Exploration & description/Cattle responsibilities

Adult males were involved in purchasing, selling, breeding and animal health in approximately 90% of homesteads. Fewer homesteads reported that they were involved in breeding compared with purchasing or selling cattle, presumably because of reliance on random mating of their cows with bulls in the community. Similarly, only a small proportion responded to the question on feeding indicating that only two fifths or so of homesteads fed supplementary feed.
 

No. of
homesteads
involved in activity

No. of member
categories
involved

Frequency (percentage) of homesteads involved

 

Activity

Adult
males

Adult
females

Boys

Girls

Hired
labour

Purchasing

 152

 172

 135 (89)

 33 (22)

2 (1)

1 (1)

1 (1)

Selling

 144

 159

 126 (88)

 31 (22)

2 (1)

0 (0)

0 (0)

Herding

 154

 187

 64 (42)

 22 (14)

57(37)

2 (1)

 42 (27)

Breeding

 117

 122

 109 (93)

 11 (10)

1 (1)

0 (0)

1 (1)

Feeding

 64

 69

 40 (62)

 7 (11)

 9 (14)

1 (2)

12 (7)

Milking

 139

 159

 59 (42)

 19 (14)

53 (38)

2 (2)

 26 (19)

Making dairy products

 37

 40

 12 (32)

 17 (46)

 5 (14)

2 (5)

 4 (11)

Selling dairy products

 16

 17

 5 (31)

 9 (56)

 2 (12)

0 (0)

1 (6)

Animal health

 154

 174

 137 (89)

 22 (14)

11 (7)

1 (1)

3 (2)

Manufacturing and selling of dairy products was more often done by adult females than males in the few homesteads involved in these activities. Boys were mainly involved in herding and milking. These activities were also often hired out, presumably because boys will often be attending school. Girls were not much involved in the homestead cattle activities.