MATHATHA TSEDU | Foot and mouth disease hits blacks as well as whites

John Steenhuisen, the outgoing leader of the DA and minister of agriculture, says he has found a new mission in life: fighting the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) that is decimating the cattle farming industry.

This column is not about the politics of the DA and whether Steenhuisen was pushed. Or indeed that he jumped on his own, after a Damascus moment one night, and saw in his dream the plight of the farmers.

As someone who dabbles in very small scale farming, I am grateful that, for whatever reason, the minister has unshackled himself from the rigors of political office and its machinations and will henceforth be available 24/7 to help farmers eradicate FMD.

For most black people in particular, the discussion about FMD is something out there, for farmers, and I mean white commercial farmers. It is not something that concerns black people. This is a suicidal approach.

If I use my own experience and observations in the area I farm in Limpopo, I see that of the three major feedlots in Makhado, all white owned, at least one is standing empty now because the farmer cannot get a supply of weaners to grow and sell to abattoirs.

What that means is that the two that still have cattle are the sole suppliers of beef in the area. That automatically shoots up the price of cattle to the abattoirs and the price of red meat skyrockets. Where feedlots were selling 500kg weaners at about R60/kg, it is now R72.

The price of meat is rising. Some families have no income because they cannot move their cattle.

This will be felt at the tills. But that is not the only impact. More than 40% of cattle in this country are held in black family holdings. These are held in small quantities but added together they make up that percentage.

These individual owners sell their cattle at auctions to make their living. The FMD outbreak in several areas of Limpopo has led to the prohibition of the movement of cattle without a certificate from the State Veterinarian saying your animals are free of FMD.

To get that certificate, the State Vet must drive out to your place and inspect your animals and take blood samples for analysis. The minimum waiting period for the laboratory results is 14 days. The waiting period for the vet to pitch up in the first place is indeterminable. The few that are there are stretched.

A cattle auctioneer told me this week that there has not been any auction in the Vhembe district since December 2. The big guys can survive and thrive, for a while, until they too run out of stock.

The little guy who needed to sell his two animals to send a kid or two to school does not have that luxury. They sit with their animals and hope some local dies or there is a wedding and someone comes knocking for an animal to slaughter on the spot.

Just as Rand Water needs time for the reservoirs to fill up for pressure to build up once there is a water outage, so too with the beef industry. It is a conveyor belt from the breeder to the auction, to the feedlot, to the abattoir, to the butchery and, finally, into the pot. Once that chain is broken, it will take time to get that rhythm back.

Government has sourced millions of doses of the FMD vaccine and has decided that all cattle in this country shall be vaccinated through a government controlled campaign. Government is afraid that if this process was opened to private operators it might disadvantage the small black farmers.

However, given the lethargy of government bureaucracy, the vaccination campaign is moving slowly. Hence the outrage of commercial farmers that Steenhuisen does not understand the exigency of the situation and is killing their businesses. They want to be allowed to vaccinate their animals as they do with other diseases.

This is a serious situation, the feedlot owner outside Makhado who has no cattle has laid off his workers until the situation improves. The price of meat is rising. Some families have no income because they cannot move their cattle. The big guys such as Karan Beef who export millions of tons are suffering just as much.

This is what Steenhuisen must solve quickly. And for many consumers who think FMD is a problem for white commercial farmers, the blinking green figures at the till will very soon remind you that it is your problem too.