Innovative Farming Practices: A Tale of Scottish Entrepreneurship and Boran Cattle Breeding

At that time, they were using breeds of Boer goats and Boran cattle. We gradually got into their favor with artificial insemination using insemination doses from the Republic of South Africa and Kenya.

Damian is a successful enterpreneur from Scotland. Originally, as the founder of Kafue fisheries, they did business as pig farmers based on an interesting concept where piggery waste was channeled into fish ponds and acted as nutrition for the fish from the excess feed and nutrients in the feces. They also used an urea in the ponds to make up for what was not enough from the pig pens. They also owned abattoirs where they processed and sold their own produce in containerized refrigerators across Zambia in the form of street shops. During his tenure, he also started the Kachere farm and later stearted the company Heavy Duty Cargo Trucking, with which VVS currently cooperates in importing goods to Zambia through Walvis bay in Namibia. VVS imports around 8 containers a year to Zambia, and thanks to Damian and his companies, this cooperation is all the easier.

The Boran cattle, which are kept for breeding purposes in Kachere, originally distinguished themselves as a breed from southern Ethiopia and were subsequently developed from a breeding point of view in Kenya and further their breeding spread to the Republic of South Africa and from these two countries to other areas such as Zambia. Boran cattle are a composite breed, the genetics from the Asian bos indicus (64%) in combination with the genetic pool from the bos taurus (36%) predominates, and it is characterized by its extensive application of the heterosis effect in combination with other breeds of cattle. It is a cattle that is very resistant in the Zambian climate, both to high temperatures, lack of feed and diseases, which are not few here. We could expand on the topic of diseases, but that would be for another article, especially I would like to mention tick-borne diseases such as Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis and Theileriosis. We could attribute this resistance mainly to the body frame of this breed. It is a well-muscled cattle with a prominent hump, where it can accumulate fat reserves for the eight-month dry season, when the quality of forage decreases rapidly, it has a diverse coloration, a relatively arched forehead and short straight ears, the weight is around 350 kilos for cows and 700 kilos in bulls.

Using DIB synchronization programs from Argentina (Ovsynch with estrogens and equine chorionic gonadotropin), we managed to achieve a result of 85% of pregnant cows and heifers after insemination. On average, the results on this farm are around 60% pregnant. We carry out quality control of insemination doses and consultation of urea-mineral licks for broodmares.

The farm is also a 150-hectare ranch with wild animals such as giraffes, pronghorn antelopes, impalas, but you can also find wild warthogs, guinea pigs and even a crocodile that once wandered into one of the local ponds despite the fact that there is no river or crocodile far away.

Please see more information on our webpages: www.vvszambia.com, for orders contact: +260 965303481