“Feeding livestock in Bouillagui and Banzana, Mali”, May 2021

Feeding livestock during the dry season, Bouillagui (Mali​)

Report by Wally Traoré, village delegate of Bouillagui

After the winter, to feed our animals when there is no more grass in the bush, we have a method. After the maize and millet harvest, we choose a day to go to our respective fields to cut the canes and millet stalks, transport them to the house and tie them in equal heaps. Some people put salt in the water to water them and then we put them in the sun for a long time.

When the dry season comes and there is no more grass or hay in the bush, we give this food to our animals: sheep, cows, donkeys so that they can continue to grow.

This is the solution we have found to feed our animals during the dry season.​

Livestock fattening in Banzana (​Mali)

My name is Harouna Fomba from the region and circle of Kayes, in the rural commune of Liberté Dembaya.

My work is breeding which is called “fattening”, buying lean animals, getting them into shape and selling them afterwards. At a certain time, during the dry season, it is difficult to get natural fodder, and we also have many bush fires. To compensate for this, we stock up for the dry season months. The products that we grow during the rainy season, such as fonio, after harvesting and removing what is intended for our consumption, the residues that come out serve as a reserve that we store here for the animals.

This is bran, we collect the bran that the women produce while cooking and also the bran from the mill for our animals. In the other room we have millet residues and grass, on the roof we have groundnut stalks and leaves, all this feeds our animals during the period when it is difficult to have grass outside, during the dry season, in order to fatten them quickly. We sprinkle this feed with salt, and often we buy bags of oilcake (industrial feed), which we add to their diet.

These are the feeds we have here, the residues from our crops that we store for the difficult periods.