Introduction

Farmers may find it difficult to design a ruminant production system but it is very simple if he or she understand and follow the technical parameters that should be considered. The scheme needs adequate planning. When planning for ruminant production system a farmer should begin with the end in mind. This means that he should be able to tell what he wants to achieve the from ruminant production. Hence this article is therefore to discuss the technical parameters that should be considered when designing a ruminant production system to achieve the best production system that is self-sufficient.

Capital

As most business entities, capital is needed to start a business and ramp it up to profitability. In order to obtain the best animals, standard infrastructure, handling facilities and land is required to carry out daily husbandry practices and value addition to ruminant products, adequate capital is needed. The financial needs of ruminant enterprise vary according to the type of production system. For example, intensive ruminant production is capital intensive, requiring large amounts of capital. Extensive ruminant production system require less capital.

Several sources are considered when looking for capital. Sources include commercial banks, Non-Governmental Organisations, Government programs like Command livestock programme in Zimbabwe. They provide resources for livestock production. Personal savings is another option for capital. Farmers can access capital in form of loans where they borrow funds with stipulation of repaying the borrowed funds plus interest at specified time secured with collateral which is valuable asset the farmer can attach to satisfy the loan in case of default by the bank. This is a limitation to farmers since commercial banks require collateral which farmers might not have. Government programmes might not require collateral and have low interest rates which gives less burden to the farmers.

Production systems

Production system refers to the approach used to rear ruminant animals. It can be explained in two ways that is by management based system and product based system. Management based system involves three systems; intensive, semi intensive and extensive. Intensive system is where cattle are confined and fully depend on humans to provide for basic animal needs thus food, shelter and water on daily basis (Yami, 2008). Producers grows and buys feed for animals. In intensive system cattle are confined and they do not graze e.g Beef Pen Fattening. Semi intensive is a system where cattle are exposed to any combination of both intensive and extensive systems. Cattle are confined in paddocks feed on veld grazing and are not kraaled at night. They are supplemented with winter blocks to boost protein levels. Extensive system is a system were cattle have freedom to roam outdoors, and have some autonomy over diet selection, water consumption and shelter. Cattle graze and kraaled during the night. After crop harvests, animals are supplemented with crop residues.

 Product based systems involves cow-calf production and yearling production. Cow-calf production is a management unit that maintains breeding herd of cows and produces weaned calves for sale. It mainly produces weaned calves for further grazing or feeding to sale. Profitability is affected by calving percentage and calf weaning weight.

Yearling production is a system of growing and developing calves from weaning weights to yearling weights aiming to add at least 40% on top of weaning weight. Fattening involves pen finishing which is feeding cattle with high energy and high protein diet for a prescribed period of time. Feeding is done under confinement, thus in feeding pens to reduce energy loss in movement. Veld finishing involves feeding smaller amounts of concentrates to beef cattle on summer grazing. The objective is to finish off at low cost..

Breeds

The purpose of production denotes the design of ruminant production unit for breeding stock and procurement of bought-in stock. This also includes, special emphasis on considering availability of quality breeding stock to be used. An inclusive part of the practice would be choosing a breed. Different ruminant and small ruminant breeds are prescribed for their high performance in different production parameters such as meat, milk and mohair production (Alex et al., 2013).

The farm management should select high performing breeds for their intended production goal. An example is that of mohair production. Farmers should prefer to produce Agora goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) that has potentially 2 to 4kg of annual mohair production in comparison to other mohair producing breeds. Different breeds perform differently in terms of traits of economic importance like Sanga and Zebu type breeds are adapted to tropical climates and tend to be more productive as compared to continental breeds. Parameters under which breed selection occurs include production quantity, production quality and production timeframe among others. Upon selection of ideal breed, breeding stock of a superior genetic generation should be opted for as these have higher performance indices and high-quality genetics which in turn result in improved product quality.

