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Roberta Katunga Senior Farming Reporter
EFFORTS to redefine the livestock sector on a commercial basis and position it as an industry that has the ability to have an input to the country’s Gross Domestic Product are under way with the formation of a stand-alone union for livestock farmers — the Livestock Farmers’ Union.
In an interview, chairman Mr Sifiso Sibanda said the livestock sector issues were previously covered by the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union as well as the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union but farmers felt that they were getting a raw deal with trivialisation of their concerns.
Mr Sibanda said the feeling that their issues had not been properly attended to led to the establishment of the LFU two months ago.
“As livestock farmers, we have been trying a lot of things like the formation of Umhlambi kazelusile initiative under the Matabeleland Livestock Investment Initiative, which failed as we were trying to work under some unions.
This made us realise that we need to come together and establish something that everyone can identify with,” said Mr Sibanda.
He said livestock farming was a fully fledged industry that incorporates producers, service providers right up to processers and the market with a lot of people depending on it for livelihood instead of being viewed as a hobby sector as has been the case.
He said the main objective of the union was to commercialise livestock and make people realise that it was not just about cattle but there were beef animals, dairy cattle, small stock that includes sheep and goats, piggery as well as wildlife.
Speaking on the challenges being faced in the livestock sector, Mr Sibanda said there had been a general feeling among farmers that abattoirs were ripping them off and offering very low prices for animals. However, he said the state of the animal when being taken to the market determined the price.
“What affects most farmers is failure to plan adequately. You should not decide to wait until you are broke to sell your animal but should instead have a strategy in place and learn the importance of choices. Take animals that will pass as super and choice not ration and you are guaranteed of fetching good prices.
Likewise with small stock, some farmers do not vaccinate their animals and once slaughtered, it is realised that they are diseased and hence condemnable thus fetching low prices,” he said.
Mr Sibanda said the health and breed of an animal is critical hence farmers need to change mindset as they embark on the path of commercialising so as to influence the market.
Another problem identified in the market is that of the bull to cow ratio.
In normal circumstances the ratio should be 1:25 but according to Mr Sibanda in some areas one bull services 100 cows which affects the calving rate that at the moment stands at 46 percent.
“The national target is 98 percent for the calving rate and that is our target. Another problem is you hear a farmer bragging about how much milk they get from their cow yet they do not own a dairy cow and are instead milking beef animals at the expense of calves.
One prevalent problem now is of stunted growth in the calves as they are not getting adequate feeding. The union will try and come up with corrective measures to deal with all these challenges so that productivity levels may rise,” Mr Sibanda said.
Under the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) Government has targeted to increase livestock production five-fold.
Online Reporter