Livestock poverty deaths, serious cause for concern in the industry

LAST week we carried a sad but very common story about cattle dying of starvation in Matabeleland South. This is called poverty deaths and it is not only restricted to Matabeleland South, but also occurs in other drier regions of the country.

Like I indicated this is not a new phenomenon but like death it never stops to make you sad when it occurs. While the losses are individual and localised, we should never lose sight of the fact that it contributes to a depletion of the national herd.

It is also a decimation of the people’s livelihoods and a wastage on their investments.

While most of these poverty deaths are droughtinduced, a good number of them are management related. Last week I was in Smith Block farm in Mangwe District and there were several poverty deaths reported by the community. In fact, almost every household had strands of drying meat on the wire, a direct result of the poverty deaths. Just to contextualise it, Smith Block consists of A1 farms that were parcelled to farmers during the land reform programme in 2000.

It has huge grazing areas and about three big dams for human beings and livestock use. It is not an area where one would expect to record poverty deaths in livestock but sadly due to poor grazing management and poor husbandry practices the area is now experiencing poverty deaths.

Firstly, boundary fences were destroyed and hence cattle from the neighbouring communal area in Kezi are driven into Smith Block hence overstocking the farm. Secondly, paddock fences were vandalised and hence veld management practices such as rotational grazing become difficult to implement. Also, the farmers in that farm tend to recruit animals from farmers seeking relief grazing, attracted by the prospects of being paid in the form of cattle for offering relief grazing.

This practice is not regulated and as such more animals than permitted by the carrying capacity are brought into the farm, again resulting in overstocking and the inevitable result is poverty deaths that are now being recorded in an area previously wellknown for abundant grazing.

Again, we revisit the management practices that will save your animals from poverty deaths if you are in the drier areas of the country. We have shared these before but when statistics of poverty deaths keep rising, we find it prudent to repeat for emphasis. The first important practice is to ensure you manage your little grazing in such a way that it will not be depleted quickly and hence burden you with seeking feed for your animals for the greater part of the year.

Grazing animals haphazardly makes the veld get wasted in no time. It has to be systematic and we have shared the how in the very recent past. Secondly stock some feed for supplementing your animals during the lean season. The critical period is usually three months which is from September to November. If it is commercial feed, it is wise to buy and stock your feed around February when it is still cheaper. Stock feed will always be expensive during the lean season and buying enough for your herd will always be a tall order during this period. Right now, stock feed is anything around $260 yet it was way cheaper than this in February. Admittedly, inflation rates and currencies have changed but the price was cheaper during that period in whatever currency. Farmers can cut and bale hay in their farms for those that get enough grass. They can buy hay which is much cheaper than commercial feeds. The hay can then be beneficiated with molasses and other dry season supplements such as Mabiko K.

Another important but largely ignored practice is to grow fodder crops that will provide you with cheaper stock feed to supplement your animals during the dry season. There is a whole range of drought tolerant fodder crops that farmers can grow and harvest plenty herbage which can then be baled for use during the dry season. Just this past week I was in Chipinge, a very dry area by any measure but it was quite pleasing to find a sizeable number of farmers that have taken to fodder growing seriously and they are supplementing their animals using the fodder.

They are now earning some income from selling fodder seeds to fellow community members who now want to grow fodder as well. Just planting a hectare of velvet beans can harvest enough herbage to supplement a decent herd through the lean period. The long and short of it is that farmers in areas which do not have adequate grazing for one reason or another should find a way of stocking supplementary feed of any nature for their animals.

This could range from cereal stover, tree pods and even tree leaves in dire areas. Anything to save your animals from dying is important no matter how desperate it looks. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.

Feedback mazikelana@gmail.com/ cell 0772851275.