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Precious Manomano Herald Reporter
Livestock condition countrywide is still good although farmers are advised to prepare their own homemade feed formulations which will help prevent livestock from lack of pasture during summer and winter periods.
Self-production of stock feed is among the cornerstones of the Second Republic’s vision of restoring the country’ s beef processing hub.
Farmers are also urged to provide good shelter, enough feed and water which is crucial for keeping animals healthy during winter. Cattle are now walking long distances in search of pastures.
Government’s intervention has been identified as a major approach to boosting the national herd through ensuring that farmers have access to highly nutritious stockfeed at affordable costs.
Livestock production is a critical source of income and safety net for millions of people but recent prolonged dry spells due to climate change are negatively affecting agricultural production including pastures.
The scheme falls under the livestock growth plan, which is part of the agriculture and food systems transformation strategy that is expected to turn agriculture into an US$8,2 billion industry by 2025 and contribute towards the achievement of Vision 2030. To augment Government efforts irrigation holders have been urged to put a portion of their land under fodder production.
Department of Veterinary Services chief director Dr Josphat Nyika said it is critical for farmers to make supplementary feeding adding that extension workers will assist them in making the formulations.
He said grazing is still average in terms of both availability and quality.
“Hay bailing is in full throttle. Fire season has started and hay baling helps to supply livestock farmers with affordable feed for their animals as commercial feed remains beyond the reach of the majority of farmers. This time farmers should rely on supplementary feeding so that they will not loose the condition. Dipping should continue,” he said.
Dr Nyika also said it is critical for farmers to vaccinate their livestock from black leg and anthrax.
He also urged farmers to de-worm livestock to destroy internal parasites as the season changes from summer to winter.
He also advised farmers to do weekly dipping during this time, adding that in areas where January disease remains a challenge, dipping should remain on a 5 -5- 4 regime.
Cattle farmers, even at the small scale, can grow their own forage and mix up some of their own supplementary feed to keep their herd in good shape during winter and dry periods.
Farmers are being encouraged to invest in sustainable intensive forage production as it is critical to sustain livestock and minimise over-reliance on commercial feeds.
The strategy uses climate-smart feed options growing lab, velvet beans, lucerne, katambora, teff grass, silver lift and star grass with many other forage crops also available.
The costs of commercial feed are high, hence the need to embrace on-farm feed formulations that are accessible at a lower cost.
The model is sustainable since on-farm feed formulations will reduce the cost of feed when pastures in dry and winter periods are low quality and some may be affected by veld fires in dry period.
Government is directing a lot of effort at implementing measures that maintain the current momentum in reducing tick-borne related deaths.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Dr John Basera said efforts were being made to drive mortality rates to figures below five percent down from the current six percent.
“To grow our cattle sector, there is need for sharp sustained growth that can be realised by curbing deaths from tick-borne diseases,” said Dr Basera.
The Government introduced programmes such as the Presidential blitz tick grease and the Presidential Dip tank rehabilitation to decrease the mortality rates, which have seen the herd growing from 5 478 648 cattle in 2020 to 5 509 983 in 2022.
Farmers have hailed Government efforts to protect the national herd from tick borne diseases that have killed nearly 500 000 cattle in the rainy seasons in the past few years.
Vector-borne diseases, particularly tick-borne diseases, constitute the biggest risk to livestock production and account for over 60 percent of recorded ruminant livestock deaths.
In 2017 alone, the country lost over 55 000 cattle due to tick-borne-related deaths. This figure swelled to in excess of 500 000 cattle deaths by 2020. This prompted the Government to institute measures to avert the situation and this included increasing its budget towards the fight against the January disease.
Zimbabwe is moving ahead on several fronts to fight tick-borne diseases by building, rebuilding and renovating dip tanks as well as manufacturing vaccines. The Government is accelerating plans to build the national herd to six million in line with the country’s agricultural growth recovery plan to meet national demand for meat and dairy products, and then to resume export trade.
This requires not just breeding more cattle, but also ensuring that none are killed by disease.
Currently, the national herd stands at 5,5 million and various measures have been put in place to improve the quality of livestock including artificial insemination which involves cross breeding with semen from selected quality bulls and vaccination programmes.
A blitz tick-grease programme under the Presidential Inputs Scheme has also been a major boost in the fight against January disease and the programme will continue this season.
To make sure that the January disease does not spread, the Government was also pushing and rolling out the tick grease programme which proved to be a game changer following the 5-5-4 dipping regime and in between dipping, farmers are recommended to apply and smear tick grease to their animals.
Farmers are keen to see the rehabilitation of all non-functional dip tanks.
In response to various Government programmes the country’s cattle herd is up by two percent from 5 509 983 in 2021 to 5 642 400 in 2022 as the country targets a six million cattle herd by end of this year.
Government has declared war on Tick-borne diseases after the country lost 500 000 cattle to the diseases. Government implemented programmes such as the dip tank resuscitation programme, the Presidential blitz tick grease programme and the local manufacturing of vaccines.
The programme enhanced the national effort against ticks and tick-borne diseases, which culminated in a 47 percent reduction of cattle mortality due to the January disease in 2021, and a 39 percent decline in cattle mortalities in 2022, compared to the previous year in both instances.
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