Beef Cattle Production

Gbogbo ọrọ náà

Drive out of any northern Nigerian town at dawn and you will meet them: long lines of cattle moving behind a herdsman, dust rising off the road as the animals head to whatever pasture the season has left standing. That single picture is Nigeria's beef industry in miniature, still built mainly on herding rather than on the fenced ranches and feedlots that supply beef in many other countries. Cattle move because the grass does not stay put and because a wide belt of the country remains too infested with tsetse fly for a Zebu-type animal to survive.

In this lesson you will meet the three breeds behind Nigerian beef, White Fulani, Sokoto Gudali and Muturu, and see how each breed's build fits the land it is kept on. You will compare the extensive, ranching and feedlot systems that turn a growing animal into marketable beef, work through the management and cost calculations examiners set on this topic, and learn the factors, disease chief among them, that hold Nigerian beef production back from its full potential.

Ebumnobi

  1. State the common breeds of beef cattle reared in Nigeria
  2. Explain the systems of beef cattle production
  3. Explain the management practices in beef cattle production
  4. Explain the factors affecting beef production in Nigeria
  5. State the economic importance of beef cattle production

Akọmọ Ojú-ẹkọ

Beef is the most widely eaten red meat in Nigeria, and almost all of it still begins life on communal grazing land rather than a fenced farm. A WAEC candidate who can only recite "cattle give beef" misses the syllabus entirely. The real content is the chain that gets an animal from a calf on open range to a carcass in a market stall: which breed is used, which system rears it, how it is managed along the way, and which obstacles, mainly disease and land pressure, decide whether that chain runs smoothly or breaks down.

Ayẹwo Ẹkọ

Ekele diri gi maka imecha ihe karịrị na Beef Cattle Production. Ugbu a na ị na-enyochakwa isi echiche na echiche ndị dị mkpa, ọ bụ oge iji nwalee ihe ị ma. Ngwa a na-enye ụdị ajụjụ ọmụmụ dị iche iche emebere iji kwado nghọta gị wee nyere gị aka ịmata otú ị ghọtara ihe ndị a kụziri.

Ị ga-ahụ ngwakọta nke ụdị ajụjụ dị iche iche, gụnyere ajụjụ chọrọ ịhọrọ otu n’ime ọtụtụ azịza, ajụjụ chọrọ mkpirisi azịza, na ajụjụ ede ede. A na-arụpụta ajụjụ ọ bụla nke ọma iji nwalee akụkụ dị iche iche nke ihe ọmụma gị na nkà nke ịtụgharị uche.

Jiri akụkụ a nke nyocha ka ohere iji kụziere ihe ị matara banyere isiokwu ahụ ma chọpụta ebe ọ bụla ị nwere ike ịchọ ọmụmụ ihe ọzọ. Ekwela ka nsogbu ọ bụla ị na-eche ihu mee ka ị daa mba; kama, lee ha anya dị ka ohere maka ịzụlite onwe gị na imeziwanye.

  1. Which of the following beef cattle breeds is small, humpless and strongly trypanotolerant, making it suited to the humid south of Nigeria? A. White Fulani B. Sokoto Gudali C. Muturu D. Friesian Answer: C
  2. The White Fulani (Bunaji) is best described as a: A. Small humpless breed B. Dual-purpose breed with black points and long horns C. Purely dairy breed D. Draught-only breed Answer: B
  3. The traditional system in which cattle herds follow seasonal grazing on open, unfenced land is called: A. Ranching B. Feedlot fattening C. Extensive (transhumant) grazing D. Zero-grazing Answer: C
  4. A steer weighs 240 kg at the start of a feedlot period and 300 kg after 60 days. Its average daily gain is: A. 0.5 kg/day B. 1.0 kg/day C. 1.5 kg/day D. 5.0 kg/day Answer: B
  5. The disease that most limits where large Zebu-type beef cattle can be kept in Nigeria is: A. Newcastle disease B. Trypanosomiasis C. Coccidiosis D. Foot rot Answer: B

Àwọn Ìbéèrè Tó Ti Kọjá

Nna, you dey wonder how past questions for this topic be? Here be some questions about Beef Cattle Production from previous years.

Ajụjụ 1 Ripọtì

(a) State six causes of low egg production in chicken 
(b) Name three parts of the digestive system of pigs. 
(c) Enumerate six ways ways in which cattle production is important in West Africa. 
(d) State five uses of poultry eggs.