Thursday, March 28, 2024
Ruminants

Major Production Constraints of Cattle Production

Cattle Feed Supplies: The provision of feed that is adequate both in quantity and quality are available all year round countries to be one of the major problems of cattle production. Communal grazing of the natural range is the primary source of nutrient supplemented by crop residues during the dry season.

Feed supplies during the latter when natural vegetation becomes rank and unpalatable, are particularly acute and is aggravated by an imbalance between stocking rate and range carrying capacity. A consequence of overstocking is a high incidence of erosion and a reduction in the capacity of such areas to produce feed in the following growing season.

This is the case in many of the country’s high cattle production areas (e.g. Mambilla and Jos Plateau) and becomes extremely acute in the Sahelo-Sudanian savannah ecologic zone, where the dry season is often long and severe.

Major Production Constraints of Cattle Production

When it is prolonged for more than a season, as was the case during the Sahelian drought of 1972 – 74, considerable losses in animals usually result. Apart from the drastic reductions in productivity of the surviving stock, some impairment of the reproductive function may result as well as a general lowering of the animal’s resistance to disease.

Expanding arable cultivation is further limiting the natural range area that is available to the livestock owners and in 1965 a programme of establishing grazing reserves was initiated in an attempt to secure a year round source of forage feeding for the traditional herds. The reserves were to provide infrastructures – water, access roads, and centres for the provision of inputs such as feed supplements and minerals licks.

However, the grazing reserve programmes have not provided the expected solutions to the feed problem of the traditional herds, and further review of their function and development is required.

A supplementary feed programme was also initiated to prevent the seasonal weight losses resulting from low quality herbage and from the long distances trekked by the animals with the attendant risks of disease transmission and parasitism. It was also seen as an attempt to encourage settled animal production among the traditional livestock producers.

The first attempt was in 1962/63 by the then Northern Nigeria Government under the ‘Fulani Amenities Programme’ aimed at introducing concentrate feeding to cattle to reduce loss in weight especially during the peak of the dry season. The subsidy element of the programme was to be phased out over a 6 year period by which time stock owners were expected to recognise and appreciate the benefits of supplementation.

The supplementary ratio took the form of equal parts of groundnut cake and cotton seed cake, 2% common salt plus mineral salt licks. The scope of the programme has since been broadened and redesigned to demonstrate to the traditional livestock producers the economic benefits of feeding supplements such as hay, groundnut, cottonseed cake etc.

Observations however indicate that the programme has not had the desired effect due largely to inadequate and untimely distribution of the supplements. To some extent poor infrastructural facilities (transport, storage) and lack of personnel have been responsible for this and has led to poor coverage of the remote areas along with inconsistent supply.

An imbalance between demand and supply has encouraged undesirable commercial exploitation, and there is evidence of an increasing shortage of the major ingredients used in the supplementary ratio formulations in the last few years.

Breeding: Breeding programmes to achieve improved milk and to a lesser extent meant production, have adopted the following approaches:

a. crossing indigenous cows with bulls (naturally or by Artificial Insermination (AI) of higher producing exotic breeds, mainly the Holstein – Friesian and to a lesser extent the Brown Swiss and South Devon cattle.

b. importation and maintenance of purebred exotic herds. Achievements in both approaches have so far been impaired due largely to lack of a properly coordinated national breeding policy programme.

Cross-breeding has not followed clearly outlined objectives; rather some form of upgrading has been done but there is no definite evidence yet as to what stage this upgrading should be stopped.

Reproductive performance of cows is an important consideration when assessing the achievements of breeding work already carried out, since this trait is correlated with milk production. Data from both Agege and Vom which showed large variations in all the traits, indicated that little culling had been practiced.

Read Also: Options for Genetic Improvement in Tropical Livestock

The long calving intervals recorded may be due more to management problems, particularly heat detection and prompt service especially where AI is practiced. Faulty feeding has also been implicated, as well as the lack of regular pregnancy checks as cases of ovaries were quite common in some of the herds.

