Table of contents for 23 September 2016 in Farmer's Weekly

…is government’s utter incompetence in responding to it. Let’s hope it is indeed incompetence, and not an indication that government simply does not care about the plight of the people. At a recent press conference, the inter-ministerial task team on drought issued an update on the drought’s impact. They said that maize plantings had decreased by 30%, the national cattle herd had been reduced by at least 15%, the cost of staple foods, such as maize, had skyrocketed (according to the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy, the cost of a serving of maize meal in SA had risen by 43,7%) and “about 370 large commercial farmers around the country were at risk of going under due to not being able to service their debts as a result of the…

Since UK residents voted to leave the European Union (EU), many of its trading partners, including South Africa, have been concerned about future exports to the UK. Prof Raymond Parsons from North-West University’s School of Business and Governance said he was worried that South Africa’s trade negotiations with the UK were too fragmented. “We have to make sure that new agreements are inclusive [of all sectors] because we don’t want the government to act unilaterally,” he said. Parsons was a speaker at a recent seminar in Johannesburg at which South Africa’s trade relationship with the UK was debated. Agbiz CEO, Dr John Purchase, said South Africa was already discussing future trade deals with the UK. The National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) was also prioritising the issue. “We need…

In the next decade, Africa will need up to US$400 billion (R5,7 trillion) of investment in food production to meet its needs. This was according to a report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, quoted in a Bloomberg article. The report stated that finance would have to come from public and private sector investment in food production, processing, marketing and transport networks. This was after the El Niño weather cycle caused damage to crop production in many African countries. Dr Flippie Cloete, an agricultural economist at North-West University, told Farmer’s Weekly that Africa was unlikely to attract such significant investment. “Greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) for agro-food sectors is declining,” he said. A greenfield investment is a form of FDI where a parent company builds its operations…

The drought in Limpopo had reached a critical stage and farmers were facing huge losses if it did not rain soon, according to Steven Vermaak, TAU SA northern region chairperson. He said that all grazing in the province had been destroyed and the cattle herd had been cut by 80%. “We’re extremely concerned. We increasingly receive reports of livestock and game succumbing to the extreme conditions. However, we remain on our knees and hope for early rain in the 2016/2017 season,” he said. According to Vermaak, Thabazimbi, Dwaalboom and Ellisras were some of the areas hardest hit. The drought also meant the failure of planted pastures, and farmers were finding it difficult to obtain additional animal feed. Conditions in communal farming areas were extremely poor. “Communal farmers received very little,…

The number of oil and gas exploration applications lodged in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has been far greater than anticipated. This was according to Kwanalu (KZN Agricultural Union) CEO, Sandy La Marque, who was addressing attendees at the union’s annual congress in Pietermaritzburg on 8 September. “There are 9,4 million hectares of land in KZN. Of this, nearly six million hectares are currently under exploration applications. These applications are mostly over agricultural land, so thousands and thousands of farms are under application. I don’t think anyone was prepared for the size and scale of the applications, and the time and resources that will be required to pick up this issue,” La Marque said. Rhino Oil and Gas lodged the first large-scale application for exploration, which covered a 1,5 million-hectare belt of land,…

FARMERS MUST EXHORT THEIR RESPECTIVE INDUSTRIES TO INVEST IN RESEARCH 'Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair’, goes the saying, and it neatly describes how fragile trust is. Trust is crucial to your personal and business future, and you should do your utmost to build and manage it. But unless you can measure it, you cannot really manage it. This is more easily said than done, though, as the degree of trust you or your business engenders is difficult to quantify. However, confidence follows trust, and there are certainly ways and means of measuring this. You could say that the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry measures trust with its Business Confidence Index. Then there’s the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) and the Industrial Development Corporation’s…

