MorataBW

are practice culturally of giving cattle
water in the evening as compared to
the traditional norm of animals getting
water in the morning,” Banamile said.
Moving to other aspects of managing
his livestock, Banamile talked of his
unique technique of making his cattle to
eat and drink at the same time.
He elaborated of this practice which
governs his cattle to always return from
the grazing land in search of water in
the evening. According to Banamile,
this made sure that there is no cow
that gives birth or spends the night
in the bush, plus this gives the bulls a
chance of mating during the night and
it also helps in proper checking and
assessment of each cow on a daily basis.
Banamile can control his herd and how
they mate, give birth, eat and drink at
once.
Another dose of his herd management
book, Banamile says that he separates
his bulls from grazing with females to
conserve their energy. The Simmental
breed is a weighty cow, some farmers
argue that it does not perform well
in drought seasons due to its short
distance travelling as compared to
Brahman breed which can cover more
kilometres in search of food.
While the hefty Simmental cow is
synonymous with slow performance
as she cannot move her body at a
swifter pace, her male counterpart with
much bulkier body mass and muscles
is regarded as much sluggish. In his
management skills Banamile tries to
bring an antidote to that.
“I usually separate the bulls from
females as they cannot maintain the
pace of the females, I supplement them
every day to keep them in good shape
hence they don’t travel much in search
of food, so during the night they still
Up-To
P200
thousand in
Annual
Sales
Up-To
P30 per/KG
Bulls
Sell for
P20-35
thousand
have enough energy to mate,” he said.
According to Banamile,
supplementary feeding is key in farming
as by so doing one will be closing the
feeding gap that the grazing-land or
vegetation cannot cover. For attaining
that, he ploughs lablab and mixes it with
other supplements such as P18 and P6,
and these have improved the feeding of
his breed.
RECORD KEEPING
Banamile also practices recordkeeping
and traceability of livestock
even during his absence and for better
data management. He is planning to
maintaining his herd of 150 cattle for
easy management. Banamile believes
having a large number of cattle could
be difficult to manage especially in the
free-range grazing platform that he is
exposed to.
MARKET
The market remains smiling for
Banamile despite many economic
factors that comes with coronavirus
business disruptions and the separate
dynamics of supply and demand
affecting prices.
Since becoming fully commercial
several years ago Banamile makes
around P200,000 every year supplying
to popular retailers and numerous
butcheries in the Kweneng region.
Curiously, Banamile prefers selling to
butcheries than BMC. He further said
that the minimum weight of his cattle at
butcheries ranges at 250kg per caucus.
“I do most of my sales at butcheries
because they buy at a better price from
(P23 - 30 per kg) which we have agreed
and they also pay well on time unlike
BMC who takes a long time,” he boldly
expounded.
Banamile also said he has discovered
a unique niche of selling young pure
bulls and females to other farmers with
the idea of increasing good quality in
the country.
In 2020 the local Simmental breeder
managed to sell six young bulls with
prices ranging from P20,000 - P35,000
each, and he intends to increase
the number of bulls each year. For
March 2021 MorataBW
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