03 Apr 2016

The Ministry of Agriculture from 2013 to 2015 embarked on a nation wide campaign to link bolus to analogue ear tags.

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ralotsia said 2 187 854 animals were ear tagged during the campaign to move away from bolus to ear tag based system of identifying cattle.

He said the use of bolus for identification has been phased out and that the next issue was for farmers to purchase digital combination tags at livestock advisory centres and tag their cattle.

The minister also noted that to date, 501 298 tags have been sold to farmers who have tagged 274 856 cattle and that 80 per cent of the national herd was identified and could be sold to markets to avoid drought.

Nata-Gweta MP, Mr Polson Majaga had asked if the minister would consider a nation wide campaign to help farmers to insert bolus and ear tags on their cattle to enable them to sell their cattle to Botswana Meat Commission in order to escape the coming drought. Ends