Gumaa Gabee Free Range Beef Cattle Ranch

Gumaa Gabee Free Range Beef Cattle Ranch

 

Ranch Number: 124

Crush Name: Gumaa Gabee

District: Mahalapye District

Extension Area: Mosolotshane South

Region: Western Sandveld

 

 

The rising African sun as viewed from Gumaa Gabee Cattle Ranch - Xoohabele

Gumaa Gabee is a free range beef cattle ranch located in Xoohabele in the Western Sandveld, of the Central District on the edge of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). The biophysical environment of the ranch is fragile, most natural resources are exhaustible, and the primary resource that cattle are dependent on is finite, therefore the commercial growth and development of the ranch must be accompanied by environmental protection to ensure that development is sustainable economically, socially and physically, not just economically.

The recommended carrying capacity for the Western Sandveld at the time of the original assessment was 600 cattle herd for a ranch that is divided into four (4) paddocks. It is very important that these facts and statistics are taken into account by the ranch management framework as the project seeks to propel Gumaa Gabee’s economic growth to greater heights because economic development is contingent upon the dynamics of nature and resources derived from it.

The first inhabitants of the vast expanse of a flat and featureless terrain with an eclectic mix of dry bushes, shrubs, savannah grasslands and desert that comes alive in the rainy season were the San people (Bushmen) commonly known as Basarwa. Basarwa adapted to the harsh weather of the expanse landscape and survived by hunting game and gathering wild berries and tubes from these pastures. Their excellent hunting skills and nomadic lifestyle has been curtailed by declining game numbers and civilization. Many have assimilated into the predominantly Tswana tribes while a few now live and work on farms in the area. 

The Sandveld provides extensive grazing of chemical free native rangeland pastures. It was the lure of the suitability of the Savannah grass species composition to beef cattle farming that drew Charles to establish his cattle post here in 1978. When in 2003, Charles was allocated a ranch in the area, he made a substantial capital investment in the ranch. Today, Gumaa Gabee beef cattle ranch is a certified Fenced Farm operation which is fully equipped with an all-round parameter fence, five paddocks, two boreholes, four reservoirs,  kraals, cattle crushes, loading ramps, a farm house and servants quarters with ablution facilities. 

In 2011 Charles expressed his wish to scale down his participation in the running of the ranch and invited all his children to come up with proposals for the management of the ranch. This document is in response to that invitation. It attempts to articulate the Legacy Project which seeks to facilitate the integration and alignment of strategic and operational issues through an innovative value-added transformation of the ranch into a dynamic market - oriented farming enterprise. The Legacy Project further seeks to facilitate entrepreneurship and enterprise development through training and mentorship programmes that will institutionalise high performance in livestock production and enhance stakeholders participation in the beef value chain from the ‘farm to the fork’ through innovative marketing techniques. Gumaa Gabee cattle ranch forms the nexus of the Legacy Project. The ranch serves as the production plant of free range beef cattle farming enterprise.