Prepared by Brigid Letty
Work done on behalf of
Mdukatshani
Rural Development Trust
PLAAS/MRDT Smallholder
Research Workshop
11 September 2012
Goat research in Msinga
Provincial goat numbers
MRDT staff counted all livestock at households within the
area feeding into a particular diptank.
Compared with official cattle registers
Added other livestock types (goats, chickens)
Then DAEA asked us to add donkeys, horses, dogs, cats
Port Shepstone - KwaMadlala
33% of households
Av flock: 5.08
Ixopo - Endlovini
61% of households
Av flock: 8.33
Msinga - Nodada
82% of households
Av flock: 15.42
Umzumbe - Amadlalathi
48% of households
Av flock: 7.08
Bergville
Maphophomeni
53% of households
Av flock: 8.39
Harding - Exhameni
26% of households
Av flock: 8.36
Msinga - Mathinta
68% of households
Av flock: 13.83
Msinga -
Mhlangane
73% of households
Av flock: 14.41
Msinga Top
53% of households
Av flock: 11.83
Uthungulu - Inkunzane
64% of households
Av flock: 11.32
Uthungulu - Nhlngano
43% of households
Av flock: 8.48
Mbazwana - KwaMahashi
15% of households
Av flock: 9.98
Goat : Cattle ratios
highly variable:
0.32:1 at Mbazwana
to
5.7:1 at Nodada
How to use the figures we have….
Which diptanks are still outstanding? Empangeni
Now that we have some numbers from various
diptanks…..how do we extrapolate to get reliable figures for
the whole province?
Can we work with what we have?
What areas are represented by a particular diptank? Do we
base this on vegetation and tenure?
Can we calculate numbers based on census household figures
combined with % households having goats and average flock
sizes?
Baseline survey findings
Outcomes of survey Goat numbers
35 households
Total of 865 goats (flocks with 3 – 87 goats)
Kraaling practices
74% say goats are always kraaled
20% say never kraaled
6% sometimes come home (often not in winter)
Herding – no goats are herded, though some are collected (especially in winter when they travel further seeking food)
Purchase of feed - 40% spend money on feed (including 1 person buying water)
Purchase of health product - 91% spend money on inputs (commercial or traditional)
Deworming
29 (82.9%) dose their goats
Mainly when they see signs (big stomach, diarrhoea, thin, etc)
Tick control
20 (57.1%) control ticks in some way (plunge dip, dip in a bath
/ spray with dip, use Jeye’s fluid, use Blue Death)
Factor changing
flock size
% of
households
No. of goats
Sales 48.5% 41
Slaughter 77% 73
Traditional payments 20% 47
Theft 31% 59
Type of movement No. % of June
2010 total
% of June
2010 total
Goats moving out
Mortalities 201 20.41 %
Sales 41 4.16 %
16.34 Slaughter 73 7.41 %
Payments 47 4.77 %
Theft 59 5.99 %
Goats moving in
Purchases 35 3.55 %
Swapping 4 0.41 %
Lobola 8 0.81 %
Donation 1 0.10 %
In through birth 237 24%
Causes of mortalities Hunger (mentioned by 11)
Lung-related illness (7)
Diarrhoea (5)
Heartwater / twisted neck (4)
Sickness, ‘water on the brain (impethu)’ (each mentioned 3 times)
Accidental deaths (drowning in canal, hit by vehicle, hit by child) mentioned one each
Other reasons (each mentioned once) included snake, burst gall (qhumenyongo), limping, giving birth, nasal discharge, dogs and mange.
Perceptions of flock size changing 34.3% said flocks were increasing (some said this was slow) 60% said flocks not increasing (decreasing or unchanging)
Current research:
Factors impacting on goat production
Key objective:
The focus of the study is on understanding
factors that are responsible for the limited
growth shown by household goat flocks in
Msinga Local Municipality in order to be able to
make recommendations regarding
interventions that could improve the
efficiency of production and offtake of animals.
Goat movements: energy expenditure
How far do they go?
How do distances vary between summer and winter?
What key resources do goats access during drought periods?
Goat movements – initial findings
10:00-11:30 – height
above kraal ~150 m;
tot. dist. travelled ~1.8
km
12:00-12:30 – height
above kraal ~75 m;
total dist travelled ~2.5
km
14:00-15:00 – height above
kraal ~0 m; tot. dist. travelled
~3.7 km
09:35 – height
above kraal ~75 m;
total dist. travelled
~1.4 km
16:00 – height above
kraal ~10 m; total dist
travelled ~4.5 km
Kraal
Goats left kraal at 09:00,
returned at 13.00, hung
around and finally got
back at 17:00
Impacts of movements on vegetation
The “piosphere effect”
Resource availability for goats
How do we quantify available feed resources?
How do we take into account effect of phenology?
Is it about what food (mainly grass) is available in winter
rather than what’s available in summer?
Considering three villages where flocks are being monitored
on a monthly basis:
Ngubo, Ncunjane, Jolwayo
Resource availability: browse
Tot tree density Avg tree density Browse units/ha Avg browse units/ha Ngubo 3650 1150 Acacia 1000 1000 Broadleaves 7000 2000 Houses 0 0 Ncunjane 4500 3300 Acacia 3000 1000 Broadleaves 6000 5000 Houses 0 0 Jolwayo 3375 2000 Acacia 3000 1000 Broadleaves 7500 5000 Houses 0 0
Resource availability: grass
Village Reserve Rel area Ave height Weighted av
height (cm)
Ngubo bank 0.20 6
Ngubo nonbank 0.80 1 2
Ncunjane bank 0.90 7
Ncunjane nonbank 0.10 1 6.4
Jolwayo bank 0.12 10
Jolwayo nonbank 0.78 1 1.98
Development of local ration options for
winter
Some on-farm R&D at Msinga
MRDT is working
with farmers to
investigate ways to
process and store
stover, improve
utilisation…and
improve animal
production (through
reduced kid
mortalities)
Stover at the irrigation
scheme at Tugela Ferry
is burnt……
Why are people
obsessed with keeping
their fields clean?
Did they learn it from
commercial farmers?
Did they learn it from
extension officers?
Fed early gestation starting in April, added ewes as they
kidded up til May – fed through winter (up til end Sept)
Compared two kraals of Mr Muthwa
Compared kid growth, ewe condition and mortalities
Ewe supplementation
How can
we store
the stover?
To protect against
termites, livestock,
weather and so on?
And now suddenly the value is recognised
(again) by farmers……
Are there
Opportunities for
integrating the youth
and people without
land or livestock into
the sector through
processing of maize
stover?
Outcomes of pilot trial Condition did not respond to feeding levels – why?
Kid growths did not not appear to be improved – perhaps because
‘unsupplemented’ kid group were actually being grazed in a
camp……which we were not aware of
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
We
igh
t (K
g)
Age (Days)
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K M
L N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
AA BB
CC DD
EE FF
GG HH
II JJ
KK LL
MM NN
OO PP
QQ RR
SS
Condition scores
Ewes Average
condition
score: July
Average
condition
score: August
Supplemented 1.56 1.32
Unsupplemented 1.35 1.38
Proposed crop-livestock interaction
work
Quantify the extent to which fields are unused
Understand why lands lie fallow
Undertake action research to address institutional issues (e.g.
deteriorating social rules) and technical issues (e.g. declining
soil fertility)