Deal saves struggling locally-owned cattle ranch

The National Business

THE deteriorating locally-owned White Bull Cattle (WBC) ranch in Wampar local level government (LLG), Huon Gulf, Morobe, can overhaul its operations following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Livestock Development Corporation Ltd (LDC) for funding support.
Under the MoU, LDC will allocate K100,000 to support the project.
A cheque for K50,000 was also presented by Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) secretary Daniel Kombuk to WBC owner Jonathan Joel last month.
The partnership paved way for the ranch business to participate in the Government’s agriculture intervention programme under the LDC.
A total of K4 million has been allocated under LDC to run the intervention programme in partnership with existing smallholder cattle farmers and another K1 million was specially allocated to support small livestock such as goats, sheep, pigs and poultry projects across PNG.
This agreement also requires that LCD provide amenities including:

  • Technical support;
  • Train employees in cattle husbandry and general herd management;
  • Infrastructure support;
  • Design and install water reticulation systems and to improve pastures; and,
  • Breed improvement (introducing new bloodlines through natural mating and proven artificial insemination technology.

Under the agreement, WBC will:

  • Supply 20 per cent of all new droppings on the ranch to be given to LDC from 2021 onwards as repayment for capital injection by LDC;
  • Brand all calves earmarked for LDC with the “LDC” brand;
  • Allow LDC to do annual stock take in the presence of WBC staff;
  • Allow LDC to conduct on site research and trials in beef production in the interest of the State; and,
  • Make available local staff for upskilling and capacity building.

There are now 150 head of cattle and 20 horses on the ranch.
LDC managing director Terry Koim said one of the key points of the intervention was that the funds were not free handouts from the Government to compensate existing farmers or “paper farmers” as previous years.
He said the current arrangement underscored a major paradigm shift in government policy direction in which specific partnerships were created as conduits through which public funds were channelled directly to struggling smallholder cattle farmers, who for decades, had held the fort in the beef cattle industry with little to no government support.
Koim said when the repayment was completed, further assistance by Government would be provided as a 50 per cent grant and 50 per cent as repayable to support the national cattle breeding programme as captured under the medium-term development plan III 2018-2022.
He called on other cattle farmers on Markham valley and elsewhere to contact LDC to secure possible assistance that was now available which was specific to livestock projects under the agriculture intervention programme.
Koim said similar arrangements would be done with other smallholder cattle farmers in PNG.