Field Crops

Angelo De Andrade has earned Agri Gauteng's Young Farmer of the Year award by processing his own produce on the farm while still supplying fresh produce markets. His family partnership with his brother John Paul and mother Fernanda has maintained a share in the highly competitive local fresh produce market. Annelie Coleman visited Angelo on Lucky Farm near Westonaria.

The declining profitability of maize on a Viljoenskroon farm in the Free State forced Cobus van Coller to diversify into livestock.

By incorporating vermicomposting and worm-casting tea in its apple production system, Clan Leslie Estate has improved its fruit quality, reduced input costs and improved the soil and tree health in its orchards. Hayden Green visited Mike Leslie to find out more.

In 2007 Farmer's Weekly reported on the success of father and son Dirk and Frik van Sittert's no-till practices. Peter Hittersay looks at the continuing no-till success Frik has enjoyed in the three years since then.

Vegetable farmer Gary Fyvie is using green manure crops to replenish tired soil and to fight weeds.He told Robyn Joubert how he sacrificed 6% production for healthier soil over the long term.

Despite repeated calls to plant less maize, producers still managed a bumper maize crop of nearly 14 million tons in the 2009/10 season, pushing maize costs down to import parity.

When Brad Turner began to farm in the Queenstown region in 2005, many in the area warned him about the size limitations of his 900ha stock farm, Mountain Glen. Undaunted, he began producing vegetables under irrigation that today contributes 89% of his turnover, a feat that recently resulted in his crowning as the 2010 Eastern Cape Toyota / Agri SA Young Farmer.

The latest agricultural technology can help farmers improve their maize yields. But, as farm manager Lorenz Freese proves, decades of practical experience combined with old-fashioned hands-on management can get the job done just as well.

Farmers exterminate weeds without understanding their role in soil ecology, says Nutritech Solutions CEO Graeme Sait. An expert on high-production sustainable agriculture, he spoke to Sonja Burger about the potential benefits of weeds and alternatives to controlling them with herbicide.

Seed companies are outdoing themselves in developing new maize cultivars.The national maize cultivar trials, conducted by the Agricultural Research Council, looked at newcomers and old favourites to give maize producers independent research to help them select cultivars for the coming season. In this first part of a series, the focus falls on KwaZulu-Natal. Alita van der Walt reports.

Cheeky, the newest blushed-pear variety to be released to the South African industry, is the result of 16 years of hard work by renowned plant breeder Taaibos Human. Industry sources see it as the first significant new addition to South Africa's range of pear varieties in two decades, an early ripening variety that can be marketed before the highly profitable and popular Forelle.

A mission station in the rural hilltops of KwaZulu-Natal has diversified into a range of agricultural activities, but peppers grown under state-of-the-art greenhouses and export avocados are the main commercial crops. Robyn Joubert reports on an extraordinary farming enterprise.

Local farmers would do well to emulate the UK's approach of double-cropping, ecologist Ben Breedlove tells Roelof Bezuidenhout. So, instead of just harvesting a planted crop, why not also slash inputs with beneficial insects, and lure hunters to harvest increased bird populations.

Ben Krog, MD of fertiliser company Profert, understands there’s more to soil health than piling on chemicals. He told Annelie Coleman about the vital role played by soil microorganisms, especially when it comes to sequestering carbon and countering the effects of climate change.

A vegetable farmer in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, who converted to biological crop production, has significantly increased yield, improved quality and reduced input costs. Robyn Joubert reports.

Nutrient-rich dairy slurry was once considered a liability and a pollutant, but the current high fertiliser price has changed all that, says dairy technical consultant Gavin Brockett. Robyn Joubert spoke to him.

The winner of the Berg River Table Grape Competition for 2008 Johann Britz of the farm Tweespruit near Paarl, chose a pitted grape cultivar because he believed it was best-suited to his farm’s terroir. With attention to detail, he now exports a quality product and is expanding his vineyards, writes Wouter Kriel.

While humates are promoted as an almost magic potion by some, sub-standard products have battered their reputation. Glenneis Erasmus talked to several agriculturists to find out what they are, how to use them and how to ensure product quality.

In South Africa, eradicating invasive woody alien vegetation for alternative land use is normally a relatively heavy-handed method involving big drums of diesel or water and herbicide.

While much is still uncertain about the local biofuel industry, Mozambique is already planting vast jatropha plantations for biodiesel production. The country's minister of Science and Technology has announced that it aims to become the Brazil of Africa. Fanie van Rooyen went to Mozambique to visit what's probably one of the biggest jatropha plantations in the world, and discovered it's run by a South African.