Table of contents for 25 August 2017 in Farmer's Weekly

I cannot imagine a greater childhood than growing up on a farm. My memories of youth include spending entire days climbing trees, hunting for earthworms to use as bait when fishing in the farm dam, getting tongue lashings on a daily basis from my mother and ugogo for getting my feet and clothes impossibly muddy, eating fruit fresh from the tree while still warm from the sun, catching crabs in the shallow canals, coaxing out the bats that hid deep inside banana leaves during the day, and riding along on the tractor with my dad and Samual the driver. One of the discussion points raised by panellists at the recent African Farmers’ Association of South Africa Youth Conference in Johannesburg was that many young black farmers were at a disadvantage…

CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS & EXPOS 23 AUGUST Waste-to-Energy Technologies Summit, Emperors Palace Convention Centre, Johannesburg. For more information, email chris@maphosam.co.za. 23 AUGUST Fertilizer Association of Southern Africa (FERTASA) Soil Fertility & Plant Nutrition Symposium, CSIR, Pretoria. Email Candice van der Walt at candice@fertasa.co.za. 29 TO 31 AUGUST Agro-processing Investment & Technology Summit, Premier Hotel, Rhodesfield. For more information, visit agbiz.co.za. 31 AUGUST TO 1 SEPTEMBER Skills Development Summit, CSIR, Pretoria. Visit skillssummit.co.za. 3 TO 6 SEPTEMBER South African Association for Food Science & Technology (SAAFoST) 22nd Biennial International Congress and Exhibition, Century City Convention Centre, Cape Town. For more information, visit saafost2017.org.za. 5 TO 7 SEPTEMBER No-till Conference 2017, ATKV, Drakensville, KZN. Phone Sandra Findlay on 082 472 5987, or Richard Findlay on 074 104 7081, or visit notillclub.com. 6 TO…

Wandile Sihlobo is head of economic and agribusiness intelligence at the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz). Email him at wandile@agbiz.co.za. Following my previous column about the urgent need for gender equity in South Africa’s agricultural sector, it is only right during Women’s Month that I also highlight some of the encouraging developments in the sector. On 20 July, I chaired a session under the theme, “Towards a food secure 2030”, organised by the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation in partnership with Absa Bank. Similar to many agriculture events, the panel was male-dominated, and included Absa Bank analyst, Wessel Lemmer; Agri SA analyst, Hamlet Hlomendlini; research professor at the University of Fort Hare, Voster Muchenje; and a farmer, Sibuyiselwe Sontundu. One of the encouraging aspects of the panel was, however, that the…

The JSE has introduced changes to its Beef Carcass contract, which currently uses selling prices from contributing abattoirs to settle the contract at expiration, a JSE statement said. “These selling prices are the prices at which abattoirs sell their meat to the wholesalers and meat processors, and exclude the fifth quarter,” the statement said. The Beef Carcass contract, introduced on 14 December 2015, had initially aimed to bring wholesalers and retailers onboard to introduce them to price risk management instruments to manage beef procurement across their chain stores. However, after extensive consultation with the Beef Carcass contract’s target clients, the JSE found that meat processors were no longer buying whole beef carcasses. Instead, they prefered to order quarters or beef cuts. As a result, abattoirs were now marketing more beef…

Sheep farmers need to stop worrying about lynx killing a handful of sheep, when the farmers were responsible for many of the two to six million lamb deaths every year, as a result of not providing their animals adequate shelter, nutrition and healthcare. This was the message to the UK’s National Sheep Association (NSA) from a group seeking to release lynx in the British countryside. “We’ve had two years of the NSA’s reality-defying claims that six lynx will threaten the UK’s sheep industry and food security,” said Lynx UK Trust spokesperson, Steve Piper. “But they’ve had almost nothing to say on the millions of lambs lost to welfare basics. I consider that extremely poor representation of the industry; sheep farming needs solutions to the problems it faces, not scaremongering.” The…

South Africa and the US were the only two countries in the world with increasing wildlife numbers. In South Africa, this was a result of the game farming industry and, inter alia, hunting, according to EcoLife director, Prof Wouter van Hoven. Addressing a recent North- West University workshop on sustainable game farming, Van Hoven said that the game industry had added value to game species, and so contributed directly to their conservation. “Kenya, for instance, has lost 70% of its game species since hunting was abolished in the country in the 1970s. Its lion numbers have dropped 80% since then,” he said. Game numbers across the continent, except in South Africa, were decreasing rapidly, he said. Since the 1970s, the number of lions had dropped from 450 000 to 25…