The conclusions from the experiences of the breeding approaches on the government ranches and dairies so far, are:

a. that there are possible benefits in crossbreeding, but there must be well-defined national objectives for milk and beef production and a well organised AI programme. Such objectives will guide the choice of exotic breeds to use and possibly the source of such importation

b. the programs should be clearly spelt out so as to ensure continuity in execution and a continuous evaluation of achievements

c. the pioneer or pilot urban dairy projects have made some contributions to our knowledge of the problems of commercial milk production in Nigeria. They therefore remain a useful component in our attempts to establish an organised dairy industry in the country

d. there is now sufficient technical base on which to formulateguidelines for the management of existing and proposed stations for commercial dairy and beef breeding and production operations

e. given such condition, it should be possible within the next decade to extend the benefits of these programmes to increase productivity of the national herd.

Disease: The important epizootic diseases of cattle in Nigeria include rinderpest, contagious pleuropneumonia, foot and mouth disease, anaplasmsis, babesiosis and of course trypanosomiasis. These diseases limit production in cattle wherever they occur. In particular, trypanosomiasis has rendered millions of hectares of land unsuitable for cattle production.

Dematophilus has become important particularly among the imported stock on government dairies and amongst the indigenous breeds, particularly in the higher altitude areas of Jos, Mambilla and Obudu Plateaux. Foot and mouth disease is also assuming importance with the increase in importation of exotic cattle. Mastitis is also known to be assuming significance especially in view of the increasing emphasis on commercial dairy development. Tick-borne diseases, such as heartwater, babesiosis, anaplasmisis are especially important in imported cattle herds.

Although some progress has been made in the diagnosis and control of some of these diseases, those remaining constitute a potential hazard to cattle production in Nigeria. Not much headway has been made against such as coetaneous streptothricosis, heartwater, brucellosis, tuberculosis, vibrosis, and mastitis, most of which may result mainly from bacteriological infection.

There are also nutritional, toxic, metabolic and organic diseases. Together these reduce the productivity of the national herd, although their effects may not be as telling as those of the major epizootic diseases.

Land Tenure: The trend of increasing settlement by pastoralist cattle owners, which has occurred over the last decade, can be attributed to a number of reasons:

• The Sahelian drought of 1972 – 1974 which severely affected the crop farmers, also indirectly affected pastoralists, for apart from feed shortages for their stock it also upset the pastoralists ability to get food in exchange for milk and milk products. This forced many to cultivate crops for their own consumption.

• The need for a national, state and LGA identity, particularly the struggle for ethnic recognition was more emphasized during the last decade than ever before, and has provided an additional motivation to settle.

Despite the trend however, land tenure remains a major obstacle to development for the grazers do not have secure individual rights to land. For with very few exceptions, right over a land, whether cultivated or uncultivated, is already claimed by the traditionally settle communities
practicing crop cultivation.

As a result, the presence of settled pastoralist is accepted as a concession rather than a permanent tenure, and rarely extends beyond the area of crop cultivation except with regard to the traditionally recognised rights of communal range grazing. In such cases, the grazers have neither the opportunity nor incentives to invest in land improvement so that they are unable to realise the full potential benefits that settlement should allow.

Read Also: The Principles of Cattle Production

Agric4Profits

Benadine Nonye is an agricultural consultant and a writer with over 12 years of professional experience in the agriculture industry. - National Diploma in Agricultural Technology - Bachelor's Degree in Agricultural Science - Master's Degree in Science Education... Visit My Websites On: 1. Agric4Profits.com - Your Comprehensive Practical Agricultural Knowledge and Farmer’s Guide Website! 2. WealthinWastes.com - For Effective Environmental Management through Proper Waste Management and Recycling Practices! Join Me On: Twitter: @benadinenonye - Instagram: benadinenonye - LinkedIn: benadinenonye - YouTube: Agric4Profits TV and WealthInWastes TV - Pinterest: BenadineNonye4u - Facebook: BenadineNonye

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