SADC has just ended. Did the rest of the world notice, let alone take heed of its outcome? In the major countries, some lowly civil servant, perhaps the odd spook, would have been asked to review the end of the conference statement. The mission statement of SADC is:
“The main objectives of SADC are to achieve development, peace and security, and economic growth, to alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern Africa, and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration, built on democratic principles and equitable and sustainable development.”
As it was being held in one of the most undemocratic countries in the world, where fundamental human rights and freedom of speech are denied, and with the population suffering from abject poverty due to corruption and poor governance, I was surprised not to hear some ‘do good’ NGO or church or human rights organisations raise concerns. Nope. As a curious chap, I decided for the sake of self interest to search the document for keywords and phrases that you would expect to be found in a regional meeting with both economic and governance issues. I copied and pasted the end of the summit statement into a Word document and looked for a few keywords or phrases you would expect to see if any of these essential elements were even discussed. I randomly searched for the following words and phrases: democracy, democratic, health, judiciary, poverty, employment, education, corruption, transparency, human rights, freedom of speech, free and fair. Not once did any of the previous in the summary, with the exception of health in relation to Mpox, appear. No doubt this has been identified, although serious to its sufferers, as another means to milk donor funding. I suppose none of the others were discussed and, therefore, deemed unimportant to SADC in honouring its Mission Statement. Rather, they praised those member nations, including Zimbabwe, for having peaceful elections and elected the host nation's President as the new chairperson. The trouble with this is it is a clear message to the rest of the world that the will of the people, their health, education and employment are not important to this particular group of fat cats. At least my old friend and business acquaintance HH (Hakainde Hichilema), President of Zambia, did not attend, concerned for his safety due to his rebuke of the Zimbabwean election process.
Of interest, during the summit, a large haul of gold was found in a vehicle owned and driven by some Zimbabwean Chinese residents going into Zambia, just a small part of the US$1.5 billion smuggled annually out of Zimbabwe for the benefit of the politically connected in Zimbabwe with no benefit to its people. Many of those involved are ‘rumoured’ to be close acquaintances of the President, now the newly elected head of SADC. I was also told that the buyer of the R8 million Boran bull is involved in gold, but I am unsure if it is in mining or trading. I only presume he had paid taxes on this income before used to purchase the bull, as he was quite happy to flaunt the fact he could pay this amount for a fat mombi.
My last week's ramblings about bulls or bullshit raised more comments than usual. I suppose nearly every commercial farmer in Zimbabwe had cattle at one time or another. The consensus was that it was bullshit, and nearly all my old stud-breeding cattlemen said it was far too fat.
I asked Rozanne what I should write about this week in the context of my life, and she said something funny or at least light. Unfortunately, I had to have a dig at SADC as the whole thing, while not amusing, verges on the absurd in context to the extent of the hypocrisy of its leaders. Interestingly, and not to my surprise, the venue, including the new Parliament buildings, was built and funded by the Chinese and said to be a donation to the people of Zimbabwe. Little doubt there will be lots of strings or should I say, mining concessions and or further Government contracts attached to it.
Getting back to bulls, some of the best and most enjoyable times I had in Zimbabwe were judging cattle at the many shows around the country. As I found during my term at the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), each region had different enterprises and, even in similar climatic regions geographically apart, different production methods. This was often dictated by climate or soil but also by attitude. Actually, this could be found between districts, let alone regions. The farmers differed in many ways, including their lifestyles and aspirations. Some districts were driven by, “If my neighbour has a state-of-the-art machine, I need one or better” syndrome, while others could not give a shit and were proud of their austerity. Despite this, when together at a meeting or gathering, despite voicing small differences, they enjoyed a harmonious life, happy to defend their neighbours and come to their aid when required. To be honest, many survived or established themselves in farming through their neighbours' support.
"The important issues affecting farmers were discussed in the bar after the formal Farmers Association meeting closed." - Will Robinson talking to me by phone this week
I started my judging apprenticeship in earnest, judging the fatstock classes at the Harare show under the tutorship of Charles Mallet as a learner judge. We always had pedigree cattle in Scotland, Aberdeen Angus, Galloway and Shorthorn, doing well in regional pedigree and fatstock shows. We never ventured to the Highland Show if I remember correctly, but my father did win a red rosette at Smithfield Show one year. We also bred and showed Blackface sheep, so as a child in my early years, I spent many hours helping prepare cattle and sheep for some show or other and, during the school holidays, attending and helping showing these animals. I think the next step in my, and I say this without tongue in cheek, gaining limited knowledge in showing cattle was when I worked for Hamish Smith, a top cattleman in pedigree beef, dairy and fatstock cattle. Strangely enough, many of the top breeders of British cattle in Zimbabwe had Scottish roots, while the breeders of Sanga Type, Bos Inducus (Braham mainly) and the continental breeds were much more cosmopolitan, although they also included Scotsmen and women breeders.
