Animal and Aquaculture Production 

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Orientation to the South African Red Meat Industry &
Strategies for Supporting Emerging Livestock Producers

A 2-Day Workshop Organised for Animal Scientists in Agricultural Extension
16 – 17 May 2007

Workshop Report

Introduction

The workshop was the first of a series of workshops planned by the National Emergent Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (NERPO) for Animal Scientists who are serving in agricultural extension services. The series of workshops arise from NERPO’s consultations with emerging livestock farmers, from where it transpired that most farmers feel that extension personnel who are providing services to them on a day to day basis are not sufficiently informed about the red meat industry in order to advise them appropriately. Our understanding of the problem is that although the Animal Scientists are trained in the livestock sciences, they usually do not have any practical farm or industry experience, and hence have limited capacity to provide appropriate information that can be applied by livestock farmers. To address this limitation NERPO decided to offer a series of workshops for the Animal Scientists, during which they will be provided with current information on various relevant topics, in order to equip them with practical information and skills that can assist them to serve emerging livestock farmers.

The first workshop, conducted on 16 – 17 May 2007, aimed at giving the Animal Scientists an overview of the structure and functioning of the South African red meat industry, as well as at sharing experiences of approaches to developing the emerging sector, especially given the fact that the livestock sector already has a national Livestock Development Strategy endorsed by the national Minister of Agriculture. It was also intended that the workshop should provide indications of the nature of workshops that would be relevant to the Animal Scientists.

Attendance

The workshop was attended by 48 provincial delegates who are working in livestock extension, research and development. These had a variety of designations, which included the following:

·  Agricultural Development  Technician

·  Agricultural  Principal

·  Agricultural Scientist

·  Agricultural Technician

·  Animal Health Technician

·  Animal Scientist

·  Extension Officer

·  Livestock Specialist

The workshop was well supported by the Directorate of Animal and Aquaculture Production of the National Department of Agriculture (DoA). The Director, Dr Motseki Hlatshwayo and Livestock Specialist, Mr Mosihlana Selepe, attended both days of the workshop and participated in the discussions.

All invited speakers kept their appointments and gave highly informative and interactive presentations.

Day One: Orientation to the red meat industry

The first day was dedicated to a series of presentations by the different role players in the red meat industry; who included the following:

·  South African Meat Industry Company          (SAMIC)         – Mr Manie Booysen

·  Red Meat Producers Organisation                (RPO)            – Mr Gerhard Schutte

·  South African Feedlot Association                (SAFA)          – Mr Dave Ford

·  Red Meat Abattoir Association                     (RMAA)         – Dr Gerhard Neethling

·  South African Pig Producers’ Organisation    (SAPPO)        – Mr Qeda Nyoka

·  National Agricultural Marketing Council         (NAMC)          – Mr Happy Mohane

The presenters did a sterling job of painting the picture of the structure and roles of each constituent of the South African red meat industry. The opportunities and challenges within the value chain of the industry were aptly presented and discussed. The presentations helped the delegates to understand the challenges of the producers in relation to the production environment and market requirements.

The requirements of the feedlot industry and the high risks involved as a result of the high weaner prices, high feed prices and the generally unfavourable beef: grain price ratio of 18:1 (compared 22:1 in Australia and 24:1 in the United States) were highlighted, amongst other factors. The presentation on the feedlot industry assisted the delegates to understand the different types of feedlots in the industry (seasonal feeder, farmer feeder and commercial feedlot) and the challenges involved at each level of operation. Stock theft and how it can be curbed was discussed at length, much as it usually happens in meetings with farmers.

The RMAA presentation demonstrated the processes that a carcass goes through in the abattoir, emphasising the need to conform to meat safety regulations, and that an abattoir needs a consistent supply of affordable slaughter stock, amongst other things, to remain commercially viable.

The main lesson out of these series of presentations was that extension personnel need to consult relevant and knowledgeable authorities in the industry before recommending businesses within the red meat value chain. Development organisations should also consult likewise before implementing projects in the red meat value chain and leaving it up to extension personnel to advise project beneficiaries and ensure that the projects are viable. The presentation by SAPPO on the second day reiterated this point and gave demonstrations of piggery projects that had failed because inappropriate preparation for their establishment.