Scientists often go back to nature to assess how plants and microbes function to survive. Developers of the latest genetic technology using the CRISPR-Cas technique, for example, began by studying how bacterial cells stop virus invasion. To follow this process, it should be understood that DNA in cells contains the codes that determine the synthesis of many compounds, which will lead to the expression of traits. RNA as a complementary part of DNA has three basic functions: • To serve as a messenger (mRNA) of DNA information by way of threeletter code bits that are aligned to become linked to amino acids; • To transfer RNA (tRNA) to decipher the mRNA code; each amino acid has its own tRNA, with the ultimate destination being ribosomes, protein-rich units which serve as…

Advocate Peter O’Halloran is a tax specialist. Email him at farmersweekly@caxton.co.za. Subject line: Tax. ‘THERE IS A PROJECT TO REPURPOSE STATE INSTITUTIONS TO SUIT RENT-SEEKING NETWORKS’ The rule of law holds that laws, as opposed to the whims of individual government officials, should govern a nation. The laws must be clear, publicised, stable and just, and applied evenly. The government is just as accountable under the law as any other entity. In South Africa, at this point, according to former finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, some R100 billion has been lost to ‘state capture’. The evidence that state money, or, in other words, the taxes paid by ordinary South Africans, is being ‘looted’ from the state is overwhelming. The rule of law is being flouted and there is no accountability. A…

To the uninformed, selling fresh produce on a market may seem a simple exercise. After all, a cabbage is a cabbage; just sell it and have done with it! If only it were that simple! In addition to the obvious requirements for a fresh produce salesperson, including communication skills, product knowledge, and so forth, many unseen nuances come into play when making a sale. These might seem insignificant, but a good salesperson ignores them at his or her cost. DETAILS SEAL THE DEAL I mentioned cabbage. A more mundane crop you will not find, but to buyers who have pernickety customers to satisfy, the details are all-important. Size, for example, is crucial, and a salesperson had better understand that, and know what the buyer is looking for. Some buyers demand…

THE FIRES BENEATH by Sean Morrow (Penguin, R350) Monica Wilson was a pioneering anthropologist and the first woman to be appointed a full professor at a South African university. Strongly shaped by her upbringing as a missionary’s daughter in Lovedale in the Eastern Cape, she had a keen sense of social equality and curiosity. Noticing the gradual disappearance of the rural way of life, she changed her studies from history to anthropology and undertook fieldwork north into Tanzania. Morrow does justice to this intellectual giant in his wellresearched and fascinating biography, vividly recreating Wilson’s strong personality and intellect, as well as the many sociopolitical changes around her. He also recalls how vibrantly, sometimes tragically, her personal and professional lives intersected. THE BANTING POCKET GUIDE by Prof Tim Noakes, Bernadine, Douglas…

Sponsored by Molatek Livestock producers under 30 years of age are eligible to compete in this category. This award recognises the achievements of the winning producer in producing improved genetics through the use of performance testing. Aside from performance testing, participants are evaluated on the basis of their leadership skills and involvement with, and acknowledgement by, formal structures of the industry. They must also have a proven track record of the breeding and management of genetically superior animals. The winner of this category will be announced during the formal awards ceremony on 25 August.…

The views expressed in our weekly opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Farmer’s Weekly. For more information, contact WWF- SA on 021 657 6600 or 011 339 1152. Read the full report at awsassets. wwf.org.za/downloads/WWF_ Food_Loss_and_Waste_WEB.pdf. Estimates suggest that about 10 million tons of food go to waste in South Africa every year. This accounts for a third of the 31 million tons of food produced annually. The losses comprise 44% fruit and vegetables, 26% grains, 15% meat, and 13% roots, tubers and oilseeds. Most of this wastage and loss occurs early in the food supply chain, where 50% is lost during the post-harvest phase, 25% during processing and packaging, 20% during distribution and retail, and 5% at consumer level. CASE STUDIES In 2015, the WWF-SA conducted a…

Dr Jan Venter is a political analyst at Aginfo. Email him at aginfo@amtrends.co.za. Two guys are walking through a graveyard. On a tombstone is written: “Here lies an honest man and a politician.” “Oh no!” says one man to the other. “Two people in the same grave!?” Politicians worldwide are economical with the truth. I’ve heard it called ‘strategic’ or ‘complex’ thinking. It is actually lying or ‘spinning’, and some of them, like Niccolò Machiavelli, one of the masters of political theory, see it as an art that a ruler must master. So, after the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma failed, the DA and the ANC are guilty of some spurious, ‘complex’ thinking. The DA is riding a wave of confidence and wants to dissolve Parliament. However,…

