Vusumuzi Dube
Farming Issues with Mhlupheki Dube
ONE thing that I have learned this year regarding animal nutrition is that it is still possible for a farmer to lose animals to poverty deaths regardless of having the feed at their disposal.
I have met a number of farmers who complain about losing animals to poverty deaths even when they were giving those animals commercial stock feed. I have also met farmers who have given examples of their neighbours who also lost animals even though they were feeding.
Just last week on a Tuesday morning I met a farmer who is based somewhere between Marula and Plumtree, who said he had lost 14 animals this year to drought.
He is a young man based in South Africa. He claimed that he has brought home from South Africa over a hundred bags of commercial stock feed for his animals. I did not get the exact number of his animals.
In fact, I did not ask, being of a Ndebele extraction I have learned over the years that my tribesmen will never give you an accurate number of their animals. They actually frown at this question. So, I have learned never to ask how many animals a farmer has.
I will let them volunteer the number if they will. However, my analysis as to why livestock farmers still lose animals to poverty death even when they bought the feed and they are feeding, has come to one conclusion and that is, there is limited knowledge on how to feed one’s animals.
To most smallholder livestock farmers, commercial stock feed, is a miracle solution to the nutritional challenges within their herds, to the extent that it does not matter what quantity you have fed to what size of animal, they will all thrive.
The stock feed is regarded as a panacea for all nutritional challenges regardless of how it is fed to the animals. Nothing is further from the truth than this. I have seen some farmers who on further interrogation have said they are feeding a big 360 kilogramme cow with less than a kilogramme of stock feed per day.
Some of these animals are in areas with completely depleted grazing such that the cow spends the whole day standing under a tree, waiting for its next day’s ration of 500 grammes! So, basically the animal is being starved by the farmer who in his mind thinks he is actually supplementing his animal with the magic stock feed.
A decent ration would be at least four kilogrammes of stock feed per animal per day. The point being, as livestock farmers, let’s seek knowledge and guidance if we have a product we have to use on our animals.
Animals have been lost by farmers simply on account of the wrong application or use of a product. Recent examples are the 20 or so animals that were lost by a farmer in Nkayi because they had used wrong tablets for dosing, then the Fivet feed case where a farmer lost eight animals because of wrong feed.
In both cases, knowledge about the product at hand could have saved the farmers the agony of losing animals. Regarding our relatives, especially those in South Africa, please when you send products to be used by parents at home, seek an explanation from where you bought the product, how it is used and the required precautionary measures.
If the product is stock feed, please help the parents with how much they should give the animal per day and what they should watch out for or avoid.
Some feeds have high urea content and this needs to be communicated to the users of the feed and remedial action in the event of urea poisoning. Yes, some packaging could be written, but you know the literacy levels or even the eyesight issues of your parents, so why send something with no accompanying instructions on how to use it. Some products are decanted and sent in improvised containers.
This is very common with dipping chemicals, where the sender somehow has access to large quantities of an acaricide, which they decant and send in a container that used to have something else, and with no instructions and warnings on how to use the product. You will cause a calamity when your parents use the chemical to dose instead of dipping as was supposed to be.
Again with regards to the use of stock feed, I have alluded above that farmers think it’s a magic feed that should work wonders instantly. Someone starts feeding a recumbent animal, commercial stock feed which it has never tasted before and expects the animal to immediately accept the feed and to rise on its own the following day!
When an animal is recumbent, it’s a sign that it has severely depleted its nutritional reserves and it is very low on energy levels. It will need some days of proper feeding and care before it can be able to rise on its own.
It may also need to be given a multivitamin injection to supplement its vitamin levels. It also needs care, such as the provision of drinking water in situ and helping it to rise and stand for a few minutes, twice a day to allow for blood circulation and avoid muscle cramps.so, it is very unrealistic for a farmer to expect an animal that has not been fed on stockfeed before, to be provided feed today and rise on its own tomorrow.
It has to accept the feed first, increase its intake and allow the body to digest and extract the nutrients from the feed. This may take a few days before the animal responds. Livestock farmers also need to know what constitutes a proper feed, so that when one buys a block of salt, he does not imagine it to replace stock feed.
Salt is important for the nervous system and muscle function but it is not feed and cannot be regarded as such. The import of this week submission is farmers should seek knowledge on how any product which they want to use on their animals, is administered and how it works as well as precautionary measures that may need to be taken. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his own capacity. Feedback [email protected]
Cell: 0772851275
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