IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i8p4388-d536317.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Capitalizing on the Potential of South African Indigenous Beef Cattle Breeds: A Review

Author

Listed:
  • Este Van Marle-Köster

    (Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa)

  • Carina Visser

    (Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa)

  • Judith Sealy

    (Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7701, South Africa)

  • Laurent Frantz

    (Palaeogenomics Group, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Ludwig Maximilian University, D-80539 Munich, Germany
    School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK)

Abstract

Cattle populations arrived in Southern Africa almost 2000 years ago, brought by farming communities migrating southwards. For centuries, cattle have been an integral component of livestock production to meet the animal protein needs of a growing population and they are also important in many cultural and religious events, as repositories of wealth and signifiers of social status. Selection within these cattle populations led to the development of breeds such as the Nguni, Afrikaner and Drakensberger that are well adapted to the local production environment. Genetic information has been generated for most of these populations, providing new insights into their ancestry and indicating moderate levels of diversity and relatively low inbreeding. Indigenous cattle breeds are present in both the well-developed commercial sector as well as the developing South African livestock sector. These breeds have been included in several research studies, mostly focusing on their production and adaptive potential. Genetic improvement of the local cattle populations and breeds, which are often more resilient to local environmental conditions, has the potential to improve the productivity of the small-scale production developing sector and contribute to the alleviation of poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Este Van Marle-Köster & Carina Visser & Judith Sealy & Laurent Frantz, 2021. "Capitalizing on the Potential of South African Indigenous Beef Cattle Breeds: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-10, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:8:p:4388-:d:536317
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4388/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4388/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Greyling, Jan C. & Vink, Nick & Mbaya, Edward, 2015. "South Africa’S Agricultural Sector Twenty Years After Democracy (1994 To 2013)," Professional Agricultural Workers Journal (PAWJ), Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, vol. 3(01), pages 1-15.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sukoluhle Mazwane & Moraka N. Makhura & Mmapatla P. Senyolo, 2022. "Important Policy Parameters for the Development of Inclusive Digital Agriculture: Implications for the Redistributive Land Reform Program in South Africa," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Wendy Geza & Mjabuliseni Simon Cloapas Ngidi & Rob Slotow & Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, 2022. "The Dynamics of Youth Employment and Empowerment in Agriculture and Rural Development in South Africa: A Scoping Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, April.
    3. Jan C. Greyling & Phillip G. Pardey & Senait Senay, 2025. "Agricultural policy and crop location: Long‐run output and spatial climate risk consequences," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 107(1), pages 181-207, January.
    4. Magidi, J. & van Koppen, Barbara & Nhamo, L. & Mpandeli, S. & Slotow, R. & Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe, 2021. "Informing equitable water and food policies through accurate spatial information on irrigated areas in smallholder farming systems," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 1-13(24):36.
    5. Luxon Nhamo & Sylvester Mpandeli & Stanley Liphadzi & Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, 2022. "Securing Land and Water for Food Production through Sustainable Land Reform: A Nexus Planning Perspective," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-15, June.
    6. Oluwabunmi Oluwaseun Popoola & Shehu Folaranmi Gbolahan Yusuf & Nomakhaya Monde, 2020. "Information Sources and Constraints to Climate Change Adaptation amongst Smallholder Farmers in Amathole District Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:8:p:4388-:d:536317. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.