A Cattle Post Losing Condition in the Dry Season
A smallholder at a cattle post keeps 40 Tswana-type cows, 12 of which are pregnant, plus 30 goats. It is August, the end of the dry season; grazing is short, dry and low in protein, and the nearest reliable water is a borehole 4 km from the kraal. The farmer reports that several cows are thin, one aborted last month, and calves are growing slowly. There is no lick supplied. The farmer has some maize stover, a little cottonseed cake, and access to a communal area where the goats graze. Cattle are kraaled at night. The farmer wants to sell animals to raise cash and asks which to sell.
1. Explain the likely causes of the poor condition, abortion and slow calf growth, and rank them.
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The dominant cause is a dry-season feed gap: dry mature grass is low in protein and digestible energy, so cattle lose condition and cannot meet the demands of pregnancy and lactation. The abortion is consistent with late-gestation undernutrition and possibly with phosphorus deficiency in a region of low-phosphate soils, which also depresses fertility and growth. The 4 km walk to water is a second major cost: animals spend energy walking and are watered infrequently, reducing intake and milk. Third, no mineral lick means sodium and phosphorus deficiencies are uncorrected. Ranking: (1) protein/energy shortage, (2) water distance and frequency, (3) mineral deficiency. Slow calf growth follows from poor milk and from calves eating the same low-protein forage.
2. Design a practical dry-season feeding and watering plan using only the resources named.
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Prioritise the 12 pregnant cows and the calves, since their needs are highest and the loss is greatest. Use the cottonseed cake as a protein supplement, fed to pregnant cows and young calves in small daily amounts rather than all at once, so rumen microbes adapt and weaker animals are not crowded out. Treat maize stover better before feeding: chop it and, if possible, treat or moisten it and offer it with the cake so the protein corrects the stover's deficiency. Provide a mineral lick, or at least salt, at the kraal. Reduce the water cost by watering at the kraal with a drum or tank filled by donkey cart or a small pump, or by moving the herd closer to the borehole, rather than walking 4 km daily; water at least every second day. Keep night kraaling but remove manure regularly to reduce parasite build-up.
3. Which animals should the farmer sell, and how should the sale be timed and organised?
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Sell the animals that are least productive and most costly to carry: old or barren cows, cull animals in poor body condition that are unlikely to recover before the rains, and surplus males. Do not sell the 12 pregnant cows unless they are already in very poor condition, because they carry next year's calf crop. Sell early rather than late, because animals in poor condition lose value and may die; selling thin animals at the start of the dry season is better than selling them at the end. Sell through a route that gives a fair price, such as the Botswana Meat Commission or a livestock auction, and group animals for sale to attract buyers. Keep the cash for feed, lick and water, and use the proceeds first for supplementing the pregnant cows.