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Better Farming Series 11- Cattle Breeding (FAO - INADES, 1977, 63 p.)
	Organizing sales
		(introduction...)
		Farmers' groups

Better Farming Series 11- Cattle Breeding (FAO - INADES, 1977, 63 p.)

Organizing sales

To earn more money, it is not enough to work well, you must also sell well.

A farmer should think carefully to decide:

· When to sell an animal

· You should sell sterile cows which do not produce calves. You should feed them well for several months and sell them when they are really fat.

· You should sell a cow before it is too old. If you wait too long before selling, maybe you will get one more calf, but the cow will be too old to fetch a good price. By keeping a cow that is too old, you lose more money than you can earn from the calf she may produce.

· You should sell oxen as soon as they no longer gain weight.
It is useless to keep them for 5 or 6 years.
Sell oxen at 4 years.
If you keep them longer, the ox eats food that would have enabled you to raise another animal.

· Sell some animals at the end of the rainy season. Then you will be able to feed the herd well in the dry season (see page 101.

· You know when meat is bought at a high price, for example, at festivals and at the end of the dry season. Organize your breeding so as to have animals for sale at that time.

· Where to sell animals and milk

Should animals be sold in the village, at the market, in the town?

Where will you earn most?

A modern farmer should know how to work out what is the cost of taking the animals from the village to the town if he wants to know where to sell his animals.

· How to sell animals

A farmer can sell

· for slaughter, for meat, when his animals are really fat.

· for breeding

If he has fine young bulls of a good breed, of a good family, well selected, they can be sold at a higher price.

· for fattening

If he has too many young calves and not enough grass to feed his animals he can sell some calves to another farmer who will fatten them.

A farmer should think before selling.

Farmers' groups

It is to the advantage of farmers to form groups (see Booklet No. 9, page 31 ) to buy a bull together; to pay a herdsman together; to sell their milk together; to sell their animals together.

Farmers in a group can organize their work better, organize their sales better.

For a group to succeed, it must

· decide the aims of the group in advance;
· settle who is in charge of the group;
· not be too big;
· have members who trust each other.