Photo: Gary Wium
Van Zyl said that producers needed to focus on producing meat at a lower price in order to ensure the sustainability of the industry.
“The guy who produces the cheapest meat per kilogram in South Africa will farm the longest,” he said.
He explained that over the past 20 to 30 years, livestock producers had focused on high weaning weights.
“But there is an increase in the cost of the maintenance of the cow when increasing weaning weights,” he said. As such, the cost of production was increasing.
Livestock producers were also increasingly coming under pressure as meat prices were stagnating, he said.
He added that farmers thus needed to find ways to produce meat more cheaply, and the only way in which to do this was to look for alternative farming practices, as conventional farming methods were no longer sufficient in producing affordable meat.
“Farmers hate the term ‘regenerative agriculture’; think of it rather as efficient land management,” he said.
He explained that regenerative agriculture was not used for prevention, but rather for production improvement, and added that farmers needed to work with nature, and not against it.
“Regenerative agriculture allows for resilience when things go wrong,” said Van Zyl.
Using his own farm as an example, Van Zyl said that they have seen many benefits of regenerative agriculture.
“Cows produce natural fertiliser,” he said. “The manure cows produce provide nitrogen and phosphate, which promotes soil health.”
He added that the pillars of regenerative agriculture included soil health and increasing organic matter in the soil, and that studies have shown that a 1% increase in organic matter can result in up to 20 000 gallons of available soil water per acre.
He also said that they had seen a 25% to 30% increase in grazing quantity and quality since implementing regenerative agriculture practices, as well as an increase in beneficial insects and biodiversity.
“Grasses that we haven’t seen for decades, like Stormberg platblaar, have reappeared,” he said. “We also have a higher percentage of palatable grasses, and we even see green grass in winter.”
He added that in a conventional system, he produced 36kg of meat per hectare; however, using regenerative agriculture, this increased to 70,3kg of meat per hectare recorded in 2024.
“It has allowed us to save around R5/kg of meat produced,” he said.
“The earth wants to renew and rejuvenate; it’s our responsibility as farmers to manage it properly to allow it the opportunity to do so,” he said.
“I am convinced that regenerative agriculture is a workable alternative for the struggling livestock industry.”
