Ranching will work if – NAPRI
Dr. Roger Joshua Tanko is the Assistant Director, Extension and Linkages, at the National Animal Production Research Institute of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. In this interview with Daily Trust on Sunday he states the implications of ranching on the Nigerian cattle breed, among other issues. Excerpts:
There are fears that Nigeria’s cattle breeds may not be suitable for ranching. What is your take?
Let us start by knowing what ranching is. Ranching is keeping animals in one place with the farmer providing feed, water and healthcare for them in order to get more of what the farmer or herder wants. A farmer can ranch for meat. He can have a dairy farm. Therefore, ranching is meant to stop animals from wandering.
When a herder ranches, he gets the most of whatever he wants as the animals utilise most of what the farmer gives them for their growth. The idea of ranching is for the farmer to get the most from his resources.
Therefore, we can’t say that our own breeds are not suitable for ranching. It depends on what we give them. The most important thing that makes animals to grow is the nutrition. If you put the White Fulani, the Kuri and the other breeds in a ranch, they would certainly give more than same breeds that are roaming about.
You can imagine how these animals cover long distances; moving from Sokoto to Lagos, Enugu to Zamfara, etcetera, just looking for food to eat. Even without any scientific evidence, common sense would tell you that these types of animals cannot be the same with the ones that are kept in one place in terms of growth and quality of meat or milk, as the case may be.
In essence you are saying that ranching is more profitable even with the local breed?
Certainly, if you can keep them in a place and provide feed and water for them without going all over the place fighting and losing these animals, the herder gains more. The essence of ranching is that you have your property and you are maintaining it. How do you maintain the animals? A farmer provides a suitable place to keep his animals and he takes care of them. Through this he can be able to monitor what happens to the animals and the progress or otherwise that they are making. This allows for optimal management of the animals.
Apart from water, feed and place to keep cows, what other things does a farmer need to
ranch his animals?
Water and feed are the most important things. The next is the animals’ health. If a farmer ranches his animals, he is protecting them from mixing with other animals that may not be healthy. Animals can contact diseases when mixed with others. With ranching, a farmer can easily control any challenge whatever comes up.
For example, if a farmer ranches his herd for milk, he would get more milk and can easily organise for buyers. This is because they would know where to meet him. With ranching, a farmer can organise his breed to determine when they would give birth and when they would be producing milk. Under our present practice, a farmer cannot be able to organise his herd because they are always on the move.
An animal that is supposed to be disposed off in two years can take up to four years in this our present practice. Ranching makes speedy growth of animals.
What about the cost of keeping the animals in a ranch?
A herder has to plan. He can get his feed and store them, especially during harvest period. You know, this thing is supposed to be business: therefore, it requires planning. Moving around with animals entails getting feed by chance. In some instances, the animals may not get what to feed on and this can affect their growth. But in ranching, you feed your animals depending on their need.
Another major problem with this our present practice is the source of water that the animals drink from. During dry season, they find it difficult to get water, where it is available you find that different herds from different backgrounds go there to drink. This usually leads to transmission of diseases, which sometimes leads to the death of the animals or costs a lot of money to treat. But in ranching, the farmer can control what happens to his herds. By and large, ranching is more cost-effective than our present practice if all the above are taken into consideration.