GFASA aims to become the grass-fed industry’s voice, but the slow process to secure national definitions for quality indicator claims such as ‘grassfed’, ‘free-range’, and others leaves such claims open to interpretation. “Many of these quality claims do not even approach our association’s minimum standards,” says Adrian. “It’s also a pity that companies using growth promoters are not legally obliged to disclose the fact to the consumer. But the cattleman who does not use anything has to prove his ‘innocence’. “The current meat classification system is based on a system that sees a younger animal as more tender and thus of higher value.” But this is a poor reflection of quality, suggests Adrian. “Despite true quality and nutritional value, a three-year-old grass-fed steer could be classed as Class C in…

Most farmers realise the importance of crop rotation in breaking disease cycles and alleviating farming risks. For wheat farmers in the Southern Cape and Swartland, however, the choice of crops to include in rotation programmes is fairly limited, and often involves only canola, barley or feed crops such as lucerne. Jose de Kock and his cousin, Josias, farm wheat on the farm Klipheuwel, near Napier, and have adopted a rather unconventional crop rotation programme by including cauliflower and broccoli in their rotation system. “My grandfather used a wheat-onion rotation when he farmed. All we did was to include other brassicas, including cauliflower and broccoli,” Jose says. According to Jose, diversifying with cauliflower and broccoli has numerous production benefits, as brassicas not only break the disease cycle associated with intensive production…

The pests that most often affect sweet potatoes are the sweet potato weevil (Cylas formicarius) and sweet potato hawkmoth (Agrius cingulate). The most important field diseases include sweet potato feathery mottle virus and fusarium wilt. • Sweet potato weevil Adult weevils feed on leaves. The larvae tunnel into the tubers and stems. Preventive measures include: • Crop rotation, which helps to reduce the weevil population;. • Earthing-up tubers, which generally reduces infestation; • Removing all tubers at harvest and never using cuttings from volunteers – in other words, from plants emerging in a land where sweet potatoes were planted the previous season; • Burning all infested plants after harvesting; • Using plant cuttings free of weevils or larvae; • Not planting cuttings close to the previous sweet potato crop; • Reducing…

‘THE MF35 IS THE IDEAL MULTI-PURPOSE TRACTOR FOR THE FIRST-TIME OWNER’ As always, the Eston Show boasted an impressive array of farm machinery and tractors. The following caught our eye: 1 Massey Ferguson: bigger is now better In the past, Massey Ferguson tractors sold in this area were generally smaller than the big MF 7614 seen here. However, the market is changing; the quest for greater productivity has seen units from the upper end of the range becoming increasingly popular. The 7614 has an AGCO Power 6,6-litre diesel engine rated at 96kW with torque of 645Nm at 1 500r/min. It is the smallest tractor in the six-cylinder 7600 range. 2 At the other end of the scale “Straightforward, dependable and affordable, the 27kW MF35 is truly the ‘People’s Tractor’,” said…

IT SHOULD DISTRIBUTE THE RIDER’S WEIGHT EVENLY OVER THE HORSE’S BACK The Saddle Research Trust is an international charity that supports scientific research into the influence of saddles on rider safety and the health and function of competition horses. Siobhan Records, a master saddle fitter from the UK, summarised this research during a recent presentation in Pretoria on how to fit a dressage saddle correctly. Badly fitting saddles can cause pain, or even chronic arthritis in the thoraco-lumbar area of a horse’s spinal column. By contrast, a correctly fitted saddle can significantly increase the points achieved in a dressage class by a top competition horse. All saddles are built around a saddle tree. Traditionally, these were carved from beech, but they are now made of laminated wood moulded under pressure,…

Some time ago, Michael from the Midlands Meander in KwaZulu-Natal between Mooi River and Howick, bought a vacant plot and requested that I design a residential home to be constructed on the property. Soon after our initial contact, however, he and his wife found a home that suited their needs, and elected to buy rather than build. Considering the downturn in the economy, buying or building a new home is an excellent investment. About 45 years ago, I built and sold four speculative houses, making a 15% profit on each. EXTENDED-FAMILY, SINGLE KITCHEN UNITS Michael was keen to invest in property, and contacted me again after his purchase to further discuss building on the vacant plot. However, this time he wanted a design for a small complex of units that…

