Shoo, you sorghum seed-eating birds!

Ripening sorghum in the former Transkei is targeted by a variety of seed-eating birds. Emerging farmers have come up with a simple and cost-effective way to combat this threat. They use plastic bags tied to the stems of sorghum plants to act as makeshift scarecrows. “The colour of the plastics and noise they (plastics) make in the wind keep the birds away,” one local farmer explains. Every year grain and oilseed farmers lose untold amounts to birds eating their crops. The main feathered culprits are rock pigeons and red-billed queleas. While members of the wing-shooting fraternity are usually more than happy to assist in combating the pigeons, commercial farmers have no cheap and effective way of dealing with the queleas. – Photo and text Mike Burgess