Brucellosis reportedly cost South Africa’s dairy industry about R500 million every year, according to state veterinarian, Dr Alicia Cloete. She was speaking at the recent Limpopo Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (RPO) Congress in Modimolle. “Brucellosis has an economic impact on farmers as fewer calves mean less income, [and] dairy cows produce less milk when infected; the few calves that are born also require extra care, and there are costs [associated with] quarantining infected herds.” Cloete added that heifers between four to eight months old had to be vaccinated with the S19 vaccine. “Farmers have to remember that these vaccines contain live cultures, and humans can contract brucellosis if they come into contact with the [vaccination] liquid and then touch their eyes,” she said. At the recent Milk Producers’ Organisation (MPO)…

“Expropriation without compensation is not going to happen in South Africa.” This was according to Free State Agriculture (FSA) president, Dan Kriek, who spoke at the organisation’s annual congress recently held in Bloemfontein. ‘THIS WAS MONEY MEANT FOR THE POOREST OF THE POOR, TO DEVELOP RURAL AREAS IN THE PROVINCE’ This year’s theme was ‘Value adding: closer to the consumer’, and was presented in a new interactive format that included ‘strategic’ parallel sessions at different locations across the venue. Speaking in-depth about political uncertainty and landowners’ fears of land reform and expropriation, Kriek assured delegates that South Africa’s Constitution would protect them. “Expropriation without compensation is not possible under our current Constitution. It’s not government policy,” he explained. Kriek spoke extensively on media freedom and state capture, referring to the…

South Africa recently signed an agreement establishing a Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), which covers the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). “Once the agreement comes into force, it will give exporters access to new markets due to reduced tariffs on goods and services between the tripartite countries,” said Niel Joubert, director at Trade Law Chambers, a leading international trade law firm in SA. According to Joubert, who was speaking at a recent African Brand Link trade discussion in Milnerton, Cape Town, the TFTA represented an integrated market of 26?countries, with a combined population of more than 600?million people, which produced more than 50% of the continent’s GDP. “It’s an interesting and exciting region for exporters…

The Red Meat industry had discussed at great length the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ (DAFF) draft policy on a national animal identification, recording and traceability programme. This was according to Dave Ford, who delivered his chairperson’s report at the recent annual general meeting of the Red Meat Industry Forum (RMIF). Ford said the industry deemed the programme too ambitious and costly to implement. He added that DAFF was constantly trying to introduce unrealistic new policies, while reneging on implementing current ones that were fundamental to the sustainability of the industry. VACCINE SHORTAGES HAVE BECOME CRITICAL “It’s therefore imperative that the RMIF sort out [members’] differences and stand together to take the industry forward in this very difficult business environment.” According to Ford, the draft policy had been met…

Karabo Takadi is an agricultural economist at Absa Agribusiness. Email her at karabo.takadi@absa.co.za. Additional information provided by Nomakhosi Nhlapo, the regional agriculture manager for Limpopo and Gauteng at Absa Agribusiness. Email her at nomakhosi.nhlapo@absa.co.za. There are currently about 16?000ha of avocado orchards in South Africa. According to industry experts, there is room for expansion, especially as the country is renowned for producing higher quality fruit than that grown by other producers such as Peru. Measured by tree sales, an average of about 1 000ha of new orchards have been planted annually in South Africa over the past three years. This compares with Peru, where about 4 800ha of new avocado trees are planted per annum. Mexico, currently the world’s largest avocado producer, has a total of 166?000ha planted to avocados.…

IF THE DOG BEGINS CHASING ITS TAIL, ENGAGE IT IN ANOTHER ACTIVITY; DON’T SHOUT AT OR SPANK IT Tail-chasing can be a sign of health or mental problems, the more so when the dog starts biting its tail, causing tissue damage or injury to the bones in the tail. Tail-chasing should stop as the puppy gets closer to adulthood. If it doesn’t, you could be dealing with a canine form of obsessive-compulsive behaviour. No one knows for certain why dogs chase their tails; the answer could be as simple as ‘because it’s there’. But there are several factors that contribute to the behaviour, which you can eliminate before tail-chasing becomes entrenched in adulthood. • External parasites A proliferation of ticks and fleas on and underneath the tail can cause great…

WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT OUR WIVES? Honour your wife It feels like yesterday that Jill and I, and our five children, eventually arrived on a piece of neglected, overgrown wattle forest. We hired a caravan for three weeks and proceeded to unpack the truck and trailer we had driven all the way from Zambia. We cut down the trees, pulled out the roots, ploughed the land and started to cultivate a crop of seed maize. We built a little mud house in three weeks, and so began the most exciting time of our lives. We dug a hole in a damp place and a spring sprung up, and so we started pumping water for our house. Before that, Jill had to drive 5km to get drinking water until a…

The Pannar Sprout app is a mini version of the company website for use on a mobile device. Relatively small at only 15Mb, it’s available for download on Android and Apple devices, and is useful for when you are on the land with limited access to a stable Internet connection. (Sprout can be set to update only when a Wi-Fi signal is available.) After downloading, you choose a country from a pulldown menu; South African users have a choice of English or Afrikaans. If you are a maize farmer, you select a region (or ‘Irrigation’), a maize colour (white or yellow) and a specific cultivar. The app will then supply advice for that region, as well as a detailed description of the product chosen, allowing you to compare one cultivar…

My mid-life crisis occurred when I lived in the city. I survived that with the help of a Porsche, a ponytail and a trendy fondness for tequila. Later, retiring to the country became my recipe for cheating the Grim Reaper. Today, with a bakkie having long taken the place of the Porsche, precious little hair remaining on my pate, Klippies having replaced tequila, and neighbour Jan as my closest friend, I wonder where all the years have gone. Memory disappears with time, so I couldn’t tell you! It’s like going into a room to search for something but being unable to remember what. Or being introduced to someone and forgetting his name seconds later. Is Alzheimer’s creeping in? I’d prefer to think of myself as maturing like a fine wine…

Sponsored by Molatek This award, which was introduced only two year ago, recognises a small-scale commercial beef producer who, under the mentorship of an established breeder, participates in performance testing and has made great progress in his/her enterprise. The recipient must exhibit a passion and enthusiasm for breeding genetically superior animals, as well as have a proven record of accomplishment in breeding more efficient animals in his/her own herd through recording and associated technologies. The winner of this award category will be announced during the awards ceremony on 25 August.…

Brazil’s beef industry is rebounding from the country’s tainted meat scandal, with June exports having grown 9% from May to 123 287t, and their value increasing 10% to R6,9 billion. In a statement, the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporters said that June produced the best export performance of the year thus far. It added that fresh meat exports had risen 11% year-on-year to 100 223t, worth R5,66 billion. Exports of processed beef increased 9,7% in June to 7 866t, from 7 171t in May. Revenue rose 12,4% to R630,9 million. The meat scandal broke earlier this year when police raided 21 meat producers, including JBS, the world’s largest meat company, accused of paying bribes to inspectors to approve meat that was rotten or contaminated by salmonella. At the time, the…

Free State Agriculture’s (FSA) new Free State Agriculture Support Fund would be a private company, separate from the FSA, and would be run according to solid business principles. This was according to FSA president, Dan Kriek, who addressed delegates at the organisation’s annual congress recently held in Bloemfontein. Kriek said that management had decided to establish the company following a mandate from last year’s congress. “The business we do there will be done separately from the work of Free State Agriculture,” he said. Kriek also made a commitment to FSA members that the company would be set up properly to avoid posing risks to FSA down the line. “If there is trouble for any reason whatsoever, it must not place this organisation [the FSA] in danger,” he said, adding that…

Little surprise or concern have been expressed about job losses in three of South Africa’s four agriculture subsectors in the second quarter of 2017. According to Statistics SA and Agbiz, the local agricultural sector had lost 40 000 jobs in the second quarter of 2017, bringing current employment levels in the sector to 835 000 jobs. Agbiz’s head of economic and agribusiness intelligence, Wandile Sihlobo, said that most of these job losses had occurred in the Northern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. He added that the subsectors that experienced employment losses were field and horticultural crops, forestry, and aquaculture. “The decline in employment is in line with seasonal trends, as the second quarter of each year is typically characterised by reduced activity in labour-intensive sectors such as horticulture and…

