http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/231209/south_africa___improving_cattle_breeds_for__years_and_more.aspx

or the original article 23 Dec 2009:

http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/index.php?p[IGcms_nodes][IGcms_nodesUID]=46572238bcc759ca9482f7297d66a568



South Africa - Improving cattle breeds for 100 years and more
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It seems that, as far back as the 19th century, the old debate between supporters of indigenous veld 
reared cattle and the improved breeds started to rage. Annelie Coleman recounts the story of Stanley 
Portal Hyatt who promoted Mashona cattle over colonial Cape oxen.

The debate between the proponents of the indigenous veld-reared cattle and the so-called improved breeds 
seems to have been going on for a very long time. As far back as the 19th century, Rhodesian transport 
rider Stanley Portal Hyatt's book The Old Transport Road caused quite a stir among the transport-riding 
fraternity in Bulawayo. He advocated the use of the indigenous Mashona cattle as trek oxen instead of 
the large-framed Cape oxen that were traditionally used. He referred to the hardiness of his indigenous 
spans compared to the Cape oxen, the feeding habits and feed conversion of the Mashona, their resistance 
to disease, mild temperament and overall profitability. The same arguments are still used today by 
cattlemen such as Hyatt's fellow countryman and international cattle consultant Johann Zietsman, who 
calls the indigenous African cattle breeds Mashona, Afrikaner, Nguni and Angoni genetic treasures.

Hyatt had travelled almost as far as the Mozambican border when he bought his initial 16 young Mashona 
cattle. They cost us 64 pounds 10 shillings in cash. True, most of them were very small, at least judged 
by the standard of the ordinary colonial trek-ox, but they were all clean and well-built, and none did 
not ultimately develop into a fine beast. Three years later, I could have sold them a dozen times over 
for 400 pounds, he wrote. A full-size 18ft (5,5m) wagon would have been too heavy for the little oxen. 
Even a 16ft (5m) mule wagon would have been too heavy, so Hyatt bought a light, 14ft (4,3m) donkey wagon 
and adapted it for oxen. Wagons have gone up in price since the days of the Rinderpest, and I had to 
pay 25 pounds for mine, he wrote. Hyatt's transport riding didn't have an illustrious start, and he 
never forgot the derision from his fellow countrymen. It was not a very encouraging start, especially 
as all the colonials and Afrikaners came down to the canteen, and, leaning over the rail, jeered at 
the home-born man. Later on, when I had made a success, a good many of them had to 
swallow their words.

Impressive feeding habits
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Even Hyatt's driver, Amous, was taken with the little oxen. He was especially impressed by the Mashonas 
feeding habits. Have you noticed how quickly they fed? How, instead of doing as the great, foolish 
colonial oxen did, walking about all the time, cropping a mouthful here, a mouthful there, they found 
a little patch of good grass and finished it? They were soon full, then they could lie down, and rest, 
and chew the cud. They also kept condition when the big colonial oxen were too thin to trek. Hyatt 
knew all his spans by name. His favourites were Appel, Dudmaaker, Fransman and a few others, but not 
one of them could hold a candle to Biffel, the left-hind bullock. Biffel was different, he wrote. He 
was the biggest of those we bought during our first trip to the east. If you went up to him, he would 
stand whilst you scratched his ears or put your arm around his neck.

Disease-resistance
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Although he believed the Mashonas to be resistant to disease, the animals did suffer from ailments such 
as lung, gall and spleen sickness. Gall sickness was a great worry to Hyatt, until an old boer taught 
him how to treat it. Half a wine-glassful of hydrochloric acid in a whiskey bottle of water - the remedy 
was as simple as it was effective. Lung sickness was treated by a very crude form of inoculation. You 
took some of the horrible yellow virus out of a dead beast, soaked some twine in it, then, with a sail 
needle, drew that twine through one if the lower joints of your animals tails. There was no cure for 
spleen sickness.

Sturdy and hardy
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All true Mashona cattle are sturdy, short in the legs and long in the body, according to Hyatt. He 
bought every beast he could get at a reasonable price. However, the showy young bulls, with the big 
dewlaps and small hindquarters were sent to the butcher. His animals were hard as nails, always in 
peak condition, even when the grass was at its worst.

African Coast Fever
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Hyatt trekked the length and breadth of then Rhodesia for nearly seven years, making a fortune with 
his spans of Mashona that he loved so dearly. But the good times didnt last, all because of Cecil John 
Rhodes and African Coast Fever. Rhodes had imported some cattle from Australia. They landed at Beira 
in Mozambique and were allowed to mix with the local cattle, exposing them to the disease, which broke 
out as soon as Rhodes's herd reached Umtali (Mutare). The Rhodesian Chartered Companys government was 
bombarded with requests and petitions to destroy any, and every other beast that came into contact 
with the dead cattle, to stamp out the plague at the start.

These pleas fell on deaf ears, and, said Hyatt, The reason was obvious. Rhodes had just died and to 
admit the existence of a new cattle disease would have sent down Rhodesian shares. Some years later 
he wrote: Bitter? I was literally savage then, and even now, I have not forgotten. I suppose that, 
in one way or another, we owned some 6,000 pounds worth of property when the disease broke out. A few 
months later, we were only just able to pay our fares out of the miserable country.

Hyatt returned to the UK, a bitter and devastated man. He had gone to Africa at the age of 19 and died 
at 37, financial ruin his reward for years of toil. 


Sources: 
The Old Transport Road, by Stanley Portal Hyatt
Books of Rhodesia Publishing Co. (PVT) LTD, 
Rhodesian Reprint Library, 
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.