Day Two Strategies for developing the emergent livestock sector

On the second day, Dr Hlatshwayo discussed the Livestock Development Strategy, giving the history of the formulation the strategy, which highlighted that it is a Presidential imperative and part of the sector plan for South African Agriculture. The Livestock Development strategy emphasises optimisation of economic benefits from the considerable livestock resource within South Africa, development of the second economy and stimulation of growth and income generation within rural poor communities by improving the efficiency & profitability of production. These are the national objectives that all role players within the livestock sector should aim to achieve. A key aspect of the livestock industry is that is has been identified as one of the drivers of the targeted 6% growth in the South African economy by 2010. Aligned to the Livestock Sector Plan are the beef, sheep and goat strategies, which are at various stages of development and address the pertinent issues for each of the species. Dr Michiel Scholtz, presented the Beef Sector Strategy as an example of these specific strategies.

The Animal Scientists and NERPO presented and discussed their respective approaches to development of the emerging sector. It was quite evident that the provinces are at different levels of owning agricultural and, specifically, livestock sector strategies. Some provinces had well developed strategies while others are in the process of developing their strategies. Similarly, some Animal Scientists had good understanding of what their provinces are doing for the livestock sector while it was not very clear to others.

The key issues that were raised during the discussions were as follows:

·  Development agents should always consult all role players, including extension personnel, before implementing a project in any given location.

·  Extension personnel should be trained in project management so that they have adequate skills to manage the projects on the ground.

·  The Animal Scientists need a better understanding of what the national and provincial objectives for the livestock sector are and a better understanding of their role in fulfilling these objectives. Therefore documents such as the Strategic Plan for South African Agriculture, the Livestock Development Strategy should be easily accessible to them. A suggestion was made that the Animal Scientists should access such documents from the Agricultural Information Services of the National Department of Agriculture, either through direct contact or the DoA’s web pages.

·  The industry has relevant information that could be useful to the Animal Scientists. The information can be accessed from the websites of the various role players and through direct contact with the role-player representatives.

·  Communications across government Departments (e.g. extension services in livestock and veterinary services and local government) needs to be improved, especially for the purposes of implementing and managing projects.

·  Different provinces have different standards of service conditions and hence extension services are facing a challenge of staff mobility across provinces, to those that are seen as to offer better service conditions. The extension personnel were encouraged not to use their limited resources as an excuse for not doing their jobs but to try and do the best they can within their circumstances.

·  Provinces that have not done so should develop agricultural and livestock development strategy in line with the national ones.

Overall lessons learnt

At the end of the sessions on Day 2 discussions were held on the lessons learnt from the workshop. Unfortunately there was inadequate time to sum up the lessons learnt and, one of the suggestions that came out strongly from the workshop evaluation was that such workshops should be allocated more time than the two days. However, the few points that were raised during the discussions are as follows:

·  Communication, co-ordination and  networking

o                    Animal Scientists at grass root level should be specifically included in industry and Department meetings were livestock issues are discussed.

o                    Provincial governments should be requested to employ a person at Assistant Director level who is responsible for information dissemination.

o                    Operational people in government should identify industry role players and take initiative to liaise with them.

o                    The industry should take the initiative of doing road shows to introduce their specialists to operational people in government Departments.

o                    Communication with provincial Heads of Departments  – push it from DoA – one blanket approval for meetings,

o                    Promote linkage with people who sit in ITCAL – coin the next meeting such that it coincides with ITCAL so that ITCAL can observe.

·  Research for the Emerging Sector

o                    New feed which does not use maize for feedlot cattle – one that uses cheap feed resources

o                    Affordable housing for piggeries

·  Farmer mobilisation

o                    Train people on how to manage communities & group meetings

·  Further workshops

Suggestions for further workshops were captured in a workshop evaluation questionnaire. Aspects pertaining to communication, especially with farmers, were the greatest training need that was identified, followed by livestock marketing and feedlotting. Other pressing needs were for training on breed selection and feeding livestock. Some interesting topics, which are well worth following up on, such as legislative issues in Animal production and indigenous knowledge in animal production, were also suggested. NERPO will endeavour to design a series of workshops which encompasses all the identified training needs.

Summary of Training needs of Animal scientists in Extension

Way forward

NERPO will develop a series of programmes for Animal Scientists to address the needs that were raised. This schedule will be communicated to all provinces by 22 June 2007.