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Shuko Chunga

@shukoz

Oct 24, 2021

BUYING A COW
The last thread inspired a lot of interest BUT PLEASE dont go buy a cow just yet.

The thread below looks into what you should be looking for when buying your first cow.

This is general advice not breed specific advice.

1. When to buy
The dry season is the best time to buy a potential cow.

Our environment is one of feast or famine, food is either in abundance or scarce.

How an animal copes with scarcity is a key variable. In any head the animals that look fat in October are your target.

2. Body condition
Body condition scoring allows one to evaluate the physical condition of a cow.

A cow that is in good condition when food is scarce is a cow that will need little extra feed to survive the dry season.

Ideally you want a cow with BCS score of 3 or 4

Read 7 tweets

Shuko Chunga

@shukoz

Oct 22, 2021

CATTLE AS AN INVESTMENT VEHICLE

When my first child was born it dawned on me that I needed a plan on how to best secure her future.

I looked at the various investment products on the market and they all had one thing in common none provided long term security.

The instruments in Kwacha were varied but yielded far below our volatile rate of inflation.

Insurance policies did not factor potential increases in fees.

The USD denominated offshore instruments gave returns under 5% with no guarantees of yield.

By some luck I stumbled across a number of ppl who told me they received a cow at their wedding or inherited one along the way.

That one cow had grown to a herd a decade or so later and the growth was impressive; with good management it returned more than most.

Read 7 tweets

Shuko Chunga

@shukoz

Oct 22, 2021

MY AGRIC STORY P. 3 THE ANGONI
My dairy nightmare led me to an understanding of cross breeds.

Some of the dairy animals I purchased did better than others and after some enquiries I discovered some of the animals were Angoni x freisien crosses.

This led me to Angoni cattle

The Angoni are known for being particularly hardy and when bred for milk can be decent milkers.

They are hardly, can withstand the harsh periods between August and November with little rain.

They are tick resistant including diseases such as heart water etc

They gain weight easily and quickly making them ideal for feedlotting.

Unlike other breeds they are browsers and grazers ie aside from grass they also feed from shrubs.

They do not require supplementary feeding to be productive but it does help when it is offered.

Read 5 tweets

Shuko Chunga

@shukoz

Oct 22, 2021

MY AGRIC STORY PT 2. VEGETABLES
I started with cabbages and at K10 a cabbage the price looked very attractive.

You could fit almost 100k cabbages in 1ha. The problem is it's not that simple.

Number of cabbages in a ha depends greatly on the variety and head size.

PROBLEM #1. On the local market the bigger the head the higher price it fetches.

BUT the bigger heads also typically the longer maturity and the more expensive the seed for that variety.

Furthermore different varieties have different target markets. Not all cabbages are equal

PROBLEM #2: Cabbages are HEAVY feeders and as such deplete nutrients in the soil.

Plant a crop today and get a great yield. Plant another cabbage crop tomorrow and the yield could be horrible.

Crop rotation is a must or the fertilizer costs spiral out

Read 6 tweets

Shuko Chunga

@shukoz

Oct 22, 2021

MY AGRIC STORY

I started with dairy animals and quicky learnt the hard way dairy is expensive.

I came across some cheap cows and jumped in head first.

PROBLEM #1: Feeding
Dairy cows EAT in large quantities and need a lot of space. Bales are not an option, you need real grass

PROBLEM #2: Dairy animals are fragile and fickle. They are very susceptible to tick borne diseases, mastitis and only produce enough when fed a balanced diet.

If pure milk volumes are affected by many variables including breed and temperature

PROBLEM #3: Dairy is a volume game. It's not the same having 5 cows as having 50 cows, the more milking cows you have the easier it is.

Milk buyers are only interested above a certain volume and having 10 cows is not worth their while from a volume perspective

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