Cattle production involves keeping bulls and cows for meat (beef) or milk (dairy) purposes. Cattle feed on grasses, legumes, roughage, etc.Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated animals. They are a prominent modern member of the sub family “Bovinae”, and are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, they are also commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenus. Cattle are raised as livestock for meat (beef), as dairy animals for milk and other dairy products, and as draft animals (oxen or bullocks) (pulling carts, plows and the like). Other products include leather and dung for manure or fuel. In some countries, such as India, cattle are sacred. From as few as 80 progenitors domesticated in southeast Turkey about 10,500 years ago,[i]an estimated 1.3 billion cattle are in the world today.[ii] In 2009, cattle became the first livestock animal to have a fully mapped genome.[iii]
Cattle have one stomach with four compartments (rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum) and they are the most efficient users of uncultivated land and can contribute substantially to crop production.
Cattle are ruminants, meaning their digestive system allows use of otherwise indigestible foods by regurgitating and rechewing them as “cud”. The cud is then reswallowed and further digested by specialized microorganisms in the rumen. These microbes are primarily responsible for decomposing cellulose and other carbohydrates into volatile fatty acids cattle use as their primary metabolic fuel.
BREEDS
They are quite a number of breeds of cattle in Nigeria, among them are;
- Red Bororo
- N’dama
- White Fulani
- Muturu
- Sokoto Gudali
MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
Specific to cattle production, there are management practices that are implemented and in return have dramatic financial benefits, they include, but are not limited to;
- Dehorning
- Castrating
- Crossbreeding to improve cattle quality
- Improve grazing management
DISEASES
Diseases that affect cattle include;
- Trypanosomiasis
- Brucellosis
- Foot and mouth disease
- Foot rot
- External parasites (Horn flies, face flies, stable flies, ticks, lice and mites)
- Internal parasites
- Tuberculosis
- Rinderpest
- Contagious bovine pleuro pneumonia
Control of these diseases and pests can be done by vaccination, use of antibiotics, quarantining newly purchased cattle, slaughtering and burning of infected cattle e.t.c. But on a general note, the ability of restoring the Nigeria’s agricultural sector depends largely on the collective and sincere commitment of all stakeholders and parastatals hugely involved in the sector.
The undeniable profits/benefits in Cattle Production
The joyful thing about this business is that the product is consumed by most Nigerians. Beef (Cattle’s meat) is very popular in Nigeria and around Africa. That means if you go into this business, you have millions of potential customers waiting for you.
In the cattle farming business, you don’t have to concern yourself so much about diseases, because this specie of animal is duly immune to large amount of diseases.
While you bother yourself less about diseases, because of the nature of the livestock, cattle love moving around. You may need to take them through grazing which is their main mode of feeding. However, you need to be alert of predators such as snakes and other brutal animals. You also must be careful of fields that has been sprayed with poison.
Cattle farming business is very profitable beyond the meat (beef). There are many other opportunities to make money in this business. Cattle also produce milk. You can even make more money from the milk than the meat.
The skin (hide) is used to make leather which is a very important part of fashion. The Cattle’s blood can also be used as part of the components of fertilizers and the faeces can also be utilized as a manure to grow crops. There are different breeds of cattle such as Azawal, sokoto gudali, wadata, white Fulani and some other breeds.
It is important we remind ourselves that they are ruminant animal with horns and two pair of toes. They are most rated for the purpose of meat supply because when we visualize the rate at which meat is being consumed, we will discover that it is a good business to venture into. They are also rated for milk, hide and skin, manure and as draught animals to work on the farm.
Economic advantages of Cattle production in Nigeria
- They provide meat and milk
- They can be used in farm for the purpose of ploughing.
- The hide and skin are used for fashion
- Their blood and bones are uses for meal and feeds for chickens or other animals.
- It is also a source of employment and income to people.
- Their feaces is a very good source of fertilizer for plants.
- Source of revenue to some territories.
- Fertilizers can be gotten from blood, bones, and offal of cattle.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Terminologies
Some terms used in describing cattle are;
- Bull; an intact adult male.
- Cow; an adult female.
- Heifer; a young female before she has had a calf.
- Calf; young cattle of both sexes before they are weaned.
- Weaning; a process of withdrawing an infant from the mother’s milk and introducing them to their “would-be” diet.
- Ox; castrated male cattle.
- Beef cattle; cattle raised for meat production.
- Dairy cattle; cattle raised for milk production.
- Moo; a sound made by cattle.
- Gestation period; the time in which a fetus develops, beginning with fertilization and ending at birth (its nine months for a cow).
( To read more on livestock https://www.agriculturenigeria.com/research/articles/diary-of-a-happy-farmer-livestock-farming )
Husbandry
Cattle are often raised by allowing herds to graze on the grasses of large tracts of rangeland. Raising cattle in this manner allows the use of land that might be unsuitable for growing crops. The most common interactions with cattle involve daily feeding, cleaning and milking. Many routine husbandry practices involve ear tagging, dehorning, loading, medical operations, vaccinations and hoof care, as well as training for agricultural shows and preparations. Also, some cultural differences occur in working with cattle; the cattle husbandry of Fulani men rests on behavioral techniques, whereas in Europe, cattle are controlled primarily by physical means, such as fences.[v]
Dairy production in Nigeria
More than 90% of total annual milk production is from cattle in low input, low yielding pastoral systems and traded in informal value chains.
