@SteemFarm-Market Visit To @Prof1 Grasscutters Farm

This is our first visitation post of farmers farm as we included to one of the activities we would embark on to promote our various farmers and their farms.

Today we were able to visit one of Grasscutters Farm in Ghana - @Prof1 Grasscutters Farm. It a new farm business he has set to promote agribusiness in the community and to supplement livelihood at his Community. Due to this he began with only 6 Grasscutters with 5 being females and 1 male. The 1 male would be servicing/mating/crossing all the 5 females.

Grasscutters are Non-ruminant herbivore which normally depend on grassess, tubers and other grains as their feed. Upon our visit we saw some maize grains that have been provided with the Grasscutters in their feeding trough. Though Grasscutters prefer moving in groups but due to overcrowd in their pens or cage, Prof decided to divide their cages in unit or sections to pave way for enough ventilation. There are two sets of Grasscutters cages well fenced with wire-mesh and the floor being provided with wood shavings and saw-dust.

Though Grasscutters are very active during the day but they are mostly norturnal animals which on grassess mostly at night and relax their bodies during the day. They are very sensitive to light, so their cages are sometimes not provided with light source. They see best when there isn't light meaning their eyes reflect light. So their rooms where the cages have been placed were very dark when we entered, we had to switch our mobile phone light in order to see them. One bulb was there for the farm to switch on when ever he enters to feed them.

Upon our further interview with Prof, the animal is highly prolific such that at one parturition, the Grasscutter can give birth to 6 to 12 offsprings. This also depends on the right feeding and great care.

Grasscutters as aren't common over here in Ghana upon our further interview. Since their carcass are rich in protein devoid of too much fat deposit at their skin. Because of the lots of grasses intake they are very nutritious for us to take. They are also not common due to the hunting with guns in the bush. Statistics shows that if care isn't taken they can go extinct from the planet that is why we encourage more farmers to venture into Grasscutters production.

During our interview, even though feedings isn't much difficult but it labour intensive since one needs to get a labourer committed to provide forage from bush especially the fresh green grasses to feed the Grasscutters. However, during drying seasons, most grasses die and the farmers have to depend mostly on the grains like wheat, maizes and rice. They also feed on cassava and other peels from our tubers.

One of the major factor of their difficulty in breeding is the skills or technical know how. We need experts to monitor them and treat them well. In this case, a veterinary officers have to invited to monitor their health status and all that.

Since it is a new farm, we could not bother Prof with much interview but from time to time we would visit the farm to collect data of the stages in growth, birth and health conditions. We then ended our interview here and hoping to take the next actions.