Field Crops

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.