PERMANENT REMOVAL by Alan S Cowell (Jacana, R225) This novel’s ominous title suggests a high-octane, throwback thriller set in South Africa of the 1980s. But Cowell, a New York Times correspondent whose work saw him deported from South Africa in 1987 and is now based in Paris, has not been that predictable. Former US diplomat Thomas Kinzer is faced with repaying a promise when he eventually returns to address a justice and reconciliation conference in the new South Africa. But he slowly realises that he is being manoeuvred by a range of forces into searching out the truth of who betrayed the Cooktown Four to an apartheid death squad. Cue a bout of panicked soul-searching among well-heeled whites who had dabbled in struggle politics. A thoughtful novel exploring…

“According to Statistics South Africa’s CPI basket data, lamb and mutton currently constitute 13% of consumers’ average meat basket, compared with 16% only three years ago. The decrease in consumer demand for lamb and mutton is a result of shoppers preferring to buy other meat products such as beef, chicken and pork, which offer greater consistency in price and supply. This fall in market share cannot be blamed on the drought or consumer taste. Instead, it is caused by the fragmented nature of the lamb and mutton supply chain. There are more than 280 abattoirs in the southern regions of the country, all competing for ‘slaughter units’ and offering meat to a limited number of buyers. This drop in the popularity of lamb and mutton will continue unless the supply…

CONFERENCES & EXPOS 20 TO 22 SEPTEMBER The Silo Expo, Lesotho National Wool and Mohair Growers' Association Convention Centre, Lesotho. Email expo@thesilo.co.ls, or visit www.thesilo.co.ls. 28 SEPTEMBER AMT SA Agriculture Outlook Conference, CSIR, Pretoria. Email liaison@amtrends.co.za, or visit www.gwd.org.za. 4 TO 6 OCTOBER Fairtrade Launch Agrofood Plastpack, Millennium Hall, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Visit www.fairtrade-messe.de. 10 TO 12 OCTOBER Africa Fertiliser Agribusiness Conference, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Phone +44 20 7903 2444, or email conferences@crugroup.com. 13 TO 16 OCTOBER Agri-Expo Livestock, Sandringham. Visit www.livestock.org.za. COURSES & TRAINING 19 TO 21 SEPTEMBER Cattle Embryo Transfer, George. Phone Di Rothman on 082 772 1208, or visit www.rltsafrica.com. 19 TO 25 SEPTEMBER Savory Holistic Land and Livestock Management, Cathcart. Phone 087 550 0803, or email southafrica@savoryinstitute.org. 20 TO 22 SEPTEMBER Three-Day Basic Conservation Agriculture,…

THE NEW PUBLIC PROTECTOR MUST HAVE AN UNIMPEACHABLE RECORD, SAYS THE DA "The Public Protector is a constitutional institution. It is one of several institutions established by Chapter 9 of the Constitution to support and strengthen constitutional democracy. The mandate of the Public Protector focuses on strengthening democracy by ensuring that all state organs are accountable, fair and responsive in the way they treat all persons and deliver services.” – Advocate Thuli Madonsela All Chapter 9 institutions, which include the office of the Public Protector, the SA Human Rights Commission, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, the Commission for Gender Equality, the Auditor-General and the Electoral Commission, have the responsibility to protect South Africa’s citizens against the abuse of power…

Macadamia farmers in Mpumalanga and Limpopo have noticed a radical drop in bee volumes this season from previous years. “We currently have the best flowering on the trees but there are no bees for pollination,” Alan Sutton, managing director of Valley Macadamias Group, said. He ascribed the decline in bee numbers to the effects of the drought, which had resulted in bees migrating to other areas due to insufficient food and water. Many mango and litchi farmers had also converted to macadamia orchards, which meant there was less food for bees throughout the year. Bees were also more attracted to litchi flowers than macadamia flowers, said Sutton. “Even though there’s a shortage of bees, it doesn’t mean there will be no production of macadamias, because macadamias don’t depend only on…