South Africa’s biltong hunters added significant value to the local game farming industry, according to Prof Peet van der Merwe, a lecturer at the School for Tourism Management at North-West University. Speaking at a recent workshop on sustainable game farming at the university, Van der Merwe said that 200 000 biltong hunters contributed more than R8,5?billion to the industry every year. “The hunters spend an average of R40 000 each per annum. [A total of] R4,65?billion is spent on accommodation, and R3,9 billion on the game species that are hunted,” he said. The SA game farming industry accommodated 760 international trophy hunters every year. The average trophy hunter from abroad spent R260 000 per hunting trip, while a total of R1,02 billion was spent on the game species hunted, he…

A prominent Free State Merino farmer and nine of his farmworkers will soon enter into a formal long-term land reform project intended to showcase how government’s land reform policies could work in practice. Smithfield-based farmer, Eddie Prinsloo, told Farmer’s Weekly that he had spent 18 months discussing the project with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR). Two of the beneficiaries had worked on his farm for 20 and 25 years respectively. “These people have been working here for a long time. They’re the ones doing all the work. They’re the ones who go into Lesotho to sell the rams, for example. I wanted to let them take part in my farming enterprise,” Prinsloo said. ‘THE BENEFICIARIES ARE GOING TO BE MENTORED BY ONE OF THE BEST MERINO…

Dr Koos Coetzee is an agricultural economist at the MPO. All opinions expressed are his own and do not reflect MPO policy. Email him at farmersweekly@caxton.co.za. Subject line: Global Farming. THE FUTURE OF THE SA GAME FARMING INDUSTRY PROBABLY LIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF BILTONG HUNTING In 1636, the price of tulip bulbs in the Netherlands increased sharply. Some sold for the same price as a mediumsized house. Eventually the bubble burst, prices returned to pre-boom levels, and many people lost money. Fast forward to 2014. In South Africa that year, black impala were selling for R350 000 each, and white impala for R8,2 million each. Clearly, these prices were unrelated to intrinsic value. The ‘greater fool’ theory partially explains how a bubble forms. People pay more than the true…

What is Wesgro and what is its role in agriculture in the Western Cape? Wesgro is the Western Cape trade, investment and tourism promotions agency. We work with the agricultural industry to promote local agricultural products, attract investment in the agro-processing sector, and promote tourism across the province. We also assist with outward investment in the rest of Africa, and this is, to a large extent, focused on agriculture related opportunities. Why do you think North Africa holds the largest export potential on the continent? Through a decision support model [DSM], we’ve established that North Africa holds the greatest share [58,6%] of opportunities in terms of trade for the Western Cape. The three North African countries with the highest number of realistic export opportunities are Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. Very…

THINK TWICE BEFORE CONSIDERING A SECOND-HAND 4X4 OR TURBOCHARGED BAKKIE Finding a good second-hand bakkie is more difficult than finding a good preowned car. Bakkies usually work harder than cars and are therefore subject to more wear and tear. They are often also driven by employees, and it’s human nature not to look after other people’s property. DO YOUR HOMEWORK The first thing to decide is what type of bakkie you want. Do you require a one-ton bakkie, or is a half-ton unit sufficient for your needs? Do you want a petrol or a diesel engine? Would you prefer a manual or an automatic transmission? Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages A number of websites list the second-hand models on the market. They will enable you to compile…

Real relief for PMS Many women experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS) for a few days each month, when a hormonal imbalance may cause them to become intensely irritable, short-tempered and generally out of sorts. A herbal product has been developed in Switzerland to relieve these and other symptoms, such as breast fullness, painful cramps and headaches. The product, an extract of the chaste tree berry (Vitex agnus-castus) has passed a doubleblind placebo-controlled study published in the British Medical Journal. Clinical trials suggest significant relief for women who take the medicine over a three-month period; the relief increases and is sustainable. The tablets need to be taken only once daily, preferably at the same time. RELIEVES PAIN AND INDUCES CALM Vitex acts directly on the hypothalamus and pituitary glands, helping balance the…

National Merino Veld Show Special Class Winners Presentations to sponsors…

The beef industry has been applying technologies developed by the ARC’s Beef Scheme with great success over many decades. One of the primary outcomes of the implementation of the scientific tools offered by the scheme is the improvement of the biological and economic efficiencies of SA’s beef cattle. The industry has also made tremendous gains in its understanding of the factors, including management, that affect economically efficient production and genetic improvement of beef cattle. This understanding is of particular importance in view of the drive to “produce more from less” amidst shrinking resources and climate change. The scheme’s ultimate aim is to ensure that producers, across all sectors, are able to attain and maintain profitability and sustainability, in line with the ARC’s vision, “to provide for the breeding, identification and…