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In an area where feeding total mixed rations is the norm for dairy production, Jurie and John Hartley milk 1 200 cows off pasture – with impressive results.

Some growers in the Southern Cape are using nets that can easily be draped over tree rows to protect pome fruit against sunburn. Apart from their convenience and flexibility, the new nets cost a fraction of fixed net structures. Daan Brink of Two-a-Day and Ebbie Raubenheimer of Nulandis spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the technology, which was developed in Australia.

Ross Rayner and his father, Roger, farm 40 Nguni cows and 35 Bosvelder-type ewes on 250ha in the Mankazana Valley near Adelaide in the Eastern Cape. Their operation is an example of what value indigenous livestock holds for small-scale farmers.

The Free State consists of many economic sectors, but agriculture is the most important in terms of food security for everybody, including politicians and government officials.

Agri Western Cape’s Young Farmer of the year for 2018, Johann de Wet of De Wetshof Wine Estate, tells Glenneis Kriel how he and his brother, Peter, are keeping their family’s wine-making legacy alive.

Vinpro’s chairperson, Anton Smuts, has called on wine producers and winery directors to stop selling bulk wine at “pathetically low” prices.

The 3,9% increase in total tractor sales from 6 462 units in 2017 to 6 714 units in 2018, has been met with surprise in some quarters, as many parts of South Africa’s 2018/2019 summer grain and oilseed production areas experienced unusually dry conditions in spring and summer last year.

Numerous health benefits have been ascribed to rooibos tea, making it not only a firm favourite among South African tea drinkers, but also across the world.

Researchers have estimated that, over the past four decades, the world has lost a third of its arable land due to erosion or pollution. Solutions are constantly being sought. Frans Joseph and Mias van der Westhuizen of the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development recently tested the mitigating effect of a simple, inexpensive method to address soil erosion.

Many factors influence the current forecasts for the South Africa maize crop and maize prices, and the current drought conditions, in especially North West and some parts of the Free State, should not be compared to the conditions and prices experienced in 2015/2016, according to Wilbie Venter, a grain trader at Unigrain based in Randfontein.

Rural economies in Africa have become zones of economic misery. According to Dr Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, stimulating economic growth in these areas through agriculture and the food industry should be at the top of the development agenda.

The summer rainfall region can expect continued above-average rainfall during late summer, while below-average rainfall is expected during early autumn.