A Japanese farmer has used Google’s open-source machine learning library to build a machine that can identify and sort cucumbers automatically. In an interview with Google, Makoto Koike said that sorting cucumbers in Japan was time-consuming as each farm had its own classification standard. The machine transmits data from three cameras to a small computer. The data is then stored in Google’s cloud servers. The decisions made by the algorithms in the cloud control the machine’s sorting arm, which moves the cucumbers into one of nine groups. An algorithm is a set of instructions used for problem-solving in computer programming. Before the machine could work, Koike took more than 7 000 images of cucumbers to develop the sorting algorithms. The machine is 70% effective in real world production and can…

IF THE WEATHER STABILISES IN 2017, THE NOMINAL MARKET PRICE COULD DROP TO R31/10KG BAG High temperatures and drought have resulted in potato producers losing the equivalent of 31 million 10kg-bags (310 000t) in yield since September 2015. This included fresh, processing and seed potatoes, with the majority of losses occurring between November 2015 and April 2016. This was according to Potatoes South Africa’s latest market statistics. The period January 2016 to August 2016 saw a 16% reduction in potatoes sold on the national fresh produce markets compared with the same period last year. This equated to 12,6 million 10kg-bags. However, as a result of reduced supply, prices were 81% higher than the corresponding period 2015. According to the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy’s (BFAP) latest baseline report, the…

More than 50% of farm attacks and murders in KwaZulu-Natal occurred on Fridays, between 6pm and midnight. This was according to a 2014/2015 farm attack analysis. “Farmers should [thus] not be complacent about security during the early evenings. Many people only really start honing in on security measures after nightfall, which is a routine we can easily alter,” said Kwanalu (KZN Agriculture Union) CEO, Sandy La Marque, who cited the findings. She added that in many cases, adequate security was not in place. “Security measures were in place in [only] 16 out of 37 incidents where measures were possible. Perpetrators also knew [whether] there were large sums of cash on farms, either [for] wages or proceeds from stock sales. In one case, cash exceeded R90 000. This indicates that we’re…

The devastating drought has cost South Africa’s sugar cane farmers an estimated R2 billion in gross revenue. According to the SA Cane Growers’ Organisation (Canegrowers), it was also estimated that for every R1 a sugar cane grower lost, the country’s sugar supply chain and rural economy had lost R3,20. Richard Nicholson, Canegrowers’ economic research manager, said that while the country produced 20 million tons of sugar cane per year on average, recent estimates for the 2016/2017 sugar cane milling season showed an expected yield of approximately 14,9 million tons. Nicholson added that the drought had initially hit the country’s dryland sugar cane growers the hardest, as irrigated sugar cane growers could rely on stored water reserves. However, as the drought continued over 2015 and into 2016, these stored water reserves…

WITH THE LACK OF MANAGEMENT, MOST SOON BECAME WILD FISHERIES Marcel Huet’s excellent Textbook of Fish Culture: Breeding and Cultivation of Fish, published in 1970, details the remarkable efforts by the Belgians to establish aquaculture in the Belgian Congo in the 1950s. Thousands of earth ponds were excavated in the rural parts of the country and stocked with tilapia in an attempt to feed the local population. Many other African countries, then under colonial governments, followed suit, and well-run administrations stimulated a profusion of aquaculture research and development. WHERE ARE THESE FISH FARMS NOW? Research into aquaculture in the Congo indicates that in 1959 there were over 126 000 fish ponds in the country. Many were small, and stocked with mixed sex tilapia caught locally. In some places, the groundwater…

