aistand south~ern afrkca - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

contributed to low fecundity was the imbalanced
ratio of rams to ewes. In the survey of the three
districts, only seven out of 30 farmers had
sufficient rams. Most lambs/kids died a few
weeks after birth, probably as a result of
starvation and internal parasites, especially
milk tapeworm. Farmers did not explicitly agree
on the significance of parasites. None of the
farmers interviewed culled or used selection as
a management tool especially with respect to
reproduction. Had time permitted the interview
of more farmers, the same picture would
probably have emerged.
History of small stock in Lesotho
Information on the origin of the sheep industry
in Lesothoisscanty(Lekatsa, 19,0). It is thought
that the original sheep kept by the Basotho were
fat-tailed non-wool producing types similar to
those originally kept by the Hottentots in the
Cape. Merino sheep, however, found their way
into Lesotho from the raids on flocks kept by
whie settlers in the Orange Free State. Some
sheep were brought in by Basotho working in
white settler farms who received sheep in lieu of
wages. Angora goats, although, mostly from the
Cape, came in under very similar channels. It
is thought that as the Merino and Angora
populations increased farmers with Merino and
Angora sold their male offsprings to their
neighbours. It is also probable that the farmers
who back had home worked with them on white a wealth settler of farms experience brought
Government farms and neighbouringcountries
The Government, with the help of the South
African Wool Board (SAWB), established a
Merino Stud farm in the Quthing District of
Lesotho in 1965. The board supplied fencing
material and cleared an area covering 430
hectares and it also supplied a foundation stock
of about 150 ewes and four stud rams. The farm
now has about 300 breeding ewes. The second
farm was established in Mokhotlong in 1969
along the same lines. Both farms were designed
to be demonstration farms providing training in
various aspects of sheep management. Over the
years farmers have taken educational tours to
these farms. Rams are produced for sale to sheep
farmers in the country. The main thrust of this
initiative has been to reduce dependence on the
Republic of South Africa. Whether or not this has
been achieved is discussed elsewhere in this
paper. There are no government farms for
Angora goats.
The Department of Livestock Services
organises educational tours for farmers to the
neighbouring Republic of South Africa to expose
them to the farm management practices adopted
there. Mwxh has been learnt from this facility.
213
Extension service
It is said that before the 1960s, developmen,
programmes were mainly enforced througl
regulations such as those for dipping for sheet
scab eradication in 1925 (Hunter, 1987). Tl
shift towards education and persuasion througl
group activity only gained support o
government officials in the 1960s. This approacl
resulted in the formation of a scheme foi
progressive sheep and goat farmers in 1960. Th
purpose was "to build up a class of sheep farmer.
as opposed to sheep owners, these farmers were
regularly visited and advised on all aspects ol
modem animal husbandry and they were alsc
encourage.! to keep records of work done"
By late 1j66 the schemes had evolved into the
present Wool and Mohair t rowers Associations
(WMGAs). While it is true that small stock
improvement by breeding started as early as the
1930s (Hunter, 1987), Monts'i (personal
communication, 17-7-92) asserted that there
were no formal livestock exten3ion services up to
the early 1960s when the first group of
veterinary assistants were engaged. The
emphasis had, hitherto, been on disease control
in areas of dipping, vaccinations and dosing. The
work was carried out by Temporary Agricultural
Demonstrators (TADs).
Small stock production is a section in the
Animal Production Division of the Department
of Livestock Services in the Ministry of
Agriculture (MOA). The extension service as it
by applies Livestock to small Assistants stock is carried stationed out at in Livestock the field
Improvement Centres (LICs) located throughout
the country.The Livestock Assistants are trained
to certificate level in Agriculture (CIA) and take
a nine-mnnth course in elements of veterinary
science and animal husbandry.
Research services
The Agricultural Research Division (ARD) first
started in the 1940s as a station for testing imported
seeds and some crops, and later expanded
to eventually include pasture research. Ironically,although
the livestock industry contributes
about 80% of the total agricultural output, the
animal science section of the ARD was established
only recently in 1982. From its inception
th, first half of the first 10 years was mainly
spentindevelopingandtrainingstaff.Asaresult
only a limited amount of research work has been
done by expatriates.
Lesotho's sheep and goats ere relatively poor
producers of wool and mohair producing about
60% and 20%, respectively, of what is produced
per animal in major fibre producing countries.
Constraints to production have been identified to
include inappropriate range management
peactices, lack of supplementary feeding, poor
husbandry practices, inadequatbe disease control
measures and inclement weather. All these
aspects need some intervention from research
and extension.