Business

Zabion de Wee graduated from the Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute last year and is doing an internship with the National Wool Growers' Association. An ambitious young man, he has plans to one day farm Angoras in the Free State. He spoke to Heather Dugmore.

In Mauritius, the sugar industry co-generates a significant proportion of the country's electricity needs, using bagasse as feedstock.

Due to poor management, many agricultural co-ops across the country are struggling. Zivuseni Agricultural Co-operative outside Nigel in the East Rand is an exception. Thanks to good discipline, the business is thriving - and mixed farming makes the co-op's prospects even brighter. Peter Mashala reports.

Farmers in Beaufort West are taxed R3 104 (R2 500 after rebates) per annum for each R1 million their farm is worth, while farmers under the adjoining Baviaans municipality are paying about R95 per R1 million. This indicates problems in the application of the new Municipal Property Rates Act, which farmers need to be aware of.

André Cloete, an apple, pear and sheep farmer from the Overberg, is this year’s recipient of the fruit industry’s Novice Award. Thanks to hard work and attention to detail, André supplies apples and pears for export through Tru-Cape and Two-a-Day and achieves high yields. But he’s reluctant to invest too much in the farm because government has been slow to grant him a long-term lease, as Denene Erasmus found out.

If nothing is done to increase water availability in the Vaal River water supply system - including clamping down on illegal water use by irrigation farmers - it will be the farmers themselves who first feel the pinch of a severe drought-like deficit.

The Jagpan Vernootskap Boerdery is a mentorship programme that's successfully partnered four emerging farmers in a Dorper sheep enterprise that's won many awards. But Jagpan's farming future isn't secure, because government won't let the group buy the leased land it's been farming on. Heather Dugmore visited them.

Johannes Tshoke has risen above stock theft, the problems of farming on communal land, a lack of money and other challenges to get his own farm. He is now set on becoming a commercial farmer in the hope of leaving a legacy for his children. Peter Mashala visited him.

The pig farmer can ensure maximum survival by understanding and meeting the piglets' needs.

Co-operatives must reward members who work harder on the co-operative's behalf and deal with members who try to get away with the least amount of work.

Niklaas Slinger, the Agricultural Writers Emerging Farmer of the Year, never went to school. He was a farmworker for the Theron family for 20 years, and when Jan Theron died, Niklaas helped his widow run the farm. When Jan’s son JP grew up he helped Niklaas buy his own farm, where he won through to become one of SA’s top 20 rooibos producers.

The Limpopo agriculture department brought in two small-scale chicken farmers to take over a failed land reform project.