Adrian is attempting to have legislation changed to address humane slaughtering and wants South Africa to follow slaughtering practices already in use in the US. If possible, as part of traceability, he would like to include an indication of the stress factors recorded at time of killing to inform the consumer of the condition of the animal throughout the slaughter process. Adrian also favours a collaboration between livestock farmers and conservation agencies, in which livestock would have a role in consuming moribund dry matter that needs regeneration and would normally have been burnt. This system has been used in the US for decades. “That would be conservation farming deluxe,” he says. Within the GFASA protocol, the Cloetes are now able to co-brand their meat on packaging. Additional stickers with the…

Dr Tertius Brand, specialist scientist of animal nutrition at the Elsenburg Research Centre, confirms that cauliflower and broccoli are good sources of animal feed. “It should be kept in mind that the moisture content of these vegetables is quite high [around 90%], but the dry matter content is similar to that of certain lush pastures, such as green lucerne pasture, which also has a high moisture content of up to 80%,” he says. Brand says that when dehydrated, these vegetables compare favourably with other dehydrayed feed sources (see table). He adds that most of the Brassica species contain glucosinolates, the chemicals responsible for the biofumigating effect in soil. This chemical can be beneficial to animals when ingested at low concentrations by assisting in the reduction of internal parasites. However, they…

DON’T BASE THIS YEAR’S NITROGEN FIGURES ON LAST YEAR’S – LEARN TO ‘READ’ THE COLOUR OF THE LEAVES Fertilising vegetables is not like baking a cake, where we get a consistent result as long as we follow the recipe. With vegetables, we have to deal with different soils and take into account the elements already in the soil. Most vegetables thrive in soil that has adequate amounts of nutrients in the correct proportions, as discussed in a previous column. But the higher the organic content of the soil, the less important these proportions become, making crop production far easier. This leaves us with nitrogen (N), which is used to boost the growth of crops and is one of the most important factors in determining the success of a crop. Base…

IF I HAD NOT FOLLOWED THE LORD’S INSTRUCTIONS, I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE GONE BANKRUPT! If we look at John 2:3-9, we see how the servants came to Mary, mother of Jesus, because the wine had run out at the wedding feast in Cana, and asked what to do. “Whatever He says to you, do it,” said Mary. And so Jesus turned water into wine! Sometimes we simply need to do what The Word of God says in order for God to be able to work through us. I remember as a young farmer many years ago having a beautiful herd of commercial cattle. We were going through a drought and needed cash desperately. I felt very strongly that the Lord wanted me to sell my entire herd of cattle. This…

Recently, Case IH revealed its autonomous concept tractor. “In today’s economy, producers know they must focus on achieving the highest level of efficiency if they want to grow and succeed,” the company said in a statement. “That’s why we’re intensifying our focus on the combination of advanced technologies and agronomic design. Success can no longer be defined solely by hectares or yield. “Your farm has to be as efficient as possible and greater productivity comes from putting your land, seed, fertiliser, chemicals, equipment and manpower to optimal use.” The future buyer of the unmanned tractor, which is still in concept stage, will be able to choose between a fully and a semi-autonomous option. The vehicle is monitored and operated remotely via a portable tablet, just as with a drone. It…

WEATHER AND POLITICS ARE KEY DETERMINANTS OF FUTURE GROWTH Earlier this month, we received encouraging news about South Africa’s economic growth. Second-quarter real GDP figures showed that overall economic growth was well above market expectations of 2,6% quarter-on-quarter (q/q). The economy grew by a seasonally adjusted, annualised rate of 3,3% q/q, following a contraction of 1,2% q/q in the first quarter of the year. This improvement came largely on the back of stronger performance from the manufacturing and mining production sectors. ONGOING PRESSURE However, the agricultural sector remained in recession, based on a negative GDP growth of 0,8% q/q, after having contracted 6,5% q/q in the previous quarter. This came as no surprise, as the Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index had already indicated that the sector was still under pressure. The…

