Mat South cattle mortality rate drops from 8 to 1pc

Mangaliso Lawrence Kabulika

Cattel mortality rate has declined in Matabeleland South from eight to one percent during the past 10 years.

The decline has been attributed to adoption intensive rearing methods such as hay bailing, winter fodders and silage production by farmers in the province.

Simmental Society of Zimbabwe (SSZ) president Mr Obert Chinhamo yesterday confirmed and said the conception rate had increased.

“In addition, the region’s cattle conception rates have risen from 80 percent from 2007/08 to 100 percent this year due to intensive rearing methods,” Mr Chinhamo said.

Conception rate is the percentage of cows pregnant divided by the number of cows inseminated during a 21-day period. For example, if 10 cows are detected in heat and five of them become pregnant, the conception rate is 50 percent.

Mr Chinhamo however raised concern over the quality of local beef not meeting international export standards.

“Most of our indigenous animals have a carcass weight of around 120 to 140 kilogrammes which is not exportable to European regions as they require a carcass weight of 240 kilogrammes. Through genetics, we can improve our indigenous breeds and produce meat that satisfies the international standards,” said Mr Chinhamo.

As the country waits for beef export opportunities from Europe, Mr Chinhamo said it was imperative that the country adopts genetics to improve the quality of the meat.

When the opportunity comes, we would have our carcasses readily available for export, he said.

Genetics also allow that the country to satisfy the local beef meat demand.

“If one wants to feed the population of a city like Harare, they have to slaughter a great number of indigenous breeds to satisfy the population which may end up leaving us with less cattle, therefore genetics will lead to less slaughter number but meat sufficiency. We need enough beef to feed ourselves before considering exporting. We therefore need to rear cattle that yield a lot of meat carcass through cross breeding with exotic breeds,” he said.

He said breeds such as Angus, Hereford, Ayrshire and Simmental can cross breed with indigenous breeds of Mashona, Tuli and Nkome and to produce bigger carcasses for the export market.

Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) Executive Administrator Dr Renneth Mano said local breeds could increase weight if well fed.

“Local cattle breeds are big enough when well fed and not starved during the long dry season of August to November. These indigenous breeds get to be smaller than their genetic potential when subjected to bad management and breeding practice such as inbreeding of under-aged indigenous breeds, poor nutrition and inadequate animal health care.

“Otherwise for the local Zimbabwean environment, our indigenous cattle breeds are the most suitable breeds and most adaptable to local climatic conditions and to climate change risks going forward,” said Dr Mano.

“These exotic breeds are more susceptible to local zoonotic diseases than local breeds and require intensive attention to vaccinations, dosing and housing against high tropical temperatures. Exotic breeds also require great amounts of pasture which might not be readily available due to climate change.”

He said the big exotic breeds of cattle such as Brahman, Angus and Brangus are heavy eaters that cannot survive on savannah natural pastures unless five well-kept football grounds of natural pastures are reserved to ensure adequate intake by each head.

The big framed breeds with 400 kilogrammes carcass weight will have a live weight 700 kilogrammes and therefore require a daily feed intake of 14 kilogrammes dry matter or 100 kilogrammes of fresh pasture every day totalling three tonnes per month.

“The Mashona breed weighing 350 kilogrammes live weight will yield 220 kilogrammes dressed carcass weight and has to consume seven kilogrammes of dry matter intake or 46 kilogrammes of fresh pastures every day or 1, 4 tonnes per month. One needs twice as much grazing resources to raise one big Brahman steered for beef production than a smaller framed Mashona breed,” said Dr Mano.