Beef cattle production and management
Practical Action
After planting, always cover with soil and press with your feet around the plant to ensure
good root soiI contact.
Rooted tillers or stem cuttings should be placed into the dug holes at an angle of 45
degrees.
Spacing
It is recommended to plant sorghum rows at the usual spacing of 90cm
If you are inter-cropping, plant the legume midway between two sorghum rows leaving
45cm either side if your row spacing is 90cm
With pennisetums, the rows should be 1m apart under irrigated or at 1.5m apart under dry
land conditions
Within the row allow 1m apart
When inter-cropping the legumes, as in sorghum, plant them midway between the
pennisetum rows
Fertilizer application
If fertilizer is used then 300kg/ha (6*50kg bags) of compound D can be banded on
one side of the marked sorghum rows or furrows of pennisetums.
Where no fertilizer is available, well decomposed cattle or goat manure can be used at
4000kg/ha
Top dressing for sorghum will be done as for maize whilst for pennisetums, top dressing is
done when the grasses are well established and after every harvesting. This is usually done
using 100-150 kg (2-3 bags) of AN.
In addition, you need to apply Potassium chloride commonly known as Murate of Potash at
60-100 kg/ha if you are cutting and carrying
Mineral supplementation in beef cattle
Natural grazing for cattle is deficient in phosphorous hence the need to supplement phosphorous
in cattle diets. The complete diet should contain 6g of calcium and 3.2g of phosphorous per
kilogram. Normally, this is supplied in diets through the inclusion of limestone flour, at a rate of
5g/kg. Salt is normally added to most diets at the rate of 5g/kg. Vitamin A may be provided in
rations.
Management and development to minimize feed requirements
Destock early to leave as much grazing as possible for the remainder
Make the best use of the available veld
Use areas with failing early
Exercise
1. List the different classes of the essential nutrients and give examples.
2. Describe the various stages of urea treatment.
3. What are the three broad groups of animal feeds, give examples for each?
Summary
Nutrition forms one of the corner stones of any successful beef production enterprise. It is
therefore, important for farmers to be fully aware of the nutritional requirements of their stock,
including the different classes of animal feeds. Proper application of the concepts covered in
this chapter leads to a healthier stock and increased income for the farmer.
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