Shareholders in one of Zambia’s largest integrated food companies, Zambeef Products (Zambeef) recently voted in favour of the company buying back its poultry operation’s shares from joint venture partner, RCL Foods (RCL). In 2013, South Africa-headquartered food-producing company, RCL, entered into a joint venture agreement with Zambeef. Initially, this included operating a broiler production division, Zam Chick. Subsequently, it also included the establishment of a greenfield broiler hatchery, Zamhatch. Zambeef owns 51% and 49% of Zam Chick and Zamhatch respectively, while RCL owns 49% and 51% of Zam Chick and Zamhatch respectively. As a standard protection mechanism, RCL was granted ‘put’ options, which required Zambeef to acquire all shares in Zam Chick and Zamhatch if RCL decided to exercise these options within three years of entering the venture. Earlier this…

South Africa’s 2016 maize crop was harvested about three to four weeks later than usual, and in many parts drought-affected farmers achieved below-average yield. Grain SA economist, Petro Fourie, said that between 60% and 70% of maize in the north-western Free State had been harvested by the second week of September, while 50% to 70% of the crop in the southern parts of the eastern Free State had been harvested. In the southern part of North West, approximately 10% still needed to be harvested. “One of the reasons for the late harvesting was the grains’ high moisture levels, caused by late plantings, winter rains and late frost,” she said. Fourie said that according to the National Crop Estimates Committee’s projections, yield in 2016 were markedly lower than that of the…

Vryheid farmer, Neville Schefermann, was announced the winner of the 2016 KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Kwanalu Young Farmer of the Year at Kwanalu’s annual congress in Pietermaritzburg recently. Schefermann, 34, is a fourth-generation farmer at Alford Farm in Khambula district. He farms cattle, maize, grazing and timber on 1 290ha. Neville’s vision for growth is to ensure that his farming practices are as intensive as possible, and production is maximised. “I would like to thank my wife, Amy, for her support and my parents for the upbringing they afforded me. As a fourth-generation farmer, I would also like to mention and thank my late grandfather, Vernon, for everything he taught me,” Schefermann said.…

The drought is not yet a disaster and can be managed through mindset and behavioural changes. This was according to the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on drought. The IMC recently briefed media on the status of the country’s drought, and government’s efforts to ease the impact of the drought. “There is no reason for us to call for help. We do have the possibility of living and making [do] with the little that we have, if we change our behavioural patterns regarding our water usage,” said Minister of Water and Sanitation, and member of the IMC, Nomvula Mokonyane, in parliament. She said that South Africans were currently consuming 280l of water/day/person, which was well above the global average of 175l/day/person. According to Mokonyane, about 40% of household water allocations were being…

UK barley producers are suffering increasing crop losses from the Ramularia leaf spot fungus. New information from the decoded genetics of the pathogen is expected to help establish control measures. Barley, with a 7,3 million ton annual crop worth R20 billion, is the second most important grain crop in the UK after wheat, and 26% is used for brewing whisky, beer and other alcoholic drinks, with the rest used for animal feed. The pathogen, identified as Ramularia collo-cygni, has affected barley quality and yield since the late 1990s, and caused crop losses of up to 70%. The fungus lives between the cells of the barley plant without causing symptoms for many weeks. As the circumstances inside cells change, it moves into an aggressive mode, secreting toxic chemicals that show up…

IN 2013/2014, THE LION TROPHY INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTED R317 MILLION TO SOUTH AFRICA’S ECONOMY Is it true that captive-bred lions are tame and cannot fend for themselves? It is a misconception that a captive-bred lion is tame and not dangerous. This is not true. Unless heavily ‘imprinted’ by a human, a captive-bred lion becomes a killing machine after three years, even if it was bottle-fed and hand-raised. Another misconception is that a captive-bred lion is dependent on feeding and cannot fend for itself when released in the wild. Like a captive-bred house cat, a captive-bred lion does not lose its hunting instincts. Most kill within 24 to 36 hours after release in an area with enough prey animals. It is also a misconception that lions are only ‘bred for the bullet’.…

