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Obert Chifamba
Agriculture Editor
THE recent commissioning of a semen processing and cryopreservation centre in Zimbabwe at Matopos Research Institute marks a milestone in the country’s push to re-build the national herd in the wake of devastating tick-borne diseases and drought-inspired poverty deaths.
Ranked second largest in Southern Africa, the semen processing and preservation centre has the capacity to process three million livestock semen straws per year.
The centre, thus, will play a crucial role in preserving genetic diversity through cryopreservation of semen from valuable livestock breeds, including indigenous and locally adapted breeds.
Essentially, the choice of Matopos Research Institute for the project easily qualifies for the ‘no-brainer’ tag given that the institute is the custodian of Zimbabwe’s indigenous breeds (Tuli, Mashona, Afrikaner and Nkone) and will, therefore, avail these elite indigenous animal genetic resources to farmers at an affordable, cost recovery basis.
It is, however, important to pause for a moment and appreciate the big role the collaboration between Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has played in the setting up of this state-of-the-art gene bank equipment, valued at over US$400 000.
This is a development that marks a fresh beginning in the battle to reclaim the cattle industry’s yesteryear glory with farmers now able to access those breeds, which they had long dreamed to have, but failed to access the breeding stock.
Simply put, we will soon be seeing better cattle breeds throughout the country.
These are breeds that can easily fetch good prices on the market, thanks to their superior genetics. Soon, those farmers who produce cattle just to sell and make money will be talking of improved live mass prices, which translates into higher earnings from cattle sales.
On the one hand, controlled breeding through artificial insemination (AI) will help vulnerable communities, especially in the country’s cry regions to cope with the effects of climate change on their agricultural livelihoods by overcoming technical, financial, and capacity barriers they face.
AI is more cost-effective than maintaining a breeding bull. Collected semen can be shipped globally, reducing the need for breeding grounds and the cost of maintaining male animals.
It can also help cattle farmers access genetics from bulls they otherwise could not afford in their lifetime, or that are not available in their localities.
The beauty about the AI programme is that it will help prevent the spread of venereal diseases and sterility among herds.
It helps prevent the spread of certain diseases and sterility due to genital diseases.
AI has also been known to help reduce the spread of diseases such as contagious abortion and vibriosis.
If the bull is not properly tested, there are still high chances of genital diseases being spread and increasing.
Natural mating can allow the transfer of venereal diseases between males and females with some pathogens transmitted in the semen during artificial insemination, but the collection process is subject to screening of disease agents.
Collected semen is also routinely checked for quality, which can help prevent problems associated with male infertility. The successful roll out of the programme is also influenced by the way instruments used are cleaned. Improper cleaning of instruments in unsanitary conditions may lead to lower fertility.
At the same time, AI will help improve the conception rates and breeding efficiency, as it will permit farmers to mate animals of different sizes without injury.
AI will also make it possible for farmers to detect inferior bulls early through regular semen examination and fertility checks. Of course, they will need guidance from experts to ensure the process is smooth and successful.
AI requires well-trained operations and special equipment. It is crucial for the farmers to record positive results to ensure they develop a positive attitude to the process and boost its popularity and uptake among their colleagues.
The adoption of AI ahead of natural breeding processes brings with it a multitude of advantages that include increasing calf weight, condensing the calving period by bringing animals into heat at a specific time and maintaining accurate breeding and calving records among other things.
This will also give farmers the ability to assess the productivity records of all their animals, particularly cows. They will also not waste resources on cattle of poor genetics.
It is refreshing to note the commissioning of the semen plant happened at a time the country is just emerging from its worst drought in three decades, which saw many heads of cattle succumbing to malnutrition related complications in recent times.
In fact, this project could not have come at a better time than now when the country needs to urgently re-stock.
It will be important for Government to make sure the price of a semen straw is affordable to all farmers so that there is a high uptake of AI services to get the herd re-building exercise on track as soon as possible.
Affordable semen will significantly help improve both genetics and reproduction rates.
Other than the price issue, AI will require proper infrastructure for safe storage, as poor storage methods will result in the programme failing to make the desired impact.
It will also take someone with the expertise to successfully do insemination lest semen and cash may go to waste if untrained personnel try to do it without supervision. Farmer training on AI is important to make sure the programme is popularised as soon as possible to enhance its adoption.
The 2023 and 2024 Second Round of Crops, Livestock and Fisheries Assess (CLAFA 2) report indicated that the national cattle herd is now between 5,4 and 5,7 million animals of all types of which 2,25 million are breeding cows.
Every year, all these cows are eligible for bulling services. The report also revealed that the average calving rate based on natural servicing of cows with breeding bulls was between 40 and 45 percent and 60 to 65 percent in the communal areas and commercial farms respectively.
And by using both natural services of breeding bulls followed by supplementary rounds of AI done by qualified experts, commercial beef cattle ranches have achieved calving rates as high as 80 percent.
This demonstrated that the potential gain in calving rates from complementing natural bulls with rounds of AI is 15 to 20 percent and 20 to 30 percent for the average commercial cattle producer and average smallholder cattle farmer respectively.
There are always two sides to a coin.
AI has its own potential drawbacks that the farmer must appreciate before making the decision to use it.
The first thing is that the process can be more laborious compared to just letting your cows meet that random bull looking for a mating partner. Using AI would seem like the farmer is usurping the bull’s role of detecting heat in cows, which means the farmer’s observations have to be accurate lest he puts semen to waste.
Poor heat detection by the farmer results in decreased rates of fertility.
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