Agriculture Specialist Writer
A LOCAL stud breeder is offering free semen from his stud bulls to help improve the quality of cattle breeds in communal areas in line with the push to re-build the national herd.
This comes in the wake of a discussion by members in the Zimbabwe Agricultural Think Tank (ZATT) in which they raised concern on the need to improve the quantity and quality of cattle to optimise productivity influenced by available resources.
In view of the above, a stud breeder in Esigodini area of Umzingwane district in Matabeleland South and current Simmental Simbrah Society of Zimbabwe president, Mr Obert Chinhamo has pledged to donate semen from part of his stud bulls towards the livestock improvement programme in Zimbabwe.
"When I made the pledge to donate semen a few weeks ago, I had 12 bulls. I have since sold six of them after no one heeded my call. The offer, however, still stands as long as there are institutions that can harvest the semen from the bulls and storing it in nitrogen tanks," he said.
The Government can make use of educational institutions like Matopos Research Station and Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) that have experience in artificial insemination (AI) to assign their students to draw the semen for the programme, he said.
Mr Chinhamo said he could organise more breeders to donate millions of straws for use in AI but stressed that beneficiaries must be communal not commercial farmers.
Livestock Farmers Union (LFU) chairman Mr Sifiso Sibanda welcomed this donation saying it had the capacity to grow the national herd, improve breeds and transform the herd into pedigreed animals.
"In the livestock sector the issue of marketing shots (semen) and packaging it are part of the benefits of good livestock farming. The country stands to benefit through import substitution and start exporting the semen, meat, live animals, skins and hides to other countries for foreign currency generation," said Mr Sibanda.
Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) executive administrator, Dr Reneth Mano concurred saying production of semen from the country's 14 stud cattle breeding societies was important for stimulating growth of the national beef herd through artificial insemination.
Zimbabwe imported US$426 000 worth of bovine semen in 2023 and over the 2018-2023 period. The livestock industry imported US$1, 5 million of bovine semen and US$11, 12 million purebred cattle for breeding purposes.
"At Zimbabwe Herd Book (ZHB), there are already a number of established commercial beef cattle stud breeders who are already supplying quality, certified semen for AI to the cattle industry.
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"Among the suppliers with registered beef cattle stud breeds are Matopos and Henderson Livestock Research Stations and universities like CUT and Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE)," Dr Mano said.
He said growth in the domestic cattle stud breeding industry, which was supplying a diversity of purebred breeding cattle and bovine semen on demand was saving foreign currency presently spent on imports.
In 2020, Government approved the Livestock Recovery and Growth Plan (2021-2026), whose main thrust is to put in place solid interventions to address livestock production and productivity issues and lay a good foundation for the livestock sector to assume its prominent role in transforming farmers' livelihoods and providing the required raw materials for agriculture-led industrial development, among other things.
