October 26, 2022

 

Increased cattle slaughter in Zimbabwe stalling herd growth

 

The Zimbabwe government's efforts to rebuild its national cattle herd numbers are affected by increased cattle slaughter as farmers look to sell to meet rising expenses due to higher cost of living, together with the possibility of cattle diseases and drought, The Herald reported.

 

By 2025, the Zimbabwe government wants to increase the number of cattle from the current 5.2 million to 6 million.

 

Dr Reneth Mano, an agriculture economist from the Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC), issued a warning yesterday that the random sale of cattle was harming the national herd's ability to re-grow.

 

Dr Mano said that there has been an increase in the cost of living, driven by the cost of emergency medical care and college tuition, which has forced farmers with cattle to sell more than they produce.

 

He said that farmers were dealing with two problems, the economic challenge of selling cattle to pay for emergency medical care and education, and the decline in cattle numbers brought on by droughts and cattle diseases, which were depleting farmers' surplus stock and leaving them with fewer highly productive animals for breeding and draught power.

 

In small-scale farming operations in Africa, cattle are viewed as a store of value because they provide milk for daily consumption and draught power, which is why it is necessary to maintain a herd for rural households.

 

90% of monthly sales to all commercial abattoirs and the national beef supply are made by smallholder farmers in communal areas, old resettlement areas, and newly resettled A1 farmers in communal farms.

 

Dr Mano said looking at cattle sales to abattoirs for slaughter from August 2020 to 2022, we have noted a 60% growth starting with 20,257 slaughters in August 2020, rising by 26% to 25,763 in 2021, before shooting up again by 28% in August 2022 to a notch a high of 32,167 slaughters.

 

Farmers have been forced to send their animals to slaughterhouses because of a lack of pasture due to climate change, and illnesses related to the January disease have also slowed the herd's expansion.

 

Droughts and January diseases, which together are thought to have killed over 500 000 cattle in recent years, have an adverse effect on the national herd, leaving some villages with severe shortages of draught power for timely land preparation.

 

-      The Herald