Chronicle Editor
A FEW weeks ago, we discussed the successful holding of an annual breed sale in Harare and the fact that the event was beamed across the world via an online livestock auctioning platform.
We observed the need for such a premier livestock marketing event for the non-pedigree national herd which is actually the majority. This herd which is not stud or pedigree is referred to in livestock terminology as the commercial herd.
This week we want to discuss this view further, looking at the feasibility and implications of holding a structured and thoroughly primed up premier marketing event for the commercial herd in the same manner the stud breeders do.
The starting point is to have a registered body that puts together the event.
Putting together the event, referring to registering animals or farmers that become eligible to participate in the event as sellers, setting out guidelines of minimum quality standards that producers or sellers have to adhere to if they want to provide entry animals for the sale, advertising and hyping up the event to generate a wide interest from both the buyers and the sellers.
Stud breeders have an organisation or association called the Zimbabwe Herd Book, which is established by an Act of Parliament and has the sole responsibility of registering breeds in the country.
Stud breeders affiliate to this association through an annual fee paid per registered animal. It is my view that an association can be established say by farmers union to spearhead such a venture.
The association will then be able to generate a database of high quality livestock producers and then execute the above-stated functions around organising a competitive sale on non-stud breeding animals.
This idea is driven by the simple observation that it is not fair to reduce the majority of livestock producers to being a mere hungry market for the stud breeders while they themselves have no platforms for disposing off their breeding stock at competitive rates.
I estimate here that stud breeders probably constitute less than two percent of the entire livestock farmers yet they enjoy services of a premier auction event for their product, selling the highly priced products to the majority of livestock farmers whose only access rights to the event is to be a buyer!
My laboured point here is that, it is not fair to me to be allowed to buy a US$15 000 bull or US$3 500 heifer at the annual breed sale, take that to my commercial herd and produce an excellent progeny which I will struggle to sell at
US$500 for heifers or US$1 200 for bulls, simply because there is no structured and organised marketing platform for the median quality breeding stock!
It’s either the apex (stud) animals or nothing. This is therefore, a plea call to the farmers union to make themselves relevant to their members by taking up this task to organise a median level premier market for livestock producers.
We, the majority of livestock farmers cannot just be left to be a market for the elitist stud breeders, we need to sell our breeding stock at competitive prices.
Real livestock values cannot be about stud breeders only, there is a continuum of livestock farmers, some of them producing excellent quality but they are not reaping benefits of their sweat because the breeding stock market has been reduced to only pedigree animals.
All these livestock farmers with commercial herds who have been religiously buying pedigree bulls and heifers over the years now need their own outlet to sell their improved quality stock.
My view is that establishing this mid level breeding stock market will not only strengthen the beef value chain in general but stud breeders as well as their customers begin to enjoy the fruits of investing on high value genetics.
Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his own capacity. Feedback [email protected] cell 0772851275
Bongani Ndlovu
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