Bovine Breeding in South Africa

The South Africa presents a bovine breeding to two faces: traditional and intensive, of with a long story.

Origin

The bovine branch Sanga arrived several centuries ago coming from Ethiopia, with the people which raised it. (Khoïkhoï, Bantous, Zulu…) This breeding is of pastoral type.
Déjà, in 1497, Vasco de Gama ate black beef, ancètre of the current race drakensberg.
Ensuite, at the time of the Colonization, the existence of bovines made it possible to start a breeding without making come from the cattle of Europe. The Afrikaners adopted the cattle sanga which will take part in the adventure of the Grand Trek by tractor drawing the family carriages. Their installation in a region dries and with the hard vegetation more relevant still the choice of an adapted indigenous cattle makes. The descendants of the Dutch colonists will create a breeding of the American type, with an extensive breeding on large farms, of type Ranch.
During the 19th century, the English introduce cattle from their native island. They will create an intensive breeding similar to that which one finds in Europe. These animals accustomed to the rich person grazing grounds of the English scrap-metal will remain confined with the rich areas.
Durant the 20th century, new races will appear, crossing between European races and races sanga. In parallel, the farmers more at a peak of the Veld will apply to their cattle sanga the same techniques of selection which succeeded so well with the British races. After several decades, they produced a heavier cattle, adapted well to the local climate and of which the carcasses in slaughter-house do not have great any more a deal to envy the European races bouchères most effective.

Types of breeding

Breeding butcher

traditional breeding : there still exists in the driest regions, at the people which kept their ancestral lifestyle. The richness of the families is measured with the size of the herd, not with its weight. Thus, they raise in pastoralism of large herds of thin individuals. They draw milk, leather and meat from it. This type of breeding is likely to be condemned in the medium term: it uses big spaces for a primarily food production. Anecdote: the warriors of the Zulu king Chaka had leather shields. Each regiment had its color, process allowed by the large variety of dress of the cattle Nguni. The personal guard of Chaka was in immaculate white.
breeding in ranches : it progressed much in productivity with the arrival of the European methods of selection. Either in pure race, or in crossing with the use of European bulls, they provide a lean meat of excellent quality or calves for the fattening. The improvement of the quality of fodder is also one of the reasons of this progression.

intensive breeding : the fattening of calves in Feed batches gets a remuneration for the cereal producers: they nourish the animals with the product of their culture or products of importation and sell the meat on the national market or world. This breeding invented with the the United States is localized on the wet areas where the vegetable production is important, or close to the ports where arrive Maïs and Tourteaux of Soja.

Dairy breeding

the old races provide a milk rich but in small quantity. This production concerns primarily the people which preserved their ancestral lifestyle.
the modern races all are of the European races. They were imported primarily at the end of the 19th century and at the 20th century. They feed agribusiness industry charged to provide out of dairy produce the African south living to the Western one. These races are today the subject of research in experimental farms in order to as well as possible adapt them to the hard local climates.

Breeding in durable agriculture

A project was set up in an area at strong unemployment rate and of poverty, to entrust a small holding to families, with two cows Sanganer. They have of milk, a calf by cow and per annum intended for the increase the herd or the sale. This system is intended to be durable and must allow to the families a worthy work which makes it possible to leave social misery. To date, the retreat does not make it possible yet to say if it will be crowned success.

Races used

Traditional races autochtones

Afrikaner, drakensberg, huguenot, Nguni, Touli

Races created starting from the indigenous cattle

Bonsmara, Sanganer

Imported races

Races bouchères: Angus, Hereford, Sussex, Limousine
dairy Races: Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, holstein, Jersey, Pinzgauer, simmental

European crossings X sanga

Afrigus, Tulim

Notes and references of the article

See too

List of the bovine races
bovine Breeding. Ox. Zebu

External bonds and documents

List of the South-African bovine races indexed by FAO.

Random links: