Caxton Magazines
What’s the deal with food prices?
Farmers and producer organisations have expressed concern that while food prices are increasing at retail level they aren't receiving more for their products.
Issue Date: 16 February 2007
Issue Date: 16 February 2007
Can farmers increase their share of the retail Rand?
'Well-planned and correctly managed on-farm value adding can become a very lucrative business. Issue date 23 February 2007
Bioethanol may boost prices – but not for long
by Dr Koos Coetzee an agricultural economist at the MPO
Issue Date 16 February 2007
Issue Date 16 February 2007
What’s going down the tubes?
Agri Africa Trust has in the past been forced to sell grain at a 'take it or leave it' price due to some silo companies mixing grain grades and thereby jeopardising the original security
certificate. Managing director Jaco de Villiers says the organisation has now committed itself to stop these grain 'tricksters' in their tracks.
Issue date: 23 February 2007
Smarter tomato harvesting
The largest - and what some say, the smartest - three-row tomato harvester has made its debut on the agricultural scene. Joe Spencer describes this impressive implement with its nine pumps that run 38 hydraulic motors to operate various functions.
Issue date: 23 February 2007
Born in 1831 but still going strong
Cyrus McCormick's invention of the first successful mechanical reaper in 1831 revolutionised harvesting productivity. Issue Date:16 February 2007
Protea nutrition: food for thought
Research conducted in Hopefield, Western Cape, aim to show that with an understanding of protea nutrition farmers could improve their protea yields while supporting biodiversity.
Issue date: 23 February 2007
How to convert a pen-raised human
In the fourth article of our habitat planning series, habitat designer Ben Breedlove explains to Roelof Bezuidenhout how to cater for stressed-out but affluent visitors from the city.
Issue date: 23 February 2007
Learn, earn and come back to farm
Young South Africans appear to be in high demand in the United States, especially as seasonal farmworkers.
Stop African horse sickness in its tracks
Issue date: 23 February 2007
Stock theft tops the agenda, but solutions are in sight
Sheep farming in KwaZulu-Natal is reeling from the effects of rampant stock theft, and as a result many farmers have either switched to cattle farming or left agriculture altogether.
Issue date: 23 February 2007
SA’s breadbasket lies fallow while children starve
The fertile valleys and flood plains of the former Transkei boast some of South Africa's best agricultural land. Yet, the region imports most of its food, while infant mortality from malnutrition is rife.
Contract growers could capitalise on katambora
Zimbabwean expatriate Paul Hanly has persevered since he began promoting local katambora rhodes grass seed production for export to the Middle Eastern dairy industry. Issue Date: 16 February 2007
Restore soil tilth free of charge
In the second part of our habitat planning series, habitat designer Ben Breedlove explains how to return the pre-European topsoil to the farm and re-establish the soil tilth necessary for land use optimisation. Roelof Bezudenhout reports.
Issue Date: 9 February 2007
Where animals and humans meet
In the third part of our habitat planning series, biologist and habitat designer Ben Breedlove exlains how to create optimal animal-human meeting points.
Issue Date: 16 February 2007
Spiritual clash over land resolved
The historic Anglican St Augustine Mission near Ladybrand - also known as Modderpoort Mission - sacred for Anglicans and African Independent Church pilgrims, is an example of how land and its emotive value can lead to direct conflict. Mike Burgess visits the mission to uncover how history brought the Anglicans and African Independent church pilgrims to a head and how this has been resolved.
Five myths in breeding
Retired after many years at the University of the Free State's animal science department, Prof Gert Erasmus talks to Roelof Bezuidenhout about five myths in breeding and explains why there's no such thing as the “ideal” animal.
Issue Date: 16 February 2007
The Indigenous Veld Goat debuts as SA’s new breed
By mid-February, SA will have five indigenous goat breeds. The Indigenous Veld Goat will soon be officially registered as a breed and a breeders' society established.
Issue Date:9 February 2007
Bumper harvest as farmers rise above race
Too often the South African dream of a united, prosperous farming sector has turned into a nightmare of land invasions, boundary disputes and farm murders. Now a small community of grape exporters in North West is showing the dream can come true if a few simple rules are followed. Issue Date: 9 February 2007
Crop census to gauge data reliability
In an effort to make crop estimates more reliable, the Maize Trust of South Africa has commissioned SiQ, a company specialising in field surveying, agricultural statistics and software development, to conduct a census of planted crops this season.
