by farmers was reduced income from the sale of their livestock especially cattle and goats due to the small animal sizes.

On further interrogation, it came out clearly that the reduction in size was due to excessive inbreeding, which could be resolved by either artificial insemination or introducing pedigree bulls. With support from Irish Aid under the Irish Aid Programme Funding (IAPF), GOAL and Makera designed a joint project with the NGO purchasing bulls which were looked after by trained paravets.

For one to qualify as a bull handler, a paravet had to have proper animal housing, supplementary feed and commitment to provide support to other farmers around the area. The management of the bulls is being supported by Coopers, a company that specialises in livestock veterinary services and the Department of Livestock and Veterinary Services extension staff.

The model has been adopted under the DFID Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LFSP) that GOAL is implementing in partnership with Practical Action, Sustainable Agriculture Trust (SAT) and Technoserve in Mutare, Mutasa and Makoni districts of Manicaland where there is a potential reach of 75 000 households.

 

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