Agrinews October 2012 - Ministry of Agriculture

Article:: Kesegofetse TawelePhotos: Aggripah WillieAny farmer anywhere in theworld who enters the studbreeding industry certainlydoes not want to be just anotherbreeder but have the prospectof being the crème de la crème.One can almost talk of precisionfarming in the stud farming business.Breeding cattle is not an easy job,whether a beef or dairy producer.Kereng Sparta Hlabano from NorthEast was one of those farmers whoaspired to be the best.His quest started in 2004. Butas the saying ‘great things are notdone by impulse but by a series ofsmall things brought together’ hestarted by keeping dogs and laterbought a herd produced by a crossbetween Tswana and Brahman.In 2008, he bought 19 limousineweaners at P15 per kilogram inSouth Africa and that was whenthings really took off for Hlabanoas a stud breeder.Increasing birth rate (%) and goodmanagement measure play a verycrucial role in increasing weaningpercentage and weight. Thus recordkeeping is very important whenfeedlotting or purchasing to avoidbuying animals of which theirhistory is not known as well asto avoid keeping animals that donot perform to expectations. Everyfarmer wants to run a profitablebusiness, so breeders select specificcharacteristics that are important tothem when selecting a breed to gowith in their farming business.Most commercial livestockfarmers market calves at weaningor slaughter age, therefore theincome generated will largely beinfluenced by the number, qualityor weight. Hlabano opted forlimousine because of its carcassHlabano with some of the prizes he wonCREME DELA CRÈMEoutput, calving ease, its hardinessand its ability to walk long distancesthat makes it somehow droughtresistant. In 2009, as the herdreadied for reproduction, he boughta limousine stud bull to servicehis herd. He now boasts of 70limousine stud breeds.As a full time commercial farmer,Hlabano stressed the importanceof doing own research besides thatof experts, as one wise man said ‘ifyou are not prepared to be wrong,you will never come up withanything original.’ He also keepsa herd of 30 Brahman breed forexperimental purposes. He crossedthis breed with limousine and got‘bramousine’ which he says revealedinteresting characteristics. He foundthat limousine has dominant geneson the calves, the calves alsomaintain high quality carcassand weight. Moreover they growbetter than Brahman. He revealsthat he used Brahman becauseit is common among farmers inBotswana due to its hardiness. Hisexperiments helped him keep topquality genetics in the breedingstock to ensure a good income.The awards he got from the recentNational Agricultural show attest tohis success in his breeding business.He walked away with a championbeef bull, champion beef cow,champion beef heifer and reservedgrand champion of the yard. Heattributed his winnings to goodmanagement and good preparationsand most importantly the Gracefrom God. He is currently in theprocess of registering with the SouthAfrican Limousine Association andaspires to form Limousine societyin Botswana. Hlabano sells toother aspiring communal andcommercial breeders. The cost oflimousine and Brahman cows orheifers ranges from P10, 000 to P15,000 per beast.October 2012 14