Seasons reflect variations in development, body size and weight for the cattle in this study. Modest framed animals, have low feed intake and, consequently, decrease skeletal development [127] than nearby crossbreds. Hence the opportunities for utilizing indigenous beef cattle breeds are that they’re drought resistant and they survive within the organic pastures often below limited forage and therefore they must be conserved. Prevalence of ailments and parasites In Southern Africa, diseases are a major constraint to livestockproduction [48,61,62]. Animal well being challenges are barriers to trade in Acumapimod web Livestock and their goods, whilst specific illnesses reduce production and raise morbidity and mortality [16,48]. These illnesses include anthrax, foot and mouth disease, black-leg and contagious abortion. The outbreaks of such ailments in Southern Africa could be a threat to the smallholder cattle producers who do not have medicine and right disease manage infrastructure [61,62]. In addition, movement of cattle and their by-products are hard to monitor inside the smallholder areas. The effects of endo- and ecto-parasites are mainly high mortalities, dry season weight loss which lessen fertility by way of nutrition induced strain [48]. This has unfavorable economic implications in controlling the effects of ailments [128] and productivity implications as 70 of calves are born PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20007372 during the dry season [129]. Studies by [130] and [120] cited smallholder herd mortality rate as higher as 18 , with disease accounting for 60 of herd mortality for smallholder cattle in Masvingo district [131]. One of the most widespread diseases reported by farmers are cowdriosis and babesiosis [120, 131]. The predicament is worsened by the unavailability and high price of drugs [132] and inadequate veterinary officials [16]. A survey by [133] has shown that the majority of the farmers raising cattle are rarely visited by veterinary officials serve for get in touch with using the dip attendants through dipping days. The farmers rarely use drugs to treat their animals as they’ve restricted access to veterinary care in terms of assistance solutions, information regarding the prevention and treatment of livestock illnesses, and preventive and therapeutic veterinary medicines [60]. The concerned farmers depend on the use of regular medicines to combat the constraint of nematodes, ticks and tick borne diseases [117,133,95]. The epidemiology, burdens and susceptibility to parasites and diseases in distinct classes and strains of livestock require study [134,118]. Parasites with massive impacts on growth and mortality, for example tapeworm, needs to be prioritised within the investigation efforts [135]. Inexpensive techniques of controlling parasites, including the usage of ethno-veterinary medicines should also be evaluated to complement the traditional manage approaches [136] as they are able to offer low-cost wellness care for very simple animal wellness problems [137]. It’s consequently important to conserve and use local adapted beef cattle breeds that are resistant to local diseases and parasites. Poor marketing and advertising management Livestock marketing, in most smallholder areas, is poor and characterised by absent or ill-functioning markets [138]. A baseline study by the International Crop Study Institute in Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) revealed lack of organised marketing of beef cattle in Zimbabwe smallholder areas [130]. Smallholder farmers resort to the informal way of marketing and advertising their cattle where pricing is primarily based on an arbitrary scale, with reference to visual assessment o.