Read this before buying a bull for your beef herd!

Sechaba Majola, a researcher in the Animal Unit at the University of the Free State, gives advice to small-scale beef cattle farmers on how to buy a quality bull and improve herd genetics.

- Sechaba Majola

Subsistence livestock owners usually have no rules or customs for the improvement of their livestock through breeding. Most of these farmers allow their animals to breed more or less haphazardly and accept the results as inevitable, as they tend to place their confidence in herd numbers, rather than quality and reproduction performance.

Overstocking is a real challenge, as it further reduces production and increases veld degradation, fodder shortage, and poverty.

General problems include bulls that are too old, infertile animals or those with low fertility, and inbreeding.

The importance of the bull in a cattle-breeding programme is usually underestimated by subsistence farmers. A cow is responsible for half the genetic material in a calf, while the bull is responsible for half the genetic material in 25 or more calves. Keeping a defective bull can therefore be a costly business. Yet, sub-fertile bulls are common among subsistence farmers. The result is lower calving rates and a reduction in farm profits.

Subsistence farmers need to be provided with extension and training programmes that will teach them the basics of animal husbandry, such as sustainable veld management, breeding principles, and cow management. They also need to be advised on marketing skills, such as when, where, and how to market their animals.

SUSTAINABLE BEEF PRODUCTION

Ideally, every developing farmer should want to improve the genetic composition and overall return on his or her beef cattle enterprise.

Before this can happen, however, certain basics of farming management practices must be put in place. These include the following: