Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 11.6. Beef prices as at July 2009.
Cattle grades
Bulawayo auctions (US$)
Mwenezi RDC (US$ averages)
Super
3.00
2.80
Choice
2.80
2.60
Commercial
2.60
2.20
Economy
2.30
2.20
Manufacture
2.00
1.10
Average prices (dressed)
2.54/kg
2.18/kg
The belt weighing method for livestock is now dominant on cattle auctions in Mwenezi
District of Zimbabwe. This replaced the use of spring scales that were becoming insensitive
due to aging and wear and tear. More so, the scales were too heavy to be carried from one
auction to the other and as such have always been an inconvenience to the council, which
had no transport facilities to move these scales across the district.
The need to understand the real market dynamics and farmers' selection of specific market
led to numerous interviews with farmers and market participants (Box 11.1).
Though farmers are not normally encouraged to sell heifers, economic pressure has resulted
in farmers selling them at public auctions leaving oxen for their draft power. The economic
value of heifers by small scale farmers have always been outweighed by the traditional lifestyles.
Box 1. Farmers' selection of cattle market channel.
An in-depth interview with Mr John (not real name), an officer at Mwenezi Rural District Council in Zimbabwe who
has the responsibility to conduct all district cattle auctions revealed important features in the marketing of cattle. His
experience with farmers is that, if they could, farmers would prefer not selling their cattle directly to abattoirs despite the
high cash returns associated with that marketing channel. This is because most abattoirs pay farmers using cold dressed
mass, after their beasts have been slaughtered and assessed for quality and health status. This process leaves farmers with
uncertainties that might even result in rejection of their cattle if the carcass is found to be of poor quality or diseased. To
avoid such risks, farmers end up selling to middle men who pay them based on visual assessment of animal and live mass
for guaranteed income. Selling cattle directly to big abattoirs also means that farmers incur high transport costs which
they try to lower by combining loads to do collective transportation of cattle. But this causes problems among small scale
farmers who find it difficult to distribute costs or losses due to unforeseen mortalities of cattle on transit due to poor health,
accidents and/or theft of cattle on transit.
Interview, Mwenezi District Council, 24 July 2009.
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