Grazing amazing maize

Research shows that maize is a much more versatile crop than many believe. Roelof Bezuidenhout reports.
Issue date: 28 March 2008

The team at Mahindra in Howick, KwaZulu-Natal is very enthusiastic about the Mahindra tractors that are now coming onto the South African market. To promote the brand, Toby Brown lent a demonstration model 6500 4WD to local farmer Clinton Stead, who farms

The challenge to schedule irrigation

Tests for the viability of a computerised irrigation scheduling system ï¿½ the MyCanesim system ï¿½ have produced positive results for small-scale sugarcane farms in KwaZulu-Natal. This despite the daily running of the trials being undermined by powercuts

Successful canola against all odds

Abrie de Wet recently won the Southern Cape Canola competition with a yield of 2,1t/ha and a gross income of R2 237/ha ï¿½ at a time when many other farmers in the region suffered huge losses due to insects, heavy rains and weed problems. Abrie talks

BEE: a marriage of partners

BEE deals are complex, emotional and a learning curve for both parties. There are serious considerations and stages that both sides must go through in order to achieve success says Vuyo Jack, CEO of Empowerdex.
Issue date: 28 March 2008

Why doesnï¿½t SA eat eggs?

SAï¿½s egg consumption lags far behind other countries ï¿½ what SA consumes in a year, China eats in a day. The Southern African Poultry Association (SAPA) has now embarked on an extensive marketing campaign to encourage higher income groups to eat more eggs.

The iconic cycads

The associated mystery and stately appearance of cycads makes them sought-after in gardens around the world. This demand makes wild populations vulnerable to poachers who illegally harvest cycads to sell on the black market.
Issue date: 14 March 2008

Power from water

Farmers with a stream on their property that offers about an 8m head of water, could generate their own electricity. Mike Clayton, a turner machinist and owner of Mesh Gear Manufacturers in Durban, has the other essential component ï¿½ a compact, sturdy water

When to practice early pruning

Even when a tomato crop is not intended for pruning, there are occasions when some pruning is justified.
Issue date: 14 March 2008

Townie on Dutch courage

We all know Holland is as flat a pancake. So you can imagine the reaction from Wifey Dearï¿½s Dutch relatives when we drove them from the airport to our farm, which is surrounded by mountains well over 2 000m high.
Issue date: 14 March 2008

Home-roasted coffee the African way

For coffee maniacs like me, the search for the perfect cup of coffee is an ongoing quest, filled with the restlessness of a perfectionist running on far too much caffeine.The answer is: do-it-yourself roasting, an adventure you can share just by reading this ï¿½
Issue date: 14 March 2008

Leaders versus followers

Your level of AMBITION, as well as how strongly your desire for success and recognition is connected to your ego, apparently determines the direction you take when pursuing a hobby.
Issue date: 14 March 2008

Medics links wheat & beef

Swartland wheat farmer Philip de Waal caused a stir scooping the 2007 National Cattle Farmer of the Year award in stiff competition with traditional beef producers. But, as three-year-in-a-row recipient of the ARC Western Cape Beef Herd of the Year award,

Mixing Emotion

Reading all the articles about our agriculture minister, one fact is very clear to me Lulama Xingwana clearly has it in for the white farming community.
Issue date: 14 March 2008

Dealing with allergies

Asthma, eczema, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder), nervousness and swelling ï¿½ these ailments may seem unrelated, but they can all be caused by an allergy.
Issue date: 14 March 2008

Itï¿½s the market, stupid!

ï¿½Farmers are production animals ï¿½ but while this is a vital factor for success, most businesses crash because of problems in the markets.ï¿½
Issue date: 14 March 2008

SA agriculture can do without subsidies

ï¿½Agriculture can do without subsidies, but then government will have to live up to its promises.ï¿½
Issue date: 14 March 2008

The human edge

We are told that the chill, deep caverns know as the Sterkfontein Caves today, were once inhabited by primitive ape-men as far back as 4 million years ago. Later, Australopithecus sheltered there. Such prehumans teetered on the brink of survival because

First practical alternative to the tractor PTO

A recent edition of the American Farm Progress magazine reported on the launch of two new John Deere tractor models that can supply electrical power to drive implements. Joe Spencer explains the implications of this technological breakthrough.

Top black farmers left to rot on prime land

While land and agriculture minister Lulama Xingwana makes strident calls for expropriation to speed up land reform, the smallholders at Hereford wait in vain for her department to honour its promises to grant them title to an irrigation scheme they invade

Caxton Magazines