Farmer's Weekly 21 January 2022

At the end of December 2021, senior Farmer’s Weekly journalist Annelie Coleman sent me a video of a flooded maize land in the Free State. This was a sad anticlimax to an otherwise stellar performance by our farmers throughout 2020 and 2021. According to a recent Farmer’s Weekly online article, the maize crop could be as much as 20% smaller than previously anticipated, due to severe rainfall in the Free State and North West. However, in my first editorial to you on the departure of our editor, Denene Erasmus, I’d like to focus on the sector’s achievements in 2021. South African agriculture has gained much ground over the past two years, due in part to favourable weather conditions, but also to farmers’ business acumen and ability to adapt. The Citrus…

“Worldwide, significant quantities of food are wasted at all points of the supply chain and across all commodities. At the retail level, large quantities of food are wasted due to quality standards that over emphasise appearance. At the agribusiness level, particularly in Africa, inefficient processing and drying, poor storage and insufficient infrastructure are major contributors to food losses. It is estimated that almost one-third of all food produced in the world (and in South Africa too) is never eaten, representing a huge loss of the resources that went into its production. It takes an area the size of China to grow the food that is thrown away every year, while food that goes uneaten accounts for 25% of all global fresh water consumption. If food waste were a country, it would…

This Beef Cattle Production course teaches attendees how to identify and monitor breeding behaviour, as well as pre- and post-partum behaviour. It aims to help attendees gain specific knowledge and skills in the field of animal production, and to teach them how to operate in an animal production environment through implementing sustainable and economically viable production principles. Email AgriSkills Transfer at admin@agriskills.net. CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS AND EXPOS 1 FEBRUARY International Conference on Soil, Plant and Water Science, Lille, France. Email the conference coordinator at info@conferencefora.org. COURSES AND TRAINING 24 JANUARY WSET Level 1 Wine Course, Stellenbosch. Email the Wine Centre at courses@thewinecentre.co.za. 1 FEBRUARY TO 3 MARCH Tracking Enthusiast Course (online). Email Terry Gouws at enquiries@ecotraining.co.za, or phone her on 013 752 2532. 10 TO 15 FEBRUARY Commercial: Mushroom Substrate Design, Cultivation, Marketing and Business Planning (online). Visit mushroomacademy.com, or email registration@mushroomacademy.com. 15 TO…

This article described how to harvest, cut, bundle and store barley, oats and maize crops to provide horses and ponies with feed. The production of grain crops in South Africa is well known in that it applies to the sale of the end products, namely oats, barley and maize, as well as wheat. But three of these grains are also used extensively in feeding horses, so it is important to cover the harvesting of oats, barley and maize as applied to feeding our horses and ponies. THE OLD METHOD In the past, oats and barley always used to be cut by binder, which cut the crops and tied them into small bundles called sheaves. Because they were cut before the crop was fully ripe, these sheaves were put into stooks (small stacks of…

With vulture numbers continually declining, collaborations and multifaceted approaches are becoming more important to safeguard existing populations of these birds. Breeding endangered species in captivity is a conservation tool to protect their genetics and boost dwindling wild populations. Since 2007, VulPro, located in Hartbeespoort, has spearheaded vulture conservation across Africa and has worked throughout the globe on critical vulture research projects. In 2011, VulPro’s Cape vulture breeding programme began with the intention of releasing all parent-reared offspring back into the wild, and it has since grown to include four other African vulture species. Detroit Zoo in Michigan, US, has long championed vulture conservation and education by maintaining African vultures in its collection. After years of planning, permitting and preparation, one lappet-faced vulture and four hooded vultures from the zoo joined the other captive…

The South African mango harvesting season runs from December to end-April, so you’ll be able to find your favourite mangoes on supermarket shelves right through the summer months. Such is the love for its unique flavour that the mango made its way seamlessly with the ancient explorers from Asia to the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Today, they are a popular summer fruit, with perhaps as many as 1 000 varieties worldwide. South Africa grows 15 varieties of mango, mostly in the subtropical regions of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. They are high in vitamins A, C and biotin, as well as the mineral potassium. VIBRANT VARIETIES The Tommy Atkins is an early-season mango, and that first bite of its juicy flesh marks the real start of summer. This fruit is medium to large…