Caxton Magazines
Freeze, you’re branded
Freeze branding is not a new concept to South African agriculture, yet it is only in recent years that it has gained in popularity among dairy farmers to facilitate easier herd management.
Lloyd Phillips discovers how freeze branding works, and how it helps farmers.
Is there a future for derivatives in SA’s wine industry?
Surplus wine in global markets is squeezing the profitability of many South African wine farmers. It has been proposed that a derivative instrument should be introduced for the wine industry to help stabilise bulk wine prices and create transparency for all industry role-players. In principle this would be similar to the futures market on which SA grain farmers can trade to hedge price risks.
Communal land: a breeding ground for corruption
A law privatising millions of hectares of communal land has been held up for years by court action and opposition from traditional leaders. In the meantime, pressure on adjacent commercial farming districts keeps increasing, with tensions reaching breaking point in some areas.
Charter: business size clarified
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) should announce how it intends determining whether a farming business is characterised as large, medium or small for the purposes of AgriBEE by the end of the month
Issue Date: 2 February 2007
Eva’s boss denies farm-school ban
The owner of the farm where Kenneth Eva was murdered some weeks ago has denied allegations that he has now banned children from the neighbouring tribal community from attending the farm school on his land.
Issue Date: 2 February 2007
Eskom pulls plug on farmers
National electricity provider Eskom's load-shedding to minimise strain on the country's power infrastructure was met with irritation and outrage from farmers.
Issue Date: 2 February 2007
The truth about bypass protein
The long-awaited results of a study into the economics of strategic protein supplementation of late pregnant and lactating sheep and Angora goats have been released by agricultural researcher Jan Hoon of Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute at Middelburg in the Eastern Cape.
Should agriculture take over the game industry?
The draft policy on national game farming recently came under review. Roelof Bezuidenhout speaks to Eastern Cape rancher Arthur Rudman who attended the review workshop and who fully supports the agriculture department's involvement in the game industry.
Empowerment: the secret to its success
'You're either in, or you're out!' Glenneis Erasmus reports on the Hex River Valley farmers and farmworkers who are 'in' and making transformation work.
Organic oils – scents of success
Stuart and Grant McMurray are reaping the rewards of essential oil production in Zululand, KZN, after identifying the need for a South African operation that could supply the growing international demand for the organic product.
Milking better health and learning for all South Africans
The dairy industry and various government departments are hoping to join forces to introduce a school milk progamme to improve the health and learning abilities of South Africa's children.
An agricultural odyssey Down Under
It's big, it's flat, it's a land of extremes - including blistering droughts. But while farming remains a fundamental part of Australian life, it has taken a heavy toll on the enviroment. Chris and Mathilde Stuart take a tour of Australia and discovered problems that make South African farmers' woes seem almost manageable.
Living his farming dream among sticks and stones
'Farming is not for sissies', says emerging commercial farmer André Thops of Olyfkloof farm in the Hex River Valley. He sites the lack of cash flow and access to funds as the key restraining factors experienced by emerging farmers. To counter these factors he diversifies his wine grape, olive and broiler chicken operations with
cash crops.
Effective management: the key to emu excellence
Following the article“Untapped emu oil well -a lucrative alternative?”published in Farmer's Weekly on 19 October 2006, SA emu farmer Shane Trollope was inundated with more than 300 enquiries about this new and potentially lucrative enterprise. As a result Shane and the SA Emu Association hosted an Emu Information Day on his farm. Lloyd Phillips discovers some valuable management tips for aspirant emu farmers.
Perspective – 19 January 2007
Achatina immaculata play an important role in African culture.
Minister skirts the issues
After appearing hours late for a press briefing in Beaufort West last month, land and agriculture minister Lulama Xingwana gave guarded responses to TAU SA's memorandum to the Department of Agriculture, and accusations that she used “hate speech” at the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children function in Pretoria
McCain to aid emerging potato sector
Emerging potato farmers are set to benefit the most from McCain Foods SA's R500-million potato processing expansion investment project at its Delmas, Mpumalanga plant, said the company's managing director, Owen Porteus.
In memoriam: Prof Herbert Ian Behrmann
Well-known agricultural economist Prof Herbert Ian Behrmann died tragically after being hit by a bus in his home city of Pietermaritzburg in KZN recently. He was 88.
Farmers resort to own vaccinations
Farmers in the Dordrecht district in the Eastern Cape have started their own emergency inoculation programme after several cases of rabies were detected in the area and also in the Sterkstroom and Swempoort areas.
‘No U-turn on white Zim farmers’
Prof Sam Moyo, the director of the African Institute of Agrarian Studies in Harare, said Zimbabwe would not change its stance on white commercial farmers who lost their land during the country's land reform programme
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