04 Mar 2025

As a move to address high number of collapsing youth funded livestock keeping projects, the Department of Youth engaged Department of Veterinary services to train the youth on livestock management.

A veterinary officer, Mr Kago Nkgageng said recently during a five-day workshop in Letlhakane that they trained three youths on poultry keeping and twenty-two of them on beef production and small stock rearing. He said they trained the youth on a proper way of taking care of livestock through vaccinations for different diseases such as pasteurellosis, deworming, anthrax and quarter evil.

He encouraged young farmers to give the right dosage of vaccination as well as follow the route of administration. They also trained them on a proper way of castrating male animals using different means such as burdizzo, rubber rings or open method of castration.

Before castration, Mr Nkgageng said a farmer should select animals that could be good bulls or rams, and castrate the unwanted ones thereafter. The youth were also capacitated on proper treatment of sick animals and the type of drugs that should be used. Mr Nkgageng said it was crucial to ensure adherence to drugs, observation of withdrawal period and expiry dates of drugs.

He also said sick animals should be reported to the relevant authorities and on time. Young farmers were also encouraged to cut off overgrown hooves as Boteti was sandy and animals developed overgrown hooves.

Mr Nkgageng advised them to use deworming drugs for internal parasites and use various types of dip for external parasites. Common diseases in the district were pasteurellosis, which was more common during wet seasons. Mr Nkgageng said its vaccination should be done at the beginning of the year or whenever there was change of pasture.

Lumpy skin he said was another common disease in the district and was transmitted by biting insects. He stated that they still discovered a lot measles cases at the local abattoir and hotspots were Setoto and Khwee in Zone 5.

Mr Nkgageng added that foot rot was caused by wet kraals and farmers should try by all means to move their animals from wet areas to dry areas. One of the young farmers, who already had a small stock business, Mr Tymon Modori, said they had been experiencing some diseases like pasturella but did not know how to treat them.

He said they were empowered to have more understanding on treatment of small stock diseases. Mr Modori said they were motivated to establish a good marketing strategy for their farming businesses.

Another young farmer, Mr Obakeng Modukulwane, said the workshop capacitated them with skills to elevate their farming business. He said they were also empowered with skills on how they could prevent various diseases such as heart water. ENDS