Crossbreeding Has Improved My Cattle Farm
Posted by Unknown in Africa, Breeding and Pregnancy, Cattle and Livestock, Cross Breeding, Success Stories, Uganda on Tuesday 14 May 2013
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| A farm hand tends some of the cattle on Titus Buatre 's farm. Photo by Felix Warom Okello. |
When I
started with four goats, one of them a Boer goat for cross-breeding
purposes, I did not even imagine that this farming activity would expand
to enable me meet most of my needs.
I am in
position to pay school fees for my children—three at university and
three still in secondary school, afford a good diet at home, and even
look after other dependents, among others.
Meat and milk
I am Titus
Buatre, 55 years old, an animal farmer, from Andewa Village, Riki Parish
in Oluko Sub-county, six kilometres east of Arua Town. By the end of
last year, I had 120 goats and 50 heads of cattle, from where I get meat
and milk.
I sell the milk
in 10-litre jerrycans, each at Shs35,000. So, in a day, I earn
Shs70,000. Though most of my herd is made up of dairy cows, I
occasionally sell off some cattle.
Depending on
the size, the price ranges from Shs500,000 to Shs800,000. Last year, I
sold four cows. For the goats, the lowest price is from Shs70,000 to
Shs80,000. However, I also sell to NGOs that have programmes that
distribute the goats to farmers.
In this case, I will sell each goat at Shs130,000.
To acquire my
first cattle, I took a salary loan that was repayable in two years. On
top of that I added some money from crop farming to buy seven heads of
cattle.
From that
number, there are now 50 heads of cattle, from which I am able to get 15
to 20 litres of milk daily. I am able to buy medicines to treat them. I
have four types-Ankole, Zebu, Boran and Friesian crossbreeds.
Economic value
Among these,
there is a 250-kilogramme bull, which I use for cross breeding. I
attribute my successes in growing my herd to that bull.
The process of cross-breeding has enabled the animals to be of a good quality, which is marketable, and multiply in numbers.
I am using
cross breeding in order to get economic value because the local animals
are smaller in size and poorer in quality. Thus, they cannot attract
good money and produce a sizeable amount of milk.
In the past,
producers have thought of crossbreeding as simply replacing bulls every
two to three years with whatever breeds were popular at the time. This
has led to problems with uniformity of the resulting product.
Work ethic
Good quality
cattle need to be selected in order for crossbred cattle to outperform
straight-bred cattle and produce the type of product that is in demand
by the consumer.
However, it
should be noted that mere crossbreeding will not overcome poor genetics.
It has been patience and hard work, which has paid off for me. One
could possibly say this work ethic comes from my having a military
background at one time.
Yes, I was in
the military since the days of Idi Amin up until 1985. Since then, I
have continued driving as my occupation though I was no longer in the
army. After this, I got other driving jobs before my current one as a
driver at the district Naads office in Arua.
Trainings
I attend to the
animals as my main economic activity especially after work. I feel
happy to see my cows and goats return from grazing.
My farm covers six acres and comprises land that I inherited from my father though most of it was bought from my own earnings.
I have also
benefitted from several trainings in agriculture given by Naads and I
now use it to increase production such as the use of a tractor.
I use a tractor
to till the land on which I grow improved cassava. The neighbouring
communities buy the new variety cassava stems from me.
Retiring
I also employ
other people. There are two youths who look after the cattle and goats.
The one who rears cattle is paid Shs45,000 monthly and the one
responsible for the goats is paid Shs30,000 monthly. The two are only
assisted by my children when they return for holiday from school.
The rearing of
cattle is central to my farming business and as such I attend to them
closely. From the earnings, I am able to live a meaningful life. I look
forward to retiring from driving to become a full-fledged animal farmer.
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