We received the following from Francis Bingandadi.
The Zimbabwe cattle industry continues to pose a serious challenge to her neighbours, particularly Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa if monitoring of cross boarder movements and thefts are not managed and the now chronic failure by Zimbabwe to manage an acute shortage of feed, supplements, drugs, dipping facilities and dipping chemicals, and acquire proper dairy management skills by the new farmers and manage and control diseases like foot and mouth disease, anthrax, and others for the continued growth of the sector that was destroyed during the land reform programme.
Zimbabwe has lost significant advances and ground that had been built over the years in cattle production for beef, breeding, or dairy during the land reform programme and has failed to recover ever since.
The country was a net exporter of beef, dairy and dairy and beef products to so many countries including the European Union.
Despite the devastating impact of the land reform programme on the cattle industry and agricultural production in general in the Zimbabwe the Midlands province continues to produce the largest volume of milk supplying most of parts of the country including those that once had thriving dairy production.
Zimbabwe had over the years managed to develop a highly integrated and sophisticated cattle industry that could meet its own requirements and this has been fast eroded posing a serious threat to the survival and growth of the cattle industries of Zimbabwe’s cattle industries in turn.
The persistent droughts that have hit the country over the years have also not helped recovery efforts that country has tried to come up as this tended to stretched the food supply base for the animals.
With the rain season fast approaching the country would be bugged by a number of water borne and tick borne diseases which tend to increase then and impact is expected to be very serious with the country failure to procure or develop enough drugs and also provide support extension and backup services to cattle farmers.
“Farmers here have lost so many cattle for lack of dipping chemicals, acaricides and other cattle drugs the country is experiencing" said Mr. Williamson Ngwenya, a farmer in Nyamayendlovu area in Matebeleland North.
Farmers in, Mberengwa, Gwanda, Matebeleland North and other parts of the country have recorded heavy cattle losses tick-borne diseases, anaplasmosis and red water, which are promoted by lack of cattle dipping.
Zimbabwe used to enjoy a 9 200-tonne beef export quota to the EU which would earn the country about $1 billion in foreign currency annually. As the country continued to fail to manage both Anthrax and foot and mouth disease and exports to the EU the Asian hub and other markets are threatened.
The Midlands Agricultural Research and Extension, AREX Officer, Mr. Mnikelo Shirichena, said that the dairy industry continues to face a serious shortage of feed concentrates as the major producers cannot meet demand.
Mr. Shirichena said that on average a cow can produce 15 litres of milk a day if it is well fed but at the moment you feel sorry to milk the cows as they are hungry and without the requisite feed.
He said at the moment his department is teaching farmers to produce their own feed like silage, hay and feedlotting, and for them not to burn grass on their feedlots so that they can give their animals food.
Mr. Shirichena said that the dairy industry is so critical for the Zimbabwe as it has so many nutritional, health and economic and downstream economic and industrial benefits for the country.
The poor macro-economic environment bedeviling the country has made cattle and dairy production very difficult as farmers have failed to buy drugs to rid their animals of endo and ecto-parasites, loosing them to disease hosts and parasites like tapeworms, liver flukes, roundworms, ticks among other which they could treat and avoid before.
The dairy sectors has also suffered a crippling labour shortage as many farm workers have left the farms and are demanding higher salaries, resulting in a very high stuff turnover.Most of the farmers who took over the dairy farms had no initial training or experience in dairy and beef farming of any sort and this affected the sector greatly as it requires specialized practitioners.
Mr. Shirichena said that in the Midlands his department is helping farmers access training, so that they are able to develop most of the feed themselves and also help them get funding for mechanization or replacement of old milking equipment as the dairy industry demands high standards of hygiene.
The industry that has been in the hands of white dairy producers is faced with a challenge to include black producers who already account for over 20% of the total milk produced in the country.
With the Soccer World Cup in 2010, beef and dairy production in the country need to increase so that the extra demand in the net tourism areas and export obligations are met. For that Zimbabwe needs to develop the industry beef and dairy industry quickly and be ready meet the rising demand then.
The problems facing the cattle industry in Zimbabwe have been compounded by the problem of brain drain as many critical skills have been lost to other countries that have better economic environments and better prospects for growth for the skilled workers.With the economic meltdown that have affected Zimbabwe over the past eight years, recovery of the sector needs to take into consideration several factors inclusive but not exclusive to recapitalization and mechanization of the sector, training of the farmers, inclusion of more black producers, processing of the milk into long shelve and other products and diversification of the industry.