Feeds and feeding systems

Various feeds can be used in feeding ruminant livestock such as commercial feeds, on-farm formulated feeds and natural veld. Commercial feeds utilised by ruminant animals include the concentrates and roughages and examples are pen fattening meal, creep meal and lick blocks. On-farm formulated feeds are formulated at the farm utilising available resources like silage and other dried roughages like hay. Natural veld implies cattle grazing on natural vegetation

Feed systems that are used in ruminant production include fattening and make use of the natural veld. Fattening has two forms thus pen fattening and veld fattening. Pen fattening is feeding of cattle on a high energy diet and adequate protein for period of 90-120days (Yami 2008). Cattle are confined to prevent loss of energy through extensive movement. It increases the mass of cattle for slaughter at a younger age thereby increases turnover. Veld fattening involves feeding small amounts of concentrate to stock on summer veld to improve nutrient balance and digestibility of grass with the objective of finishing them off at low cost.

Farmers can also make use of the veld. It provides the bulk of nutritional requirements of the breeding herd and growing animals. It is the cheapest natural source of nutrients for beef cattle, hence it must be utilised efficiently for beef production. However, there are seasonal variations in forage quantity and quality (Samkol et al 2015). It is therefore not possible particularly to sustain beef production throughout the year on veld alone. In summer grasses are quite nutritious and can supply adequate energy and protein to all animals of different ages.

Facilities

In order to carry out daily husbandry practices and value addition to ruminant products, there is need for standard infrastructure and handling facilities. Infrastructure on cattle handling such as race, veterinarian’s gates, bales, scales, gates, dips and fencing layouts vary depending on the specific requirements of cattle production system. Facilities should be elaborate or simple and functional, depending on herd size and the inclination of the stock owner. The facilities should be build enough to keep cattle in and allow easy flow of cattle through the pens and race. Well-handled cattle of indigenous breeds are not wild and will not break out if it is often unnecessary to construct overly expensive facilities. On the other hand, facilities which are falling down and allow cattle to escape or damage themselves are frustrating and time-consuming.

Husbandry

In designing a ruminant production unit, availability of technical knowledge and experience should be assessed and quantified. This has a direct impact on the performance of animal unit and quality of product the farm will obtain. Inexperienced personnel however having adequate knowledge on husbandry practices such as feeding regimes, dosing and dipping routines; supply a managerial advantage to what is ideally profitable as a production system that meets the objectives of the farmer. In instance of on-farm feed formulation for finishing purposes, precision, skill and knowledge are quality assurance traits that should be supplied in knowing the nutritive quality of grains and highly productive, cost-efficient daily ration requirements. The personnel may become the production consultant for the farmer. In the event of minimizing procurement costs, farmers may attend short courses that supply husbandry information and enhance managerial skills on ruminant production (Phocas et al., 2016).

Husbandry routine operations are labour intensive and require specialised labour within farming enterprise. A direct correlation exists between level of labour provision and scale of production. Adequate experienced labour should be primarily sourced to ensure precision execution of husbandry tasks for specified stock counts. However, the source of labour should be nearby farming area. This is meant to minimise production costs of transportation on a daily basis. The potential for incentive provisions and fringe benefits also needs to be placed under advisement.

Health management

This is another parameter that should be considered. The epidemiology of ruminant diseases should be considered by the farming management. Infection patterns and rates of disease spread within the area where ruminant farm is located have an advantage on health management and biosecurity protocol that is ideal to implement at farm (Bai et al., 2017). Farm management becomes empowered to source information on the impact of disease outbreak on local market trends and production trends. It also becomes a subject of quality assurance for supply of superior quality produce and how to improve on it. The epidemiology of diseases in proposed farm area dictates scale of production tallied to optimum productivity. In farms located in districts rampaged by Caprine Bovine Pleuro Pneumonia (CBPP) designing a production unit having vast natural veldt for grazing purposes maybe disadvantageous as there is uncontrolled spawning of viral particles that may easily affect the production stock.

Marketing

After finishing cattle one has to market the cattle in the form of cold dressed mass or on-hoof. During marketing certain factors are considered such as quality and is based on age, sex, flesh development and fat cover. Cattle can be marketed through cattle auctions (Cc Sales), abattoirs (Bellevue, Koala park, Unifresh) and CSC. Auctions comprises farmers, speculators or auctioning companies with same people acting as buyers or butchers and commercial companies. The cost which producers face are transport, feed, 7% commission and pen costs. Prices of cattle at these auctions is based on how the market views beef industry that is on supply and demand situation. Farmers can sell their cattle to private abattoirs or direct to butcheries.

Conclusion

Therefore it can be concluded that the eight technical parameters discussed above must be taken into consideration in designing a ruminant production system for a commercial farm.