RESEARCH WORK
Socioeconomic and technological characterization of sheep production in Ciego de Ávila, central region of Cuba (Part I)
Ángela Borroto1, R. Pérez Carmenate1, C. A. Mazorra2, Anisia Pérez Carmenate3, Mireisy Barrabí1 y Águeda C. Arencibia1
1Centro de Investigaciones en Bioalimentos (CIBA).
Carretera a Patria km 1½, Carlos Len, Morón, Ciego de Ávila, Cuba
2Universidad de Ciego de Ávila (UNICA), Cuba
3Delegación Provincial del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente (CITMA CA),
Ciego de Ávila, Cuba
E-mail: aborroto@ciba.fica.inf.cu
ABSTRACT
In order to characterize sheep production systems in Ciego de Ávila from the socioeconomic and technological point of view, 6, 13 and 11 farms of private farmers associated to credit and services cooperatives (CCS) were surveyed in the Baraguá, Ciego de Ávila and Ciro Redondo municipalities, respectively. The socioeconomic and technological factors that limited the increase of their productions were identified, as well as the typologies of the existing systems, the socioeconomic aspects, the infrastructure, technological capacities and characteristics of the human potential linked to their animal production. The results indicated that sheep production was developed as an alternative to support meat farm consumption and family economy, with predominance of the commercial Creole Pelibuey breed. The health situation of those rearings was acceptable, the extensive management system prevailing, with continuous grazing on low quality natural pastures and integral herds of 20-40 sheep for Baraguá and Ciro Redondo, and up to 20 sheep in Ciego de Ávila. The sales by agreements to the Small Animals Enterprise were lower than the ones expected, with an average live weight close to 30 kg, and the surveyed farmers received little attention by associations and institutions fit to train and/or provide technical assistance.
Key words: Animal production, rural development, sheep.
INTRODUCTION
In order to counteract the direct or indirect negative impacts exerted on the population by the high prices of animal protein, it is necessary to increase the productive efficiency of herds through technology transference, in which the farmer's training plays an important role for an accurate adoption policy.
Although the sheep species is acknowledged for its adaptive capacity and potential to turn a wide range of feeding products of limited nutritional value into meat, this has not been complemented with neither the import of its «culture» in its countries of origin nor the knowledge of how to raise them successfully, based on the available local resources (Sánchez, 1999).
Thus, Berrio (2008) stated that the Eastern, Central and Western regions of Cuba possess 59,7; 22,7 and 17,6% of the sheep heads, respectively; this allowed meat production to increase in 27%, which could have been higher if the used systems would not have had a negative influence, which prevented the herds from expressing their genetic potential.
Thus, the objective of this work was to characterize the sheep production systems in Ciego de Ávila from the socioeconomic and technological point of view.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
During 2007, 30 private sheep producers associated to credits and services cooperatives (CCS) were visited, six from the Baraguá municipality, 13 from Ciego de Ávila and 11 from Ciro Redondo, according to the census of the Small Animals Enterprise (EGAME), to which surveys were applied at farm level and in their respective CCS.
The surveys were elaborated following the elements established by the diagnosis-guide of the Institute of Animal Science (1999), with the insertion of technological, economic, environmental and social indicators for backyards or farms, suggested by Viera (1995) and Sanginés et al. (2000), and adjusted for the sheep species.
The research was conducted with a system approach (Borel et al., 1982; Argel et al., 1993), in which characterization the following were identified at farm or farmer level: socioeconomic aspects, infrastructure, technological capacities and human potential related to sheep production, all of which allowed identifying the main difficulties that limited the species rearing, which were rectifiable by proposing training topics.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The studied municipalities have plain topography. Baraguá is located at the southeastern Ciego de Ávila province; while Ciego de Ávila and Ciro Redondo are at the center and north, respectively. Their economy is supported by the state and private livestock production of the communities, towns and villages, which are organized into circumscriptions and popular councils, for their administration.
