His transformative goat farming journey testifies to this
after he left the comfort in the United Kingdom and returned home to start a
new life.
Today, Mr Mukombe is one of the proudest, leading Boer goat
breeders in the southern region. His pure breed ram, a male breeding goat, can
cost as much as US$1 000 while the females can go as high as US$350.
Recently, it took Mr Mukombe a simple post in a farmers’
social media group that he was selling a Boer goat ram and after 30 minutes a
buyer from Gokwe had made contact and the animal was off the market.
Mr Mukombe runs a successful Boer goat breeding venture in
a plot at Mfazimithi area, Umguza District, and as of yesterday when the
Chronicle caught up with him at his farm he had over 150 Boer goats.
He explained how he left his job as a psychiatric nurse in
the United Kingdom to start farming from scratch.
Mr Mukombe acquired an idle plot after it was repossessed
from the previous owner who failed to make meaningful use of the land,
prompting authorities to take it back and offer it to someone who could
contribute to the Government’s vision of boosting national food security.
“People always ask how we started and my response is that
we kicked off this project with absolutely nothing, that’s about 15 years ago
but started with Matabele goats, which are not a pure breed but are disease
resistant,” he said.
“The problem with most of our communal farmers is that they
don’t run their projects as commercial enterprises.
By profession, I’m a psychiatric nurse and I’ve lived
overseas for years but the idea of working for somebody else didn’t sit well
with me and my family was very supportive when I told them that I wanted to
come back home permanently.
“We started with a few goats, the local indigenous breeds
and encountered a lot of challenges along the way but we kept pushing for about
three years until we ventured into Boer goat breeding because I wanted to set
myself apart from the rest of the farmers in the area.
“I bought 10 Boer goats from South Africa and using the
same lessons I had learnt with the Matabele goats, the project started growing
to where it is now,” explained Mr Mukombe.
Last week, he exhibited at the Bulawayo Agricultural Show,
which runs concurrently with the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair where one of
his Boer rams won a prize.
The knowledge that he gains from the personal experiences,
trials and tribulations of other farmers drive him to better himself. Mr
Mukombe says he has been asked a few times why he would spend US$75 on semen of
a superior Boer goat breed from South Africa.
“Breeding is a never ending process, the reason why I
still, to date, travel to South Africa to buy semen from other superior breeds
is because I always want to improve my herd,” he said.
“My Boer goat breeds might have a big body frame but lack
the amount of meat I want from my pedigree goats so I look for a farmer whose
Boer goat rams can improve my breeds.
“From about 30 females, I select six for artificial
insemination with the semen bought from other breeds like the semen straws I
got from South Africa, which cost no less than R1 500,” he said.
Mr Mukombe’s farm is self-sustainable as he strives to feed
his animals from the stock feed that he grows.
Like a food-secure nation that feeds its people from
reserves accumulated over a number of successive harvests, Mr Mukombe does not
buy stock feed but produces it at the plot.
On a piece of land about three quarters of a hectare, he
has planted maize, sorghum and sunflower, which he would turn into silage so
that his goats are food secure for another two years even in the middle of a
prolonged drought.
Currently, he has silage reserves of about 50 tonnes that
will feed his goats until the end of the year.
“We spent about US$500 to plant the maize, sorghum and
sunflower and I’m talking about the costs of inputs and we will spend another
US$500 to harvest the crops and make silage,” he said.
“The costs of producing silage here at the farm will be far
less than buying stock feed that will feed 150 goats for a year or so.
“Our silage is basically maize mixed with sorghum,
compacted in a pit and preserved with rich nutrients, which we then add a bit
of sunflower to give the Boer goats a balanced diet.
“The crops that we grew will give us another 50 tonnes of
silage, thus saving us a substantial amount of money in stock feed,” he added.
A word of advice for aspiring young farmers by Mr Mukombe
is to start by securing stock feed for Boer goats before even buying the
animals.
“If I was to start this again, I would go for my food
security first. It doesn’t have to be a huge piece of land to grow crops for
silage, just a small field and then buy the goats,” he said.
“Without adequate stock feed, running a Boer goat business
can be challenging, especially given that most young people do not have the
financial capacity to buy tonnes of stock feed every month.” Herald
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