From the fatstock ring, I found myself judging Pedigree Herefords, perhaps this was influenced by Hamish Smith and my father-in-law Derek Belinsky, both well-known Hereford breeders. From the show ring, I found myself judging at the National Breed Bull sale and conducting inspections for some other breeds, including continentals. This was the worst job, having to tell a breeder that his animal was disqualified from the sale as it was not up to breed standard or had a confirmation problem. Finally, I found myself doing the interbreeds, which was the highest honour, doing the Harare Show several times, a job generally reserved for international judges.
The rules of being a judge varied from show to show, although the one common one was that you could not visit the cattle lines before judging. The amount of information also varied on the animals from nil to details such as in-calf. Some had very strict rules, such that you could not even enter the showgrounds before judging. In the one year judging at the Trade Fair, in Bulawayo, I was not allowed to stay in a hotel or a friend's house in case I encountered and was influenced by one of the exhibitors before the judging. While basic soundness, conformation, and breed characteristics required are generally well known, in the end, judging cattle is still subjective through the eyes of the particular judge. Every spectator around a cattle show ring is a judge in his own right, and many are happy to inform, if not you, to your face, but to those around him or her, how bad a job you are doing. There can be many types within a breed, and each breeder will always feel you are prejudiced against his ‘type’ if he does not win. It is good to be able to give your reasons for the selection at the end of each class, but this may not placate all the exhibitors. One of my vocal critics, to be honest, his criticism of all judges was Harley Knott and despite being a friend was highly vocal in pointing out my perceived mistakes. He was not adverse in coming into the show ring to point out in detail your errors, the one notable time grabbing a bull's testicles and informing me they were too small, although the actual measurements were to hand. While the judges were up to criticism, the real heroes of the show ring were the stewards who ensured the right cattle, with the right qualifications for being in the class, were adhered to. It's not as easy as you may think. Some more difficult to identify were age in junior classes, the right pregnancy diagnosis for a specific cow and the cattle included in group classes. Often, the query on an animal's eligibility would come from a competing breeder, with the stewards having to verify with little help on the odd occasion from the accused exhibitor. One of the more common statements from the ringside in the junior classes was:
“That breeder must have very tall grass as that animal must have been registered a month or two after birth” - By the ringside when a large animal showing signs of greater age appeared in the junior classes.
As a child, I remember attending the Bunessan Show on Mull, where our senior cattleman, Alex Fraser, judged the cattle. At that time, no pedigrees were exhibited, just commercial cattle unhaltered. In a heifer class, remember Bunessan is a harsh environment, a large animal that looked like a ‘queen’, came into the ring, and Alex threw it out as being overage and not showing female characteristics. The owner thought it was a certainty to win the show championship, not just the class. Bunessan, in those days, was where Gaelic was the home language, and Alex, who hailed from the east coast of Scotland, had no knowledge but was aware the huge uproar that followed was due to his decision. Unfortunately, the steward, a close acquaintance of the exhibitor, did not support Alex, who stood his ground further to confirm his view on its age, the animal could not be mouthed as it was unhaltered. After about an hour, it was eventually agreed to have a team corner and lasso the animal to allow it to be mouthed, which proved Alex was correct. Alex found himself buying his own whisky in the beer tent that evening. Luckily, I never had such an experience, but I witnessed some heated arguments between steward and exhibitor on occasion. I would say the Elsons at the Harare show had the most challenging task due to its size, but for many years, Rob was the senior cattle steward, although his wife June was the more feared.
One of the readers who wrote to me following last week's blog was Selby Black, whose family, including himself, were well-known and reputable Aberdeen Angus, Brahman, Brangus and Simmintela cattle breeders. He sent a picture of a bull he exhibited winning the Gordon Milne Trophy for Interbreeds at the Harare Show, which, in his words, proved that being a good bull in confirmation and performance does not make it necessarily a bull you would want to breed from. I include the picture and his caption for interest and his candour in admitting the bull's poor breeding performance.
"Selby Bar 5 Goldsteel, winner of Gordon Milne trophy and Junior champion interbreed. He was 23 months old and weighed 1057 kg.The bull bred a heap of crap-justifying what Cyclone will do for that good."- Selby Black
The show ring has many detractors, but it allows breeders to show live examples of their herd. It also ensures that the cattle they are breeding are sound, productive animals if home-bred. It's even better if another exhibitor wins with an animal you breed or from a bull you sold. There is general agreement that fat is not conducive to a productive animal in terms of fertility or milk production. Therefore I agree with the consensus that expensive Boran was not just fat, it was far too fat.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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