Cloete Afrikaners produces and supplies beef directly from the veld. This approach is the only way to ensure that the family farms for another 150 years, says Adrian Cloete. Adrian, his brother Ben, his father Johan, his uncles Willie and Kobus, and his mother Dorothea run their cattle under extensive conditions on four North West farms, near Kameel, Stella, Tosca and Piet Plessis – a total of more than 10 000ha. ‘From the veld, for the veld’ is their motto, and Cloete Afrikaners seeks to establish a sustainable and ethical business model that can be adopted by others. Adrian is chairperson of the Grass-Fed Association of South Africa (GFASA), established in 2014. Members produce free-range grass-fed beef, free from hormones and antibiotics, and the GFASA has a definition as well…

KZN Sussex Champions KZN Hereford Champions Braunvieh Champions Breedplan Bulls Contacts: James Stephen: 082 494 0015 | Liege Lamb: 083 777 1174 | Ewald Köhne: 082 551 4002 Bertie van Zyl (Pty) Ltd: 015 395 2040 | Rob Armstrong: 079 173 9267 Graham Elliot: 071 471 9298 | John and Tracey Devonport: 083 454 3095 | Gawie Naudé: 082 897 9555…

Despite pessimistic comments from some quarters, positive developments are taking place in some markets. These might involve small steps in some cases, but they are being taken by managers who are not shackled to political pals in higher places. Instead, they have learnt to put their market first. And this has meant taking the long view: if you had to ask any of them whether they were satisfied with their achievements so far, they would answer “No!” They recognise they’ve embarked on a long, slow and sometimes painful process. In recent years, for example, Springs Market has received substantial sums from Project Rebirth. Improvements have been made, but the process is nowhere near complete. And talking to market manager Steve Ramashaba, I was delighted to hear of his plans for…

THE SYSTEM HAS PROVIDED GERMANY WITH A STEADY SUPPLY OF CRAFTSMEN It is increasingly rare in South Africa for a car to be repaired or serviced quickly and correctly. There are two main reasons for this: few youngsters are entering the trade, and older mechanics are reluctant to be retrained in new technology. This article deals with the history of apprenticeships and how the system should be applied; the next will describe the situation in South Africa. The system of training for a trade via an apprenticeship developed in the early Middle Ages. Training was regulated by craft guilds in cooperation with town councils. Young people, sometimes from the age of 10, would be taken in by a master craftsman under contract and used as cheap labour. In return, the…

To make a lamb and green bean casserole for four lucky diners, you will need: 800g lamb (neck or leg, for example) 70ml extra virgin olive oil 1 large onion 1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander seeds ½ teaspoon freshly ground allspice 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon 1 sachet of tomato concentrate 2 cans of tomatoes 400g fresh green beans 3 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley 1 cup of water 200g button mushrooms Salt to taste Firstly, why are freshly ground spices so much better? The reason is that this is when their flavour and aroma peak. Grinding creates a greater surface area, so the spice has more contact with oxygen, releasing the volatile aromatics. After a while, these have largely evaporated. Next, the lamb.…

Adrenal fatigue manifests as an overwhelming feeling of being exhausted but stressed. Strategies for combating this include watching out for blood sugar imbalances. Instead of going for something like a cupcake when you feel peckish, eat food that contains healthy fats and some protein. This includes full cream yoghurt with a few berries, an avocado with whole-wheat crackers, or eggs lightly fried in organic virgin coconut or olive oil. Nibble on fresh nuts and seeds rich in zinc and magnesium (such as pumpkin). Cooked meals can still be part of your diet, if flavoured with healing fresh herbs and restorative spices such as turmeric and ginger. Serve with a fresh salad. START YOUR DAY WELL While sweet fresh fruits are nutritious, they contain a great deal of sugar. So enjoy…