Not easy to get best of both worlds farming in communal areas

The stakes are high so it is important to select your cattle according to the type of environment that you are farming in, writes Shane Brody.

Many communal farmers have experienced marketing-related challenges because of the type of cattle being farmed in communal areas. While it is understood that Nguni cattle descend from a combination of Zebu and humpless (Bos Taurus type) cattle from East Africa, they are widely regarded as Bos Indicus cattle and so too are cattle such as Brahmans. Ngunis are widely found in communal farming areas, as are Brahman crosses.

Generally, Bos Indicus cattle originate from Zebu breeds and they are distinguished from “beef” or Bos Taurus breeds in the following way:

They have longer and thinner heads.

Indicus cattle usually have humps.

They can handle tropical, hot and humid climates better.

They have less subcutaneous fat (fat under the skin) and less marbling or fat in the muscles, but this isn’t necessarily a good trait when it comes to marketing.

They have a less rounded carcass shape and smaller muscling than Bos Taurus, also not a particularly good trait.

They originate mostly from Africa and India while Bos Taurus are largely European breeds.

They have a looser skin and prominent dewlap on the neck area.

I have always followed the rule that as a farmer, I farm animals that are suited to the particular environment in which I live. For example, knowing that Bos Taurus cattle such as Hereford, Shorthorn, Simmental and Angus cattle do better on grasslands or pastures where there is less severe heat; it would be unwise to attempt to farm such animals in arid climates with severe summer temperatures. Generally, Bos Taurus cattle are outright grazers, meaning that they will seldom resort to browsing bush or thickets as Ngunis have been known to do. Thus, if farming in such bushy areas, particularly where parasites such as ticks are prevalent, I wouldn’t consider farming purebred animals such as Herefords that have furry or bushy coats that can conceal ticks.

However, it is tricky to enjoy the best of both worlds where farming livestock illness-resistant Ngunis, for example, cut back on the need for medication and antiparasitic remedies such as dips, but where you are producing cattle that are less desirable to abattoirs and feedlots.

The massive feedlot industry that buys most weaner calves for fattening into A-grade carcasses in South Africa also discriminates against cattle that are viewed as being majority. Bos Indicus and Nguni cattle, in particular.

This has to do with the carcass shape, carcass fat deposits, daily growth rates of calves, and so forth. They will also discriminate against animals with majority dairy breed traits such as Friesland and Jersey cattle because these may also have carcass conformation issues.

As a community, you should beware of using bulls of non-descript breeding that have poor body confirmation and that may contain breed traits, such as found in Jersey or Guernsey cattle, because these traits are easily recognised by seasoned buyers. Much work has been done over decades by astute cattle geneticists in respect of producing cattle breeds that include Taurus and Indicus traits, and Beefmasters and Bonsmaras are two such examples.

There are also other two-way crosses such as Braford (Brahman x Hereford) and Brangus (Angus x Brahman) that have successfully extracted the good traits.

‘PUREBRED’

After years of breeding with mixedbreed cows such as Nguni crosses,

I tried a number of different bulls and found that using purebred bulls always delivered the best results. When explaining “purebred” I’m not suggesting that Braford, Beefmaster, and Brangus are not purebred animals (as they’ve been successfully developed into autonomous breeds of their own) but essentially, they are already crosses.

Breeding is tricky and you need to consider what your crossbred cows look like: if they have accentuated Brahman features, for example, then, using a Brangus bull that contains Brahman may result in offspring looking more Brahman or Indicus than Taurus.

If you are looking to produce calves with more beef-type or Taurus traits, then it may pay to consider using a purebred bull such as a Charolais. While some breeders may disagree, my experience of breeding with predominantly crossbred Indicus cows and pure bulls such as Red Angus led to healthy calves.

Shane Brody is involved in an outreach programme aimed at transferring skills to communal farmers. Email him at farmersweekly@caxton.co.za. Subject line: Communal farming.

BREEDING IS TRICKY AND YOU NEED TO CONSIDER WHAT YOUR CROSSBRED COWS LOOK LIKE