Boran in Zimbabwe

The origin of the Boran in Zimbabwe is attributed to Forrester Estate, a large integrated farming operation near Mvurwi in Mashonaland Central in Zimbabwe. It is a mixed farming enterprise with tobacco growing as its core operation. Tobacco demands long rotations with Katembora Rhodes grass, which is best used by cattle as grazing.

 

For many years Forrester Estate operated a three-way cross between Afrikaner, Aberdeen Angus and Simmentaler cattle to produce beef cattle for the local and export markets. In 1988 Rüdiger and Elisabeth von Pezold acquired Forrester Estate and begun investing in the rehabilitation of Forrester, which suffered from a lack of investment for a long time.

 

A new cattle section was set up with one manager responsible for all the cattle on the farm. In this process, all the cattle practices were reviewed and it was actually decided to move away from the old three-way cross, initially replacing the Afrikaner bulls which were no longer performing up to expectation.

 

The choice to use Boran

At the time it was fashionable to change to big-framed European animals, however, the owners and managers of Forrester did not believe this to be the correct route. These large-framed animals were dependent on crop residues and large quantities of maize to get them to size and are extremely management-intensive. After investigating the potential use of other popular breeds, it was decided to travel to Kenya to learn about the Boran breed and its possible application in Zimbabwe.

 

The trip was a great success. Many Kenyan owners hosted the visitors and generously showed them their herds – their pride and joy. One of the stations, Impala Farm, had actually been owned by Elisabeth von Pezold’s uncle, Prince Adolf Schwarzenberg. On their return, the Forrester team decided to go with the Boran breed and began a two-way cross beef herd and pedigree herd. Eventually the cross was replaced by a purebred Boran herd.

 

Introducing the Boran to Zimbabwe

Live animal import and the use of semen were not possible modes of breed transport and so a large scale embryo transplant was the only way forward. Paul Goodwin had previously been involved in an embryo transplant from Kenya to Australia and so arranged the team.

Forrester Estate organised and financed the majority of the project whilst Dr Percy Sharp, an embryologist; Paul Goodwin, a well-known cattle judge; and Jaap Moerman, an artificial breeding technician were also involved.

 

After semen collection, they began with the embryo flushing process with a batch of 100 cows. Out of the 100 cows, 99 were successfully flushed and 630 quality embryos were recovered, frozen and prepared for transfer to Zimbabwe. The relocation took time as the team waited for veterinary clearance, but as soon as clearance came through, the embryos were flown to Zimbabwe and implanted in recipient cows at Forrester Estate. Due to seasonal pressure, all embryos were implanted in one exercise, which affected the success rate. However, approximately 250 pregnancies were successfully achieved from the implants.