Staff Reporter

The John Deere SMART campaign is using the brand’s renowned machines, hands-on training and its huge dealer network to help new era farmers profit from mechanisation.

In general, South African investors have seen meagre returns on their savings and retirement portfolios over the past few years. Indeed, some wonder whether it would not be better to stash their money under the mattress. Jaco Visser spoke to a number of investment managers about the products that are available and which investment strategies are likely to deliver the best returns.

Dr Safiah Ma’Ali, a senior researcher at the Agricultural Research Council’s Grain Crops Institute, outlines a recent South Africa study demonstrating that farmers can significantly improve sunflower oil content and yield by adjusting planting dates.

The 2017 Census of Commercial Agriculture by Statistics South Africa showed that the total number of farming units involved in commercial agriculture in that year 2017 was 40 122, and that these farms used 46,4 million hectares of land.

High environmental temperature is the most common stressor of chickens in South Africa.

This indigenous fat-rumped meat breed does well in arid semi-desert, savanna bushveld and coastal spekboom veld. The lambs mature early.

With full aftermarket service and rapid response times, John Deere ensures peace of mind for farmers.

This winter weed is widespread throughout Southern Africa. It has small seeds and is a shallow germinator.

In this episode of the Weekly Wrap podcast, Farmer’s Weekly editor, Denene Erasmus, and journalist, Sabrina Dean, discuss the top stories featured in the 22 & 29 May issue of the magazine. They discuss how the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) will affect South Africa’s imports of wheat, a commodity for which the country is a net importer, for the rest of the year.

Sunburn and related disorders, such as sunscald, can cause substantial losses of marketable produce and revenue. Drape Net, imported and distributed by Nulandis, offers farmers a durable, easy-to-install, cost-effective solution to protect their expensive crop investment.

The livestock auction industry in South Africa has suffered major setbacks during the past six months.

Dr Louis du Pisani, national manager for production advice and development at the National Wool Growers’ Association, explores how livestock farmers can mitigate the negative effects of climate change on their operations.

This crop is targeted by a wide range of pests. Infestation will vary from place to place, and from season to season, but some form of pest control will invariably be necessary.

In this episode of the Weekly Wrap podcast, Farmer’s Weekly editor, Denene Erasmus, and journalist, Sabrina Dean, discuss the top stories featured in the 15 May issue of the magazine. Erasmus also provides an update on how the recently announced closure of Caxton Magazines will affect Farmer’s Weekly.

Why produce pecan nuts when you wait many years to break even, and even longer to make a decent profit?

The focus of our special Covid-19 pandemic Weekly Wrap podcast series now turns to smallholder and emerging farmers, and the impact of Covid-19, and related restrictions on trade, on these farmers as Farmer’s Weekly speaks to Aggrey Mahanjana, group managing director of the National Emergent Red Meat Producers’ Organisation.

Multispray manufactures and imports a wide spectrum of water spraying systems for the agricultural sector, and for any institution or business that requires a spraying solution.

As promised last week, Farmer’s Weekly is providing free access to its second digital issue, the 8 May issue. This magazine will be on its website from Thursday, 30 April, and features an article on the financial assistance available to farmers affected by COVID-19, as well as an article on macadamia production. It also features an article on how livestock farmers can rebuild their herds and restore their veld, as well as recover financially, after drought. The issue also includes a review of the latest Pannar soya bean varieties, while an Eastern Cape farmer shares his experience of farming Sussex cattle on sourveld in a mountainous part of the province.

At the start, it’s better to erect less fencing than what is indicated by the initial farm plan.

In this second part of a special two-part edition of the Weekly Wrap podcast, Dr John Purchase, CEO of Agbiz, in an interview with Farmer’s Weekly journalist Sabrina Dean, explains in more detail how the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and related restrictions have affected various farming industries and agribusinesses.