Livestock farmers need to tap into the potential of bush meal for drought mitigation

The last two weeks have been hectic for most livestock farmers as most farmers either lost animals to poverty deaths or got really busy trying to mitigate the loss.

This included having to be lifting an animal which is failing to rise on this own due to severe poor body condition.

In fact one video was doing rounds on social media platforms for farmers, showing one farmer who had to use a pulley with chains to crane the animal up before supporting it to stand with a makeshift structure of logs designed to prevent it from falling down.

In simple terms, a lot of work went into the process that is looking for that pulley, mobilising manpower and innovating around a makeshift support structure of logs!

This could have been easily prevented if the good farmer had taken appropriate action at the right time.

The level of commitment demonstrated in the desire to save the cow, could have been more productive if exerted in trying to prevent the situation to degenerate to those levels.

This is what I have noticed with most livestock farmers, they tend to be reactionary as opposed to being proactive.

Suddenly they are full of ideas and energy of how to save the dying animals when they could been more productive had they acted to ensure the situation would not come to that.

As you read this submission, some livestock farmers are still losing their cattle because it still has not rained in their areas.

In other areas it has however, rained and brought much needed relief as animals now have drinking water and they are feeding on fresh leaves as trees have new shoots.

However, what I noticed and learnt from other farmers from this predicament of unavailability of feed, is that as livestock farmers especially in Matabeleland North region and perhaps other similar regions which are characterised by abundance of woody species, is that we do not take full advantage of these trees.

A few farmers who do, managed to keep their animals in body condition good enough to escape poverty deaths.

It does not make sense for a farmer to lose animals to poverty death when they have trees with browsable pods within their rangelands.

All you need to do is to actively collect the pods, crush them and feed to your animals and voila, you have provided them with the much needed protein during this critical time of massive feed shortage.

What is also very evident is that there is gross underutilisation of bush meal as a livestock feed. Bush meal refers to livestock feed that is formulated primarily based of tree components that are edible to animals.

These include small twigs, leaves and pods which are crushed with special millers and mixed with some additives such as salt to provide essential elements.

The bush meal provides mainly protein which is usually very limiting during the peak of the dry season.

Energy can be added in form of grain if available which is highly unlikely or molasses.

My view is that, there is something fundamentally wrong with a livestock farmer losing animals to poverty death when they have leaves and trees that animals can feed on, and all that is needed is to mill those into usable and digestible pieces.

It is about time extension messaging embraced and promoted use of bush meal as a viable drought mitigation strategy for areas with abundance of woody species.

Farmers can actually collectively buy a miller and produce the bush meal for their animals.

These millers are usually multi-purpose such that they can be used for grain milling as well. There is honestly no reason why your animals should starve to death when you have mopane leaves and acacia trees in your area.

These can be milled into useful feed for your livestock which they ordinarily would not be able to use if not milled.

The positive spin of using bush meal is also the control of bush encroachment as small shrubs are cut and milled and big trees pruned for twigs.

This can actually improve the growth of grasses on your rangeland.

It is about time use of bush meal is seriously promoted as another approach in a buffet of choices which also include fodder production and de stocking.

Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.

Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his own capacity. Feedback: [email protected]