Cattle farmers want sector commercialised

that smallholder cattle farmers accounted for 93 percent of the national herd that currently stands at 5,2 million.
He said cattle farmers were least benefiting from the cattle business.

Cde Zhuwawo is a cattle farmer from the Mashonaland West province.
“The smallholder cattle farmers’ biggest challenge stems from their inability to lay their hands on pedigree stock that has better quality and higher value at the market compared to their in-bred Mashona cattle,” said Cde Zhuwawo.

“It is therefore imperative to strengthen the genetic pool of cattle through appropriate breeding.”
Commercial cattle ranchers, Cde Zhuwawo said, should enhance productivity in the sector by promoting the production of pedigree stock that they can later sell to smallholder farmers.

He also said the country should place greater focus on improving production of cattle by state and public enterprises such as the Cold Storage Commission, the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, the uniformed forces and higher and tertiary education institutions.
The other option, he said, would be to place focus on the private sector for cattle production improvement in which established commercial and resettled A2 farmers play a critical role.

Cde Zhuwawo lamented the fact that the commercial sector’s share of the national herd had dropped from 30 percent in 1992 to 7 percent in 2003 while the pedigree herd has also dropped from 22 480 in 1997 to 4 972 in 2006.
The number of pedigree breeders on the other hand has also dropped from 233 in 1997 to 44 in 2006.

The smallholder herd has, however, shown a growth of 12 percent by 529 882 cattle from a number of 3 805 000 cattle in 1992 to 4 334 882 cattle in 2006.
Another cattle farmer from Matabeleland South who declined to be identified said smallholder cattle producers needed to adopt a business approach to their activities and harvest animals to sell at least once every year.

“The farmers must have an income from the sale of cattle every year and still be able to remain with stock for continued farming activities.
The Cold Storage Company Leather Institute and the Central Statistics Office report that Zimbabwe’s national herd dropped by 20 percent from 5 985 000 cattle in 1992 to 4 986 318 cattle in 2006.

They further state that the annual cattle slaughter trends also dropped by 50 percent from 754 531 cattle in 1992 to 380 000 cattle in 2006.
This represents drop in the slaughter off-take from 12,6 percent within the same period while the drop in both the national herd and the slaughter take-off implies a reduction in production levels in the cattle industry.