The general aspects about sheep producers in the three municipalities are shown in table 1.
The Baraguá municipality was proven to be the one with more tradition to develop sheep rearing (17 years of experience); the municipality that was most recently incorporated to the activity was Ciego de Ávila, with barely five years, and Ciro Redondo had an intermediate position between both; likewise, in the three municipalities the gender of the farm owner was masculine.
When the causes of the rearing of this species were analyzed, in Baraguá the influence was indistinctly observed in tradition, use as family alternative and economic need; however, in Ciego de Ávila (capital of the province) sheep rearing prevailed mainly as economic alternative, and in Ciro Redondo the economic and family need were combined; in the last one the sheep owners were farmers.
The average age of producers in the three municipalities was lower than 60 years in more than 80% of the surveyed people. Ninth grade (high or technical school) prevailed, which indicated that there was an adequate instruction level to assimilate a training process about the sheep species.
All producers were known to associate sheep rearing with others and each municipality had its particularities. In Baraguá the association with beef/dairy cattle prevailed, followed by Ciego de Ávila with the same preference, but to a lesser extent and aiming more at milk production; while in Ciro Redondo the association with poultry was preferred (specifically chicken).
Table 2 shows the main characteristics of sheep herds in the studied municipalities.
The total head number in the herd oscillated between 21 and 40 for Baraguá and Ciro Redondo, and it was lower for Ciego de Ávila; in all cases the age of the herds was between 2,3 and 4 years old.
The ram:ewe ratio was lower than 1:15 for Ciro Redondo and Ciego de Ávila, unlike Baraguá, where this aspect was more efficiently managed. In this regard, Pérez et al. (2002) and Perón (2009) indicated that in the Cuban private herds the adequate ram:ewe ratio is 1:20, because the natural or free mating is used as reproductive system, managed in unique herds, with a completely seasonal reproduction, which prevents a more efficient use of the ram. In all the surveyed farms 1,5-2,2-year-old rams (medium males) were used, which according to Pérez et al. (2002) is adequate, rotating them every 1,3-1,6 years in order to prevent consanguinity.
On the other hand, the prevailing breed in the three municipalities was Commercial Pelibuey, renown for its precocity, prolificacy, rusticity, resistance to diseases and difficult feeding conditions, although in the herds from Baraguá there is crossing with the Suffolk breed as a result of its introduction in previous years.
In these three municipalities sheep rearing was made in order to obtain meat, not to commercialize the breeding stock, and the external aspect of the dam was the prevailing criterion for their possible selection, although the lamb size and parturition type were also indistinctly considered. Nevertheless, the observation of hip width, well implanted udders, verticality of the vulva with regards to the body, good development or body condition (2,5-3,5 in a scale of 5) and the absence of defects (in the udder and more than two teats) were not used as criteria for their culling out (sale or slaughter) from the herd, as suggested by Perón (2009).
The feeding basis that was used in the sheep herds of these municipalities depended on the available resources in each locality (table 3).
The feeding system used in the three municipalities was the extensive one and it was basically supported on the continuous grazing of natural low-quality species, on natural fertility soils, with low organic matter contents and deficient internal drainage (Urquiza et al., 2002). In Ciego de Ávila and Ciro Redondo, grazing included roads, because sheep owners did not always have lands destined only to that species.
It was also observed that only in Ciro Redondo there was a piece of equipment that allowed processing the potentially available roughages; this supplementation was limitedly included with other resources of the territory and/or farm in the dry season, for which the animals did not cover their requirements; the deficit of feedstuffs in the paddocks and the high energy expenses due to grazing influenced this. However, there is a potential of harvest byproducts and residues (sugarcane and other forage plants, roots and tubers and grains) which from the design of integral strategies at farm level, according to the demands of the species owned by each farmer, could change the current panorama of that feeding basis.
In the Baraguá municipality there are farmers with more than 20 ha of land, which would allow, from a rearrangement of their productions, having areas aimed at sheep development. Ciro Redondo and Ciego de Ávila, with very little or no land, are more limited to sustainably organize their feeding basis.
