Sheep & Goats

Malekaleke Maila farms with Pedi sheep on communal land in Limpopo. Unable to run his flock near his village, he is forced to spend each week away from home. Yet, through careful management, he earns a reasonable living and is paying for his children’s studies. Peter Mashala spoke to him.

The South African Karakul industry was all but decimated in the 1980s and 1990s. Jaco Visser visited Karakul stud breeder Johan Moller in the Kalahari to find out about the industry’s resurgence and the high demand for Swakara pelts.

Near Graaff-Reinet, on the farm Wellwood, one of the oldest and most respected Merino studs in the country, five generations of Rubidge sons have consistently bred outstanding Merino sheep. Heather Dugmore talks to Robert Rubidge.

an Lottering and Andries Mopiley’s Angora goat farming enterprise in Prince Albert shows that an agricultural empowerment project can succeed driven by motivated beneficiaries and mentored by the industry’s experts. Denene Erasmus reports.

The Damara breed originated in Asia and spread to Southern Africa 2 000 years ago. Down the centuries, the extreme environment continually selected the hardiest, most adaptable specimens. Stud breeder Stan Burger spoke to Annelie Coleman about his passion for this remarkable breed.

An early passion for farming can lead to a successful, profitable business for a teenager.

Brothers Jan and Dries Wiese recently added goat's milk cheese to their sheep farming operation.

Allie Gordon from Leeu-Gamka in the Karoo, named the Top Entrepreneur Smallholder in the Western Cape Female Entrepreneur 2011 awards, started farming with 50 Dorpers in 2005. By 2010, her flock had grown to 370 ewes. Last year she sold 200 of them in preparartion for her next plan: starting a white Dorper stud. Denene Erasmus reports.

Trientjie and Gerhard Knoetze's Katryn Merino Landsheep Stud has been named the 2011 SA Studbook Sheep Stud of the Year after only being founded in 2005.

Merino SA president Julian Southey talks to Heather Dugmore about the need to be adaptable and to change farming practices to meet the current economic challenges and benefit from the knowledge available today.

Against all odds, Barries Snijman has tamed the tough Karoo to develop a flock of veld-adapted Angoras that produce quality mohair. Roelof Bezuidenhout reports.

Breeders are quietly optimistic that they can develop a modern animal for the profitable sheep-fat market, while Persians are increasingly being used to breed fat and fertility back into Dorpers, writes Roelof Bezuidenhout.

Locally bred Letelle sheep are known to be economically balanced, hardy animals that are well adapted to South Africa's sometimes harsh environment.

A livestock farmer, plagued by stock theft, turned to feeding sprouting grain in a feedlot to protect his sheep. And his trial has yielded some impressive results. Robyn Joubert reports.

Ben Lategan is the national runner-up of the National Wool Growers Association/FNB best economically classed clip in South Africa for 2009/10. His Merino enterprise on 6 000ha in the Burgersdorp district of the Eastern Cape includes 180ha of irrigated lucerne, allowing him to get the most from his sheep. Mike Burgess reports.

Free State father-and-son farming team, Leon Trollip and Leon Trollip Jr, found that their Dohnes prosper on lucerne, helping to stabilise the income of their irrigated farming enterprise. Breed manager Henri Londt of the Dohne Merino Breed Society SA reports.

In 2009 Lionel Whittal became the first registered Mbuzi goat breeder in South Africa. Mike Burgess recently visited him on his 400ha farm Sandilli, in the Bolo area of the Eastern Cape to see what impact these small, well-proportioned, disease-resistant indigenous goats are having on his farming enterprise.

Powdered goat's milk is one of the world's biggest agricultural value-adding businesses because it is more digestible than cow's milk. Now former Zimbabwean farmer Jean Vos and his brother-in-law François de Chalain have tapped into the potentially lucrative local market with their Saanen goat's milk products.

Farmers in the Eastern Cape towns of Indwe and Dordrecht have sustained huge losses of their Merino sheep as they are attacked, killed and mauled by stray dogs. Tim and Sharon Salmon investigate.

It was in 2006, the driest year Australian sheep farmers have ever experienced, that the SA Dohne Merino came into its own, delivering excellent lamb crops and wool clips. Former South African Dohne Merino breed director Cameron McMaster gives a first-hand account of the phenomenal success of this South African breed in Australia.