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Extensive veld tests by the Bosveld Santa Gertrudis Study Group have made a worthwhile contribution to establishing the breed’s status amongst different beef cattle in South Africa.
The motto of the Bosveld Santa Gertrudis Study Group is: We suppose otherwise. The group’s quest is to offer the absolute best veld-adapted genetics to the South African beef cattle business.
To that impact, the group has carried out revolutionary bull veld tests coupled with strict choice processes. Farmer’s Weekly first reported on the actions of those breeders, then generally known as Santa Veldbeestelers, in 2014.
According to Naudé Pienaar, examine group member from Buhrmansdrif in North West, the group has come a great distance since then.
“We realised that we [Santa Gertrudis breeders] would have to expand our activities and increase our footprint in the beef cattle sector. The group now consists of 15 breeders, covering an area roughly from Polokwane to Mahikeng. The group runs about 2 500 pure-bred animals, including registered and non-registered Santas,” he says.
Correcting misperceptions
Breeding animals for the meat cattle business revolves primarily round necessities and perceptions of the industrial breeder, in accordance with Pienaar.
The essential goal of the Bosveld Santa Gertrudis Study Group is subsequently to breed and market animals that carry out above common in an in depth surroundings (in the veld), in addition to underneath intensive (feedlot) circumstances.
Despite the truth that it has been proved many occasions that Santa Gertrudis cattle are high achievers, some outdated perceptions are nonetheless making industrial breeders reluctant to check these high grass and feed converters in their breeding programmes, says Pienaar.
The examine group members are absolutely dedicated to the breeding of bulls reared on, and marketed from, the veld. Group member Wimpie Moolman says the group has proved the value and effectivity of veld-reared bulls and can proudly proceed to unfold this message.
Members are diligently specializing in not advertising and marketing overfed bulls that quickly drop in situation and discover it troublesome to adapt to veld environments.
Beware of creep feed
Moolman cautions towards shopping for bulls which might be raised on creep feed from a really younger age in order to attain excessive weaning weights. After weaning, such bulls are sometimes stored on feed concentrates, typically as much as the age of 24 months.
“Since the animals are usually marketed at the age of 30 months, it doesn’t make sense to put them on veld for the last few months before marketing, so they are consequently fed until being put up for sale,” explains Moolman.
This implies that the bulls by no means have a possibility to adapt to pure grazing and to show their price as breeding sires in intensive farming circumstances. Ferdi van Aswegen, one other group member and animal nutritionist, explains that “more often than not”, the overfed bulls endure from rumen issues, corresponding to rumen acidosis, which makes it troublesome for them to carry out effectively on pure grazing.
Rumen acidosis is claimed to happen when the pH of the rumen falls from a traditional degree of between 6,5 and seven to lower than 5,5. The fall in rumen pH has two results. Firstly, the rumen stops transferring and turns into atonic, damaging the absorption space of the abdomen. This depresses urge for food and manufacturing.
Secondly, the change in acidity additionally modifications the rumen flora, with acid-producing micro organism taking on.
“The primary cause of acidosis is feeding a high level of a rapidly digestible carbohydrate such as grain, and the damage to the digestive system is mostly irreversible.”
Van Aswegen additional explains {that a} weight loss program excessive in grains may also have a unfavourable impression on bull fertility, because of the truth that the surplus carbohydrates will likely be transformed to physique fats, and inner fats will likely be deposited in and across the testicles and can jeopardise the temperature regulation mechanism and end result in everlasting fertility issues, regardless of regular situation later.
On-veld efficiency
The extra quantity of physique fats will make a very good impression on the attention, however also can end result in a speedy loss in physique situation when transition from excessive ranges of feed to an intensive veld grazing system is skilled. “The most effective way to prevent this problem and ensure rumen health is to get animals used to natural grazing from a very young age,” says Moolman.
Whilst doing this, it was additionally essential to measure a breed’s capacity to transform grass into beef. To this finish, the examine group initiated veld tests in 2009.
“We decided to run selected bulls on the veld for at least one winter and one summer season, and then weigh them monthly in the presence of non-breeders,” says Jacob van Zyl, a examine group member from Zeerust.
“The extended test period enabled us to determine the bulls’ performance during four seasons, and particularly during winter. Our bulls’ performance was tested against another breed, a control group, run under the same conditions. The breed we chose as our benchmark is known for its excellent performance on the veld.” In all 9 tests, the highest performer was a Santa Gertrudis bull, with the opposite breed as soon as attaining solely fifth place.
Growth figures
Pienaar stresses that the bulls attaining development figures higher than the check common had been then screened to make sure they met breed requirements and had been marketed at an age of greater than 30 months.
Nine veld check classes have been concluded up to now by the examine group, ensuing in a longtime genetic base of top-performing bulls.
The genetic base consists of bulls from, amongst others, the PZ bloodline and bulls corresponding to Predictor XY 92 112, Toffieappel HB 80 029, SV 98 139 and the imported Kubecka 888, explains Moolman. One of the present sires, JHM 16 036, is a major instance of the kind of bull the examine group strives for.
One of the members, Tiaan Bekker from Modimolle, used him for six months from November 2020 to the tip of May 2021 on a gaggle of fifty cows, of which 42 grew to become pregnant. Pienaar used him through the previous winter, from 1 July to six September 2021, for 70 days with out giving him supplementary feed. At the time of going to print, he was already again in Modimolle, prepared for his subsequent breeding session.
According to Pienaar, Santa Gertrudis veld bulls’ confirmed adaptability, fertility and hardiness make them a great selection for each farmer wishing to supply calves which might be small when born, obtain superior weaning weights, and possess the added bonus of confirmed high feed conversions and distinctive carcass yields in feedlots.
To additional market and show the value of Santa Gertrudis genetics, the examine group has assisted a lot of rising farmers in areas corresponding to Mahikeng and Brits to artificially inseminate some 200 cows with semen donated by members of the examine group.
Feedback from breeders in Botswana has additionally been encouraging. For instance, Botswana beef producer Tikina Busang resorted to utilizing Santa Gertrudis veld bulls due to the animals’ adaptability, fertility and hardiness. “The veld bulls fare well in the harsh semi-arid farming conditions of the country. I’m particularly impressed by the bulls’ high fertility and the superb fertility rates of their progeny,” he says.
Crossbreeding
Research performed by Van Aswegen confirmed the value added by Santa Gertrudis bulls to crossbred weaner manufacturing. His analysis venture consisted of 75 industrial Bonsmara breeding cows, divided into teams of 25.
Bonsmara bulls had been used for 2 of the teams, whereas a registered Santa Gertrudis bull was used in the third group. The bulls had been used in the January to March 2018 breeding season and the calves had been weaned at seven months.
The venture was run on very intensive circumstances in an space the place heartwater and different tick-borne ailments are frequent.
Birthweights, three-month and seven-month weights had been recorded, utilizing the identical set of calibrated scales. The calves had been weighed concurrently effectively, between 9am and 11am. The cows had been inspected two to 3 occasions per week throughout gestation to make sure they had been wholesome and in high situation.
“All the research results are available, but suffice to say that the Santa group’s weaner weight surpassed the control group’s weights by 13,68%, with the control group weaners weighing in at an average of 230kg and the Santa crossbred weaners weighing in at 261kg on average. At current prices, it means that the Santa calves brought in R1 240 more than the others,” states Van Aswegen.
Phone Naudé Pienaar on 082 776 8283, or electronic mail him at [email protected].
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