Farmer's Weekly 16 September 2022

While it is important for the media to criticise government for its failures, it is also important that the media give credit where credit is due. Thanks to government’s intervention, China recently lifted its ban on South African wool imports. The ban was implemented in April this year after numerous cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) were reported in various provinces across the country. Government and organisations such as the National Wool Growers’ Association of South Africa acted swiftly to negotiate the lifting of the ban, which has had a dire impact on the country’s wool industry. As reported in the 9 September 2022 issue of Farmer’s Weekly, the ban had already cost the wool industry over R700 million, and had been particularly damaging to small-scale producers. Thus, the lifting of the ban is great…

“Africa’s cattle-feed production is a boom-and-bust cycle. Most of the continent’s grazing lands are lush and green in the rainy season, only to wither into dry scrublands in the dry season. For instance, while Burkina Faso produces an excess of six million tons of forage a year, its Sahel livestock-producing regions have a deficit of two million tons annually. The quantity of food for cattle isn’t the only issue: another is its quality. Studies have shown that in Tanzania, the quality of forage from pasturelands declines by a fifth during the dry season. In Ethiopia, it declines by 28%. The result is a 40% decrease in milk yield. Across many other countries in Africa, for example Sudan, Algeria and South Africa, studies have shown that quality livestock feed swings from excess during rainy…

This Introduction to Layer House Management acquaints delegates with the important aspects of managing a layer hen unit. Topics include hen health, egg collecting, bird housing, record-keeping and marketing. Email the Buhle Farmers’ Academy at applications@buhle.org.za, or phone 063 287 2732. CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS AND EXPOS 17 TO 18 NOVEMBER Agribusiness Conference 2022, Protea Hotel, Sandton. Email Buhle Ndokweni at buhle@mathema.co.za, or phone 011 862 4001. 17 TO 18 NOVEMBER Sustainable Innovative Producers and Emerging Farmers Conference, Protea Hotel Balalaika, Sandton. Email Karabo Ramabu at karabo@mathema.co.za. 24 TO 25 NOVEMBER Drones and Unmanned Aviation Conference 2022, Emperors Palace. Email info@bussynet.co.za. COURSES AND TRAINING 21 SEPTEMBER Holistic Predation Management, Langgewens Experimental Farm. Email Jeannie Hayward at communications@capeleopard.org.za. 3 TO 7 OCTOBER Meat Processing, Pretoria. Email Mpho Makhanya at makhanyam@arc.agric.za, or phone 012 672 9153. 16 TO 21 OCTOBER Wilderness Trails Skills, Makuleke Concession. Email Roxanne Cragg at enquiries@ecotraining.co.za,…

Over the past five years, Food Lover’s Market has successfully run a solar power project at its City Deep distribution centre (DC) in Johannesburg, which has allowed the facility to reduce its reliance on Eskom-supplied electricity. Now, in addition to increasing the City Deep DC’s power-generation capacity, the fresh produce retailer is converting its Brackengate (Western Cape) and Centurion (Gauteng) DCs to solar power. Together, the three facilities will lower the retailer’s carbon footprint by 6 000t per annum, and reduce the amount of electricity it draws from Eskom by one-third. “We aim to be the best [retailer] in every community we serve, and this means that we have to ‘live’ our sustainability values in every store and distribution centre. “To that end, when we design a new store, we look at ways to…

MOST POPULAR ON FARMERSWEEKLY.CO.ZA PLANT-BASED INDUSTRY WELCOMES INTERDICT PREVENTING FOOD SEIZURES ProVeg International has hailed the recent interdict awarded to the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, which prevents the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and its designated assignee, the Food Safety Agency, from seizing any plant-based meat-alternative products deemed to be in breach of Regulation 1283 of the Agricultural Product Standards Act. Read the full article at bit.ly/3q1FFNi, or scan here: Posted: 31 August 2022. Follow us at @FarmersWeeklySA FROM FACEBOOK @FarmersWeeklySA When FW posted a link to an article titled ‘Unfair’ trade bans threaten agriculture jobs in South Africa, some of our followers shared their feelings on the issue. Posted: 31 August 2022. READERS’ COMMENTS Wiseman Gcaba: “SA must also ban meat and dairy products from Botswana, including livestock imports!” Zachariah Daniel: “Unfair trade is when…

This article looked at a new insecticide that, at the time, was expected to revolutionise the protection of grain in stacks and silos. Finding a single insecticide that could cope effectively with the full spectrum of stored-grain insects has been a tremendous challenge to South African scientists. But its discovery has persistently eluded them … until now, that is. Working in close co-operation with the [then] Department of Agriculture and the [Agricultural Research Council] Plant Protection Research Institute in particular, [then] Fisons Agrochemicals has developed a new product called Reldan, which controls the important insects that menace stored grain. The breakthrough, which has been noted with gratification by both farmers and the grain trade, is expected to revolutionise the protection of stored grain in South Africa and drastically reduce the damage and losses caused…