BATSWANA HAVE MIXED REACTIONS TO THE ARRIVAL OF CATTLE BREEDS FROM THE USA

This issue of dikgomo tsa P25 million from America to aid the capacity of our Artificial Insemination Centre has once again brought to the fore, the DNA and character of your average Motswana. You can never please an especially too politicized Motswana. It does not matter what you say to, or do for that type of Motswana, as long as what is done or said is by someone they do not like, they will find fault in it. Note how those opposed to President Masisi try very hard to find fault in the initiative. Note in similar fashion, how those in the same camp with Masisi try very hard to describe this as a good initiative. It is therefore important for the neutrals to listen with caution. The praisers may just be bootlicking and partisan, while the naysayers may just be in opposition and also being partisan. In fact, those who are publicly opposing are secretly asking how they can acquire the semen from the centre. Others who oppose are not even into farming. So we are better off leaving this matter to cattle farmers who are not partisan [TSHPANG MOOKETSANE]

BUT WHO ADVISES PRESIDENT MASISI?

25million!!! Kante economic advisor ya ga President Masisi ke mang? Project ye ga ena go lwantsha unemployment, poverty and inequality ka gope. No, I would rather go for vegetable production than wasting government money. 25miliion ke madi a mantsi thata gore a ka hetoĺa matshelo a Batswana thata within short period, but this dikgomo project ng-ng. [KABELO GEORGE]

THEY WILL CORRUPT BOTSWANA BEEF

I don’t have cattle, I know nothing about them! But what I know is our Tswana Breed that people now look down on is what made our beef the best in the world! Our beef is ORGANIC!

Batswana have never GMOed their cattle. This excitement about INTERNATIONAL SEMEN and BULLS is only going to corrupt our beef.

[MMAOTHO SEGOTSO]

WE ARE THANKFUL TO MOA, MASISI

As far as I am concerned this is a most welcome initiative by BW government. This injection of American Brahman bulls will help us develop our cattle faster. The technologies and the available services that come as part of the package will accelerate breeding and put us a few steps forward. Genetics at your doorstep, how much better can it get? I love this and will use it to the best of my ability to improve my herd and produce cattle suited to our environment. Thank you Ministry of Agriculture, thank you Mr President. Nna kea leboga. [KASWIKA MANNATHOKO]

WE NEED TO REBUILD OUR BEEF SECTOR

Botswana beef is good. Yes we have some of the best cattle rearing conditions in the world although our soils lack phosphorus. Our long summers and moderate winters add to this equation. And yes we produce quality organic beef that was previously anchored on grass feeding before we introduced grain. We have a large country of open prairies, endowed with several surface and sub-surface water sources. On the other hand, we must admit the fact that we are nowhere near the International benchmarks in Cattle farming especially with respect to seed stock animals. Both on the quality side and quantity we are still far behind. When we talk of stud animals there are few ranchers with tip top quality genetics mainly under the Brahman banner. (One can think of Mr Rudi Lemcke, Ntate Basimanyana Masire, Mr Roland Munger, Ntate Blackie Marole, Dr Martin Mannathoko, Moruti Wilhelm de Graaff and others. Then there is a second group of farmers with unregistered pure breed animals. The overwhelming majority of BW families can be classified as cattle owners running commercial operations under extensive conditions. The quality they produce is mainly seen by meat packers. The communal grazing systems does not help their situation much. In addition to providing conditions for stock theft and environmental degradation, the system does now allow for best practices in stock farming. We have seen how inbreeding owing to difficulty in controlling breeding animals have undermined beef production across the country. This has a bearing on the quality of cattle we produce. The importation of quality American genetics into the country is therefore a welcome development. This will certainly attempt to narrow the gap between us and other leading cattle rearing nations such as South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, Uruguay, Namibia, USA and Brazil. The diversity of the breeds we have from Tswana, Bonsmara, Brahman, Simmental and Charolais will also add to the growth of the beef sector. I understand the cargo we are receiving tomorrow includes different breeds of cattle some of which we currently don’t have in the country or we have limited supply. One hopes the Brangus and the Santa Getrudis are among the breeds on that plane. That with the promise of benefits of the embryo transfer technology will certainly give us a major leap forward. The impact of these animals should be evident across the country in a few years provided there is a laid distribution plan of these genetic materials. Coupled with a revised land tenure system, a campaign against bush encroachment and a fight against rampant stock theft, the development could have an instant impact on the country’s cow herd not only on the quality front but also in terms of building numbers. We should not complain when our country brings in these biological factories. We need them to rebuild our beef sector. We never complained when our mines imported those sophisticated shovels and mega size tipper trucks. So much ground still to be covered to make Botswana a true Cattle Country. [OUBAAS MOKOTEDI]

WE COULD BE MAKING A MISTAKE

Nna tota, I don’t believe that exotic cattle breeds, particularly those with a big frame, are the best for optimizing beef production, in particular grass fed beef, given the country’s ecology for cattle rearing. I look at it from the economics perspective, and in simple terms, how farmers in general should farm, within the given environment, and with what breeds to maximize operating profit whilst having a minimal impact on the environment. Under our environment, exotic breeds from Europe and America require very intensive farming methods with invariably very high per kg of beef unit cost of production and rather high establishment and fixed costs. This means that relatively few farmers can successfully and commercially farm this way, compared to decades ago when the national herd was at its peak, whereas the country needs to regain expanded production with a big national herd-a situation that was made possible by hardy traditional Tswana and/or Nguni breeds that, admittedly, yield lower carcass weights but at comparatively much lower cost, firstly to the farmer and secondly to the country, when all environmental factors are taken into consideration. It would be better to emphasize hybrid animals benefiting, to some extent, from exotic breeds and much more from traditional Tswana/ Nguni cattle. To promote a wholesale shift from Tswana to exotic breeds would be a grave mistake!

[GOITSEMODIMO MANOWE]

FORMULATE PURPOSEFUL POLICIES

For once I strongly feel I should disabuse myself of cattle breeding technicalities of success rates, EBVs( Estimated Breeding Values), conformation or whatever you may throw in.

I would like see this initiative for what it is— Our neighbors to the south have been massively successful at convincing us or the whole continent rather, that they’re the only go to place for better genetics. I am probably amongst the few that believe we can give them a run for their money at least when it comes to cattle— Ke gore hela ba blind ka marketing le branding! The balance of trade in agricultural goods (X AGR) between them and us is hugely NEGATIVE. When disaggregated and trade in cattle genetics is assessed, it is abysmal. The biggest impact of these animals coming from the heartland of yankee beef is the MEGAPHONE MARKETING & BRANDING of our cattle sector. We are in fact saying to our neighbors in not so subtle terms that we are positioning ourselves for GENETICS EXPORT. What better way to say we are the real McCoy than to do the extraordinary and create a spectacle that is sure to grab headlines in the subcontinent! This positioning needs to be based on a bedrock of in-house policy formulations that would go far in growing us into this niche market. We need to seriously consider segmenting the cattle producing fraternity so as to better use resources especially the finite agricultural land. We need to have the following:

1. Stud producers (they need small patches of land to be impactful.)

2. Meat producers (these guys need huge tracks of land, as dry matter per hectare in this lucky country is low)

Because with this new trade Avenue in genetics, we should be very careful not to starve the beef producer of land at the preference of genetic producers. It is for policy guys to ensure that these metswedi ya itsholelo run parallel for yonks!