By Kudakwashe Gwabanayi

Just for today, anyone with a cow will be a rancher.

So, whether you keep two cattle for subsistence farming, or you have 100 for breeding, you are a rancher.

Cattle husbandry has been with human kind since time immemorial.

The fact that cattle have managed to maintain their value in communities as a sign of wealth and transverse through various economic times is a clear sign that they are indispensable in contemporary societies.

Subsistence cattle

Not only do cattle provide food and milk, they are also used as draught power to pull ox-drawn scorch carts and ploughs.

In rural set-ups, cattle are also an acceptable form of payment.

One can pay their lobola (bride price) using cattle.

They can be passed on as inheritance.

If one commits a crime, traditional leaders can ask them to pay compensation by a cow, depending on the offence.

Even in the spiritual realm, cattle have a special role they play when it comes to rituals, sacrifices, symbolism and even food. Traditionalist religious grouping alike use cattle as a form of sacrifice depending on what they are asking from the Maker. Cattle are also used for appeasement of spirits, especially avenging ones.

Those without cattle have often been regarded as poor.

Simply put, one way or the other, we all need to have cattle. At least five.

Rural to urban migration has actually failed to extinguish the desire for cattle by many Zimbabweans as they still keep track of the offspring of the cattle that they would have left.

No one keeps records of their dogs’ and chickens’ offspring, but even those that went to the diaspora a decade ago have a clear lineage of the cattle in the kraal.

Commercial ranching

While almost everyone assumes to be farmers, commercial cattle ranching always sets apart pretenders and the real deal. There are ranchers who;

Keep cattle for beef

This is the big league of farming in Zimbabwe. It is capital intensive and requires a lot of patience. However, a lot of well-to-do businesspersons easily invest in this adventure, so does the government, non-governmental organisations, companies and foreigners. A joint US$48 million cash injection by private investors from Rwanda, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates is revving up the beef industry, which in 2018 also benefited from a US$130 million investment partnership deal between Zimbabwe’s state-owned beef processing firm, the CSC, formerly the Cold Storage Commission, which is Zimbabwe’s foremost beef processing agency, and the UK-based company Boustead Beef, an international beef processing company. The National Social Security Authority, has also pledged to invest $18 million in the CSC. Innovative breeding technologies, including artificial insemination, have been successfully used on a new breed of beef bulls and heifers, scooping big earnings in the global beef market.

At this juncture, big commercial and rural farmers are dreaming once more of the glory days of the 1990s, when Zimbabwe’s beef industry was the envy of its Southern African neighbours.

Keep cattle for milk production

The practice of keeping cattle for milk production is known as dairy farming. In Zimbabwe it has become a preserve for the elite who can afford modern technologies to provide quality milk. In addition, most dairy farmers give supplementary feed to their cattle so that they can produce more milk. Although the country is failing to meet the national demand of 180 million kg annually, only managing a third of it, investors like Kefalos are keen on developing the sector. The deficit has been filled through imports from South Africa and Zambia and substitutes. Milk products like yoghurt from Zimbabwe have often been exported to overseas countries where they have found favour over time.  The predominant dairy cattle breeds are the Holstein-Friesian breeds, followed by Jersey, Ayrshire, Guernsey, Redpoll, Simmental and Red Dane. The dairy industry in Zimbabwe is driven by increasing consumption of dairy products and focus on protein rich food. Where high mortality rate of animals and poor genetic makeup of dairy herds leading to low milk volumes are the major constraints. Due to escalating costs of commercial feeds, there has been a recent trend towards feeds grown on the farm.

Keep cattle for breeding

To many, cattle breeding has been the preserve of mostly commercial white farmers and one of the most common breeds in Zimbabwe is the Brahman, an American breed. It was bred in the United States from 1885 from cattle originating in India, but imported from the United Kingdom and Brazil.

There is also the Ngubra, a beef cattle breed from pure Nguni and Brahman breeds.

Nguni cattle are a sub-type of the African Sanga cattle associated with the pastoralist cattle culture of the Bantu people of Africa.

What is certain is that they have been shaped by natural selection in the African environment for thousands of years.

On the other hand, the Brahman are intelligent, inquisitive and shy. The breed is medium in size with a tendency to later maturity, so carcasses of young animals tend to be lean.

The Brahman is suitable for cross-breeding, giving excellent hybrid vigour in the progeny.

A good breed can fetch from US$3 000 on the market while some can be sold as high as US$20 000, making cattle breeding a lucrative business.

There are also other breeds like Hereford which originated in England. They are popular mostly in the southern parts of the country for their early maturity and fattening ability. Dark red to red yellow in colour with a white face, Herefords are known for their longevity, and for being docile, easy calvers, good milkers, and good mothers.

There are also the Stud, Red and Grey breeds among others. Depending on one’s trading advantages, a farmer can always have any breed of their choice

Pen fattening

This is modern-day commodity broking if you may call it. With rains approaching, many cattle will be suffering from various diseases in January.  Cattle owners will also be suffering from January Disease themselves and hence they are forced to sell their cattle at a lower price.

Buyers will buy medium-sized and mostly sick cattle, put them in paddocks and feed and treat them of any ailments for 90 days to gain weight before putting them on the market to make a 300% profit margin on them. However there are more serious commercial buyers who focus on good breeds that have good returns in a short space of time. These include Angus, Sussex, Hereford, Charolais, and Limousine.

The key to this trade is buying the right type of animal (breed, size, weight, age, sex) at the right price and at the right time (season)

Having said this, one can safely say that there is a big opportunity to make money in the beef industry in Zimbabwe. All one has to do is to position themselves where they feel they will be able to excel.

•  Gwabanayi is a practising journalist and a farmer in his own right. — 0772 865 703 or [email protected]