Where’s the beef (part II)

1. In part 1, I wrote about the NFC and its confusing organizational relationship with various parties. Firstly, I must qualify that I am not the expert on the subject matter. Cattle breeding have been in my family circles since early 1900. The last person to run the tradition of cattle rearing was my uncle. After my father early demise in 1978, I was forced to return and stay with my grandparents. For a few years I was involved in the trade. Getting up early in the morning, milking the cows and followed my uncle in his van to distribute milk all over Ipoh.

2. When Pak Lah took over the lead of the nation, farming became the in thing. Everyone wants to go into goat, cattle and fish farming. It was a good effort on the part of the government. The publicity created a lot of interest among the young and graduates. As for the cattle breeding program, it is meant to reduce our importation of meat. BNM reports indicates that the aim is targeted towards 28% self-sufficiency level for beef production by 2010.The 310 existing livestock smallholders would act as satellite farms to provide cattle to the centre. It is a good objective with a flawed implementation.

3. The aim of the country as far as beef consumption is to reduce dependency on imports and increasing local production by 28% in 2010. My question is what is point of increasing slaughtered animals locally when the livestock itself is imported. Instead of focusing on breeding animals locally, we are buying life animals from Australia and fatten them up with PKC, Napier and molasses and then slaughter them at the end of 120 days. Wouldn’t it be easier and logical to buy an existing farm in Australia and slaughter the animals there and bring them home?

4. NFC records shows that is what exactly is happening. They have imported about 6000 animals in the year 2009.They slaughtered the animals and meat cuts is being sold via various outlets. They are not into breeding business but merely act as a trader. To be a livestock trader and a butcher house you don’t need to operate 1500 acres of farm land. Fima FTP is a well established feedlotter in Pasir Gudang Johor. They operate on a farm of 50 acres.

5. From my observation, the government aim is clear but the methodology is all wrong. Giving a RM250 mill loan to one company will not make it. If the country wants to be self sufficient in meat consumption and reduce importation, the country farmers must breed its own cattle. The Ministry should promote breeding rather then feedlot developments and bring animals from Australia.

6. I would not have spent RM250 mill the way the government did. They gave the loan to one Sdn Bhd company which I believe has a limited lifespan. Going by what has happened to Lambert farm in Gemas, I believe NFC Sdn Bhd will close shop very soon and the RM250 mill will be lost forever. It is someone expensive hobby. By next year, 2010, the country would still be importing livestock and we will not even meet the meagre target of 28% set by MOA.

7. RM250 mill is a lot of money. I would have done it differently. I would identify the successful cattle breeders in the country and assist them with a livestock breeding program. The Vet department has been practicing the “pawah” system a long time where farmers were given heifers and they have to return a replacement animal when the animal has delivered a calf. I would propose a modified pawah system.

8. We need to encourage our breeders. We need to new farmers. Number of farmers in cattle breeding program has dwindled tremendously. Cattle’s farming is not something that you can learn in a class room or the internet. It requires hands on experience of functional farms and not those theoretical farms in the vet training centre.

9. My maths simple. We need to buy Brahman heifers. With RM250 mill, conservatively I would be able to buy 200,000 animals. From true market experience, I would be able to buy 250,000 cows. I would distribute these cows to participating breeders who are willing to train new farmers. The breeders need not return these cows. They only need to return the 2 calf over the period of 4 years. These calves will be given to the new farmers who have proven themselves.

10. Assuming we start we 200,000 animals. In 1.5 years we would have 200,000 new calves. On the assumption that the first generation is 50% females, the F1 animal will mature in 2 years and will start breeding again. At the same time, the original mothers would have delivered new calves. My projected mathematical modelling (with 10% mortality) shows that from the original 200,000 cows, we would have 700,000 cows and 700,000 bulls the beginning of the 10th year.

11. Following my model, we would have a lot of milk, plenty of bulls and a lot of dung which can be reused. Most importantly we are enhancing the wealth of current farmers and at the same time created new breed of farmers. NFC in its current form will only continue the dependency on live animal imports. Though they have 200 breeders Brahman in their farm at the moment, it is still way off. It is bound to fail. Tax payer will be the losers. In the practical sense, NFC focus is not on cattle breeding.

“Where’s the beef video”

References:
(1) National Feedlot Center under investigation
(2) AgroScience Industries business
(3) Bank Negara Paper – Page 5- Info on NFC
(4) Consortium to import cattle- Bernama
(5) NST – Cowgirl Izzana
(6) Ministry of Agriculture website on NFC
(7) Department of Vet Svs- National Feedlot Corp gets RM250mill govt loan

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