The basic characteristics of the facilities dedicated to sheep are shown in table 4.
In little more than 80% of the sheep farms there was minimum infrastructure which allowed protecting the herd from solar radiation and direct rain; those facilities were characterized by their rusticity degree, which was higher in Ciego de Ávila and lower in Ciro Redondo and Baraguá.
Shed orientation did not constitute an important element for sheep producers, because although the N-S position is the recommended one in the North hemisphere (Mazorra et al., 2008) to guarantee the beneficial effects of solar incidence and maintain floor hygiene, it was not taken into consideration by producers and increased the health affectation in the stock.
Table 5 shows the aspects related to the health and hygiene of sheep herds in the studied municipalities.
Little more than 50% of the farmers practiced some cleaning of their sheds, although daily sweeping and gathering was performed in only 1-3% in the evaluated municipalities. These fresh residues were used as organic matter source directly on the soil in 60-66% of the farms; only in Ciro Redondo did they receive a previous treatment, which proved that there was limited culture in this sense, because their use efficiency is low in the areas where they are thus applied.
The hygiene situation of sheep farms in the municipalities was acceptable, in spite of not having a real availability of such products as calcium carbonate (lime) or formaldehyde (formol), of proven efficacy for those purposes. This could endanger the hygiene and health of the sheep stock, and explains the high parasite incidence (50-83%) declared by farmers, with emphasis on endoparasites.
In addition, the little stability in the availability of conventional antiparasitics and the limited knowledge to use alternative medicine explained why only between 60 and 66% of the sheep received antiparasitic treatment annually; for that purpose conventional products were used, with little use of green medicine and only in a healing way in the Baraguá municipality, where the tea of guava leaves is used against diarrhea.
The sheep farms in Baraguá, with bigger herds, annually slaughtered a double number of heads as compared to the other municipalities, and in addition, the contracting with the EGAME was used in 75 % of those farms that sold their sheep to be slaughtered. Nevertheless, although in Ciro Redondo 60% of the farms had contracts, this contributed lower numbers of heads to be slaughtered, very similar to the ones reached by Ciego de Ávila, where none of the evaluated farms did contracting as a practice to sell the sheep that were annually slaughtered for meat (table 6).
In the three municipalities, among the advantages of this rearing referred by farmers, the following stand out: the little investment demanded by the species, its rusticity, the economic aspects and the possibility of using their productions for family consumption.
The sale prices used by those farms in the period varied between 12,48 and 13,67 pesos kg-1, were slightly lower in Ciro Redondo as compared to Ciego de Ávila, and were close to the indications of Act 148 of the Ministry of Justice (2008); yet the slaughter weight in Ciego de Ávila was the only one that reached the indications in that Act, and the worst situation occurred in Baraguá, all of which limits the potential carcass yield in that species (Perón, 2009).
On the other hand, in the diagnosis made in the farms of sheep producers (table 7) the Cuban Association of Animal Production (ACPA) was acknowledged as an important factor for their information level by only 60% of the surveyed persons. It was also proven that no exchange events or workshops have been organized in the municipalities; only 17 and 14% of the farmers from Ciro Redondo and Ciego de Ávila have received any training about the species, although more than 90% of the surveyed farmers are interested in participating in training programs.
Finally, most farmers do not acknowledge the application of science and technology as an alternative for change regarding farm productivity and efficiency. The technical assistance through the EGAME, the Institute of Veterinary Medicine and the Bank of Credit and Services was valued as positive by only 34 and 60% of the surveyed people in the Ciro Redondo and Baraguá municipalities, respectively.
This diagnosis showed the limited attention received by sheep producers until now, which is a reflection of the low efficiency values regarding the growth of the species in the Ciego de Ávila province.
The results showed that the main socioeconomic and technological factors that limit the increase of sheep production in the municipalities of the Ciego de Ávila province are the following:
