Zimbabwe born dairy farmer Sean Webster is leading the charge to help the African nation produce more milk to satisfy its strong consumer demand.
To do this, Sean helped set up a dairy farm business back in 2018 called Mafuro Farming, which uses his tried and tested low-cost pasture-based production system.
Sean’s philosophy is to produce lower yields of milk with more cows but at a significant cost reduction.
Today the farm, which has two separate sites, runs a total of 2,500 dairy cows with 1,400 in the main milking herd.
Dairy in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe was once a net exporter of milk and dairy products, producing over 250 million litres of milk per year in the early 1990s peak times.
Through a number of political disasters, including the land grabs by the former late president Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s dairy production fell drastically, but is now on a surge hoping to reach self-sufficiency levels.
The country requires 131 million litres of milk each year to be self-sufficient and is on track to surpass that target by the end of 2025.
During 2023, Zimbabwe produced 99.6 million litres and should hit production of 115 million litres in 2024, when the final figures are tallied up.
Zimbabwe has a total dairy herd of around 60,500 animals, of which 39,800 are milking cows.
However, it is the cost of production, elevated by high feed costs, erratic electricity supply and veterinary medicine costs, that thwarts a profitable dairy business there.
Low-cost pasture-based enterprise
Sean was born in Zimbabwe and grew up on the family’s tobacco farm in Mvuruwi, north of Harare.
Just before the land grabs happened, Sean’s father had sold the farm and leased land back, but the family, being white farmers, had to move to Harare when they were no longer welcome on agricultural land.
After a period travelling around New Zealand where he gained experience milking cows, Sean saw an opportunity to set up a dairy business back in Zimbabwe.
With the aid of the Zimbabwean government who leased land, and the backing of a number of banks, Mafuro Farming was born and is owned by Innscor Africa Ltd., a major food producer in Zimbabwe.
Sean said: “I am the founder and current CEO of Mafuro Farming which was established in 2018 as a pasture-based dairy production business. We currently have 600ha under irrigation on two farms in Zimbabwe; one in Mashonaland and one in Midlands.
“Right now we have a total of 2,500 dairy cattle in our herd across the two farms. There are 1,400 cows milking with an average yield of 18L per cow per day throughout the year. Our butterfat is 4.2% and protein is 3.2%.
“We are breeding a Jersey Holstein cross with an average size of 450kg. I am looking for a smaller framed, hardier animal that has the best feed conversion possible for our environment and business model,” he said.
With the average cost of production in Zimbabwe hovering around US$0.60 per litre, Sean’s low cost business model ensures he makes a profit.
Sean said: “I am chasing lower yields with higher margins with our system. All our cows graze outdoors all year round, on pasture and are semi-free-range. Our fields at Mafuro consist of a blend of perennial pastures, cereals and legumes.
“The cows are moved daily across pastures with the use of temporary electric fences. We can top up the grazing with a concentrate ration depending on season, high energy in winter and high protein in summer.
“Through our pasture-based system we are collecting and storing our liquid cow manure, which is then pumped back onto the fields via our irrigation pivots to use as fertiliser.
“This is a valuable source of nutrients for our soils, which we must look after to ensure the business model works efficiently,” he added.
Heifer calves are kept on the farms as replacements and the bulls are sold or given away to local villagers who need the meat in their diets.
“On both farms we have a compliment of 45 staff, excluding senior management and administration staff. Our milk is sold to ProDairy who pay us between US$0.60 and US$0.65 per litre,” Sean continued.
Sean has invested heavily in his two farms over the years, particularly in the milking machinery.
One farm uses a Waikato 30-point swingover parlour system and the other a Waikato 55-cow rotary system. Both use a milk management system by Afi Milk.
Sean has ambitious plans to expand his business into neighbouring countries that don’t practice the low cost feed model.
He said: “Our system is very competitive and gives us the opportunity to enter those markets. Costs of production are increasing worldwide but we have the business model that can result in higher profits.
“In Zimbabwe, the biggest problems we have currently are the inconsistent supply of power and energy as well as the lack of veterinary products, as most are imported and hard to come by.
“From a financial side, money here is expensive to borrow and the terms are short, making it difficult to start up as dairy, which is usually a long term investment,” he said.
