KGOMO KE KHUMO PROMO 'GIVES BACK BIG'

Sesupo Rantsimako and Joyce Grey
Correspondent | Monday March 8, 2010 00:00

 

Says Clive Marshall, the General Manager of Livestock Procurement at BMC. 'This promotion, which has been running since November 2009, aims to educate farmers about how to look after their cattle until they reach the required standard and helps farmers to maximise their returns.' The BMC has an arrangement through which it buys cattle from farmers and keeps them in feedlots to make sure that they meet the required standards. 'So far we have 15, 000 cattle in Lobatse and 2, 500 in Francistown feedlots,' says Marshall.

'We plan to have 8, 000 to 10, 000 cattle in Francistown. Since our promotion started, we have been buying 200 to 300 cattle a day, which shows that our promotion is going well and that people are getting the message.'

The promotion runs monthly and only six farmers are chosen from those who enter the competition. Entry forms can be found at any buying point. Some of the promotion's aims are to bring more returns on investment,improve cattle ranching systems and empower farmers through education. In Francistown, Tebogo Tlhage won the first prize, which was a digital cattle branding mache, Keikemetse Shaka walked away with a generator, Moagi Mapetla, who stood in for Abel Modimo, won the third price, which was a branding oven.

The top three winners also walked away with P500 each for transport, while the rest of the participants had consolation prizes of P700 and 5kg meat each.

The promotion has two schemes, the first one being premium payment scheme whereby a farmer has to inform BMC officials about when they will bring their cattle to be sold seven days in advance. The cattle must weigh 200kg or more.

The other scheme is the cattle feeding advance scheme that makes it easier for the farmers to access funds to bring their cattle up to the required weight (over 200kg). Farmers enter a cattle-fattening contract with the BMC and get an advance of P1 600 per head, which the BMC pays directly to the feed supplier.

Then towards the end of the feeding period, the cattle are slaughtered and the advance money is then deducted and the balance paid to the farmer.

The grand finale will be on March 25 and the prizes will include 20 heifers, a bull and consolation prizes in the form of digital cattle scales, generators and branding ovens.