Animals

Never before in the history of South African pigeon racing have as many birds been lost in training as now. Since May this year, large numbers of racing pigeons have failed to return from training flights and race events.

Competitive long-distanc e riding tests the stamina of both horse and rider.

Last week I wrote about the champion stock of Bradbury Lofts, and this week's article focuses on their racing methods.

Ron Thomson has written a refreshing and hard-hitting book to remind hunters, game ranchers and ordinary nature lovers where they fit into the bigger conservation picture. Roelof Bezuidenhout reviews a book that pulls no punches.

In only 32 years Smithfield Merino farmer Eddie Prinsloo has increased the ewe crop on Heuningkrans Stud from 500 to about 2 000, and in February this year at its sale, Heuningkrans achieved an average price per ram of R7 300 - the highest average price ever achieved by a single Merino breeder in South Africa. Gavin Isted writes.

'Sansor notes that neither kikuyu nor rye grass could pose a threat [to biodiversity].

It will cost a Limpopo cattle farmer about R12,75/kg to produce a weaner, which will be sold for about R12/kg on average.

In 2003 Reuter Sorour and Andrew Tilsley, joined later by neighbour Alec Botha, began producing organic-in-conversion milk for Woolworths via their national organic centre for milk production near Bloemfontein, Homsek Dairy. Today Andrew and Alec have reverted to conventional milk production while Reuter remains deeply disillusioned, thanks to what they call a controversial certification process and a battle to receive significant premiums for their milk. Mike Burgess visited the farmers near Ficksburg to hear their side of the story.

Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils to improve the emotional, and in turn the physical wellness of the animal being treated.

Buks Bradbury was practically born in the pigeon lofts of his father Peter, but only took up the sport later in life.

In part one (Farmer's Weekly, 25 May 2007), Art McDonald told us the secret of an “ideal horse” was the balance of its proportions. In the second article, based on an interview published in American Horse and Rider 30 years ago, Diane C Simmons found out how McDonald used a computer program he developed to improve his breeding.

It is not uncommon to find a horse that bolt s its feed. This means that it eats so fast that it hardly chews or breathes.