Industry snapshot:
- Nigeria has the 5th largest cattle herd in Africa, following Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad & Tanzania.
- 5 million cattle – kept for meat, milk, savings and draught power.
- The cattle population is concentrated in northern Nigeria.
- 99% of cattle are indigenous breeds. The remaining 1% consist of exotic and improved dairy cattle, which are found primarily in the central region.
- Gross production value of cow milk in 2016 was US $73 million.
Cattle population by geographic zones (NASS 2011)
Nigeria cattle population
Most cattle in Nigeria are indigenous breeds used primarily for meat and savings as well as milk production. Exotic breeds such as Holstein Friesian, Brown Swiss, Jersey and their crosses are common in more intensive, specialised dairy systems.
Nigeria cattle population by production system (FAO 2018)
| Production system | Number (heads) | % of total population |
| Extensive | 15,111,309 | 82.1 |
| Semi-intensive | 3,089,804 | 16.8 |
| Intensive | 203,548 | 1.1 |
Types of dairy production systems
Traditional meat-milk
- Large herds of indigenous cattle in pastoral & agro-pastoral areas in northern Nigeria. Cattle graze on natural pastures, communal land and crop residues.
- Milk and dairy products are consumed by producer households and sold through local community markets.
Improved family & specialised dairy
- About 80% of the commercial dairy farms are in the central region.
- Herd size ranges from 50 to 1000 heads.
- Cattle are kept in sheds/indoors and fed in a ‘cut and carry’ system based on cultivated pastures and supplementary feed.
- Most milk is sold into formal value chains.
Value chains & market systems
- Pastoralists account for 95% of milk production in Nigeria. Commercial farmers account for only 5% of local milk production.
- Milk and dairy products produced by pastoralists are consumed by pastoralist households and/or marketed locally through informal value chains.
- Milk produced by pastoralists is rarely processed before sale and consumption.
- Milk may be processed into several local products such as nono (sour milk), Kindirmo (sour yoghurt), Manshanu (local butter), cuku (Fulani Cheese) and Wara (Yoruba cheese).
- Milk from commercial dairy farms is traded through formal value chains in urban and peri-urban markets.
- Average milk consumption is 20 to 25 litres per capita per year.
National milk production from cattle (FAOstat)
Milk yields
- Average milk yield in traditional low-input systems is 6 l/cow/day.
- Average yield of pure breed (Friesian) in a specialised commercial system is 30 l/cow/day.
- The difference in yields is due to a range of factors including cattle breed, nutrition, animal health and farm management.
Opportunities for dairy production in Nigeria
Current milk production does not meet the market demand of 1.45 billion litres per annum.
Issues affecting milk production
Farm scale
- Seasonal feed shortages (natural grasses, crop residues)
- Decreased land area available for grazing
- Cost and variable quality of purchased concentrate feeds
- Genetic potential of cattle breeds currently used
- Inappropriate breeds for local conditions
- Cost and access to artificial insemination services
- Diseases that cause mortality or affect reproduction
Dairy value chains, markets & processing
Seasonality of milk production makes it hard for producers to engage in formal value chains.
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References
[i] Source; Bollongino, Ruth & al. Molecular Biology and Evolution. “Modern Taurine Cattle descended from small number of Near-Eastern founders”. 7 Mar 2012. Accessed 2 Apr 2012. Op. cit. in Wilkins, Alasdair. io9.com. “DNA reveals that cows were almost impossible to domesticate”. 28 Mar 2012. Accessed 2 Apr 2012.
[ii] Source; Breeds of Cattle at “cattle today”.
[iii] Source; Brown, David (2009-04-23). “Scientists Unravel Genome of the Cow”. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
[iv] Culled from; Clay, J. 2004. World Agriculture and the Environment: A Commodity-by-Commodity Guide to Impacts and Practices. Washington, D.C., USA: Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-370-0.
[v] Lott, Dale F.; Hart, Benjamin L. (October 1979). “Applied ethology in a nomadic cattle culture”. Applied Animal Ethology (Elsevier B.V.) 5 (4): 309–319. doi:10.1016/0304-3762(79)90102-0.
FAOstat www.fao.org/faostat.
NASS (2011). National Bureau of Statistics/Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Collaborative Survey on National Agriculture Sample Survey (NASS), 2010/2011.
Useful Materials
Courtesy; Umar, Abba Sidi Shehu (2007). Financial analysis of small scale beef fattening enterprise in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State. An unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, ABU Zaria.
Source; Anon (2004). Realizing the promise and potentials of African agriculture. Inter Academy council, 2004, 267pp.
Source; Abassa, K.P (1995). Improving food security in Africa: the ignored contribution of livestock. Joint ECA/FAO Agricultural Division Monograph No.14, United Nation Economic Commission of Africa and Food and Agricultural Organization. Addis Ababa.
Source; Oluwafemi,R.A., Ilemobade, A.A and Laseinde, E.A.O (2001). Study of Tsetse fly and bovine trypanosomosis in the Biological control of tsetse fly project area in Lafia Local Government of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. An unpublished Master’s Degree Thesis Report, Federal University of Technology, Akure. Ondo State, July 2001.165pp.
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