If you consider cattle farming in Nigeria as an option for your future business, then this article can become a real guide for the beginning and success of the business.
How to start cattle farming in Nigeria?
The breeding of cattle is an excellent opportunity to start your own business in rural areas. However, before you begin creating your own business in the sphere of cattle production, you must carefully examine all the features of this complicated business.
Firstly, you need to decide what is your purpose of breeding animals. In modern livestock production, there are several different areas: breeding of cattle for meat, breeding dairy cattle, breeding of meat and dairy breeds (combined method), and breeding of young animals for sale.
Once you have decided that one of these spheres is the right choice for you (it will largely depend on the area chosen for a farm). The ideal option would be to buy a farm with the old abandoned equipment which you can restore or modernize. However, if there isn't such a farm in close proximity, you will have to work hard and get a permission to build a farm yourself.
When the place is ready, you can move on and buy cattle. It is advisable to do this with an experienced farmer, as a success of your business will depend on the successful purchase. Below we will give some guidelines for choosing cows.
If you plan to breed dairy kinds of cattle, when purchasing, pay attention to the following factors:
- Heavy milking cows are always characterized by the barrel shape mid-body, large belly, weak muscles, thin but strong bones. This indicates well-developed lungs and digestive system.
- Dairy cows have long light head, small thin horns, not sharp and forked withers.
- Special attention in examining the body structure should be paid to the udder. Dairy, cows, as a rule, have greater udder, it is mainly covered with fine sparse hairs. After milking it significantly reduces in volume and becomes soft. Whereas in contrast, low-yield cows' udder is almost unchangeable in volume. Udder shape is also important.
The productivity of cows is considered to be the highest in the first period of lactation and gradually decreases to its termination. With age, the lactation productivity increases to the seventh, and then gradually decreases, so you need to know the age of the animal. It is better to know the exact date of birth, but if this cannot be established, the age is determined by the number of cylinders on the horns, which indicate the number of calving. You must add 2 years to this number.
If you plan to produce beef, you should know the main requirements when choosing breeds:
- high growth rate of young animals for a long period of time;
- big live weight;
- high quality carcasses;
- great return from the feed;
- ability for long-term use of cows;
- animals ability to acclimatize.
Once production is established, it is necessary to determine the ways of marketing of finished products. In the case of milk production you need to find the closest dairies buying milk. In the case of meat production, find meat processing plants located nearby. The main task is to establish the price of finished products correctly in order to have a good profit at the end of the season.
Cattle farming in Nigeria
In Nigeria, like in other West African countries, crops and cattle production are separated from each other, this means that agriculture isn't connected with cattle farming, both Fulani and Kanuri people are not associated with land processing.
Main threat – tsetse fly
The majority of animals are breeded in the Sudanese Savannah where they couldn't be touched by tsetse fly. This is true, because Nigeria occupies the first place among the countries of the Guinea coast in the number of cattle (in 1976 here were more than 11 million heads).
Zebu breeding
Cattle farming in Nigeria, on the majority of its territories, is mainly represented by Zebu. Representatives of this breed have long horns and a humped back.
Zebu bull
Zebu varieties
Such breed has several varieties. Zebu is mostly spread in the Northern part of the country. In the lake Chad basin Nigerians are involved in Bos Taurus or Kuri humpless cattle breeding, in the Southern part of the Northern States they breed dwarfish cattle muturi that has a kind of an immunity to the bites of deadly tsetse fly.
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During Harmattan, when Savannah grass is burned, cattlemen move their herds to the river valleys and the shores of Chad. When it comes to the wet season, cattle is moved to the Joss plateau, where the animals have enough grass and water.
Fertile pastures allow to promote cattle production in Nigeria. During the Second World War there was created the first farm aimed at milk producing. The main breeders of the country, representatives of the Fulani people, bring here milk and cream for processing. Now, the city has a large butter processing plant.
How profitable is cattle farming?
Main consumers of meat are major cities in Nigeria. So, you should organise supplies to the biggest cities to make the highest profit.
A lot of cattle reaches the markets of Ibadan, Lagos, Onici and other southern cities. You can carry it by railways and by roads. Bear in mind that during the driving the cattle can lose weight, a lot of animals can die or fall ill.
In Nigeria, farmers take measures to increase commodity output of livestock products, which contributes to the construction of the feeding farms. Also, they constantly improve the livestock breeds, fighting against the epizootics, building large slaughtering houses, cold storage warehouses and other objects for meat quality improvement.
Cattle for manufacturing of leather goods
Nigerians breed cattle also to get the skin. Today Nigeria is one of the largest suppliers of tanning raw in the whole West Africa.
Cattle skins are highly valued for noble texture, elasticity and strength. It is quite thick — up to 2 — 3 mm and has a large area, therefore it is convenient to be used for the production of large size items. When sewing women's clothing and footwear, softness and elasticity of the skin is of a great importance: in these cases we often use skin of calves.
So, you may make use of this trend due to the fact that this industry is always in demand.
Useful tips for those who want to get involved in this business
- The structure of the skin and its quality depends on animal gender. So, the first things that will affect leather characteristics are gender and age of the animal.
- Male skin is usually larger and thicker than female one.
- The skin of young specimens is soft, smooth and elastical (all of these qualities are of great importance in the manufacture of gloves). The skin of old animals differs greatly.
In addition, the quality of the skin reflects the conditions of life of the animal: it will be visible every injury or a whip. Both insufficient and excess feeding of animals has adverse effect on the quality of the material.
Importance and conditions of the slaughter: the skins of animals killed in winter and summer are different. Favorable weather conditions in summer improve the skin quality. In winter it becomes more oily and porous.
So, now you have got acquainted with the basics of Nigeria cattle farming, so that it would be much easier to start your own business with the knowledge of some crucial details.
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