FARMERS’ DIARIES

Winter is upon us with colder, drier weather in the summer rainfall regions and the winter rains starting in the Western Cape. War in the Ukraine has had some serious consequences for farmers with frightening price increases in animal feed, fuel and ferti

SUNFLOWERS

Happy Mpshe, Jericho, Brits, North West We are about to harvest our sunflower crop in a few weeks. We don’t have our own equipment so we are looking at quotes from a few contractors. Not having your own machinery is a challenge because it increases your costs and eats away at your profits.

Right now we are taking precautions to make sure we keep pre-harvest losses to a minimum. These losses are caused mainly by birds and wild animals like warthogs which can crawl under the electric fence. We go to the lands to inspect the crop regularly and find creative ways to deal with especially the birds.

The warthogs don’t cause a lot of damage as they just trample the crop, they don’t eat it, but the birds eat the sunflower seeds, causing a lot of damage that leads to serious losses. Due to this and other challenges such as poor growth on other parts of the farm because of weeds, we’ve estimated that we will lose about 10ha, which is a lot.

But we are still paying school fees as this is our first sunflower crop.

We are also busy cleaning and de-bushing an additional 40ha so that we can plant 100ha in the next planting season. This time we will plan ahead with some experience and avoid making the same mistakes.

SPINACH

Loretta Visagie, Klipkop, Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng

We have three hectares under shade nets where we grow spinach, which is our main crop. We are currently taking out the old crop from two hectares so that we can start replanting.

Once we’ve taken out the old crop, we’ll start with land preparations. To prepare the soil, we rip and disc before we make the seed beds. We put down animal manure that we source from our own animals. Then we’ll start planting.

Two days after planting we fertilise with 2:3:2 and two weeks after that we put down LAN. We spray depending on the pests and diseases that are prevalent at the time and scout weekly to see which insects are about.

Spinach is an easy crop because you’ll start harvesting from six to eight weeks after planting and then carry on harvesting for at least three months. We also plant broccoli and cabbage on request from Harvest Fresh.

Currently, I’m trying out Chinese spinach and rape in the open field after numerous requests from my hawker clients. This is the first time I’ve planted these crops and they are already looking good in less than a month.

I’m also running a trial on an Indian herb called saffron which is the world’s most expensive spice.

I have just completed a training course on growing saffron and it is said to be a difficult crop but there is a lot of value to producing saffron if one succeeds.

SHEEP

Thabang Tlou, Mmupudung, Brits, North West

We farm Dorper sheep on communal land.

Because of the challenges of farming communal land, we are using a different approach by keeping the rams back at the homestead, and managing them seperately.

We will start with our winter breeding season at the beginning of June when we put the rams in with the ewes. This month we are preparing the ewes and rams.

As part of the preparations, we’ve dosed the rams with Prodose-Orange and provided the necessary trace minerals by giving them Multimin. Prodose Orange takes care of internal parasites, like roundworm, lungworm, milk tapeworm, liver fluke, and nasal worm and protects them against reinfestation with wireworm and hookworm.

It also prevents roundworm eggs present in the animal, at the time of dosing, from hatching. We have vaccinated the animals against pulpy kidney disease before dosing as is recommended.

Multimin is a vitamin and mineral supplement which provides essential trace elements and fat-soluble vitamins to stimulate fertility, immunity, and growth in sheep. The ewes also get Prodose Orange and Multimin.

We flush feed them for three weeks, using maintenance pellets, before we put the rams in. These pellets come prepared with a mix of lucerne and yellow maize as the main ingredients.

During winter, grazing loses a lot of nutritional quality, so we have to provide the rest of the flock with some supplements to maintain their condition. We feed them a mix of crushed yellow maize and lucerne and give them a protein and energy lick.

DAIRY

Siya Minto, Tsitsikamma, Eastern Cape Our milk is produced off multispecies pastures. The grass growth has slowed down with winter’s shorter daylight hours and colder temperatures. Weekly pasture walks keep us up to date with what the grass is doing so that we can manage the pastures in sync with seasonal changes.

The bulk of our herd has been dried off and the dry cows are off the milking platform and getting silage and hay. This season we have made some of our silage out of waste apple which we got at a good price.

The cows start calving at the beginning of June so we now keep a continuous eye on them in case we need to tweak rations for them to maintain body condition. Animals that need to be steamed up will move into the steam-up camps where they go onto a different feeding regime. We want the animals to calve in the best possible condition so that they can reconceive two months after calving to stay in the seasonal calving pattern. We have inseminated for a 60-day calving season, which is 30 days shorter than usual.

The heifers calved during April and their calving season is now over. We calve the heifers first to give them a head start as they take more strain than the mature cows at calving. Calving heifers ahead of the main herd relieves the competition for food and gives them the extra time to get back into condition before they are rebred.

In the run-up to calving this month we sanitise the calf shed and the calf pens, clean gates, feed, and water troughs, and whitewash walls. We have a reliable source of bedding and we make sure that there are enough infra-red lamps and blankets.

June and July are cold months, and it is very important to keep the calves warm when they arrive. Hot water geysers, water lines and water connections, and colostrum meters are all checked so that when calving hits we are not running around solving problems that we should have dealt with prior to calving.

We have also ordered starter rations and vitamin and mineral supplements for the calves. The calving team is looking forward to a good calving season.

CATTLE

Tumelo Ngakanyane, Ganyesa, North West

We run a mixed farming operation with predominantly cattle. We have three herds, Brahman, Bonsmara and Simbra, in the semi-arid area outside Vryburg. We also do some irrigation farming. We have just finished harvesting 8ha of potatoes and some dry beans. This is a quiet time and we can start doing maintenance of equipment and infrastructure which needs attention.

I’ve just separated the bulls from the cows and will be weaning a bunch of calves that were born between October and November last year. Most of them are bull calves which we will fatten in the feedlot before selling them as ready-to-slaughter steers. We also have pregnant cows which will need some extra care as we are in the dry season already.

We feed out baled grass and a mixture of crushed yellow maize and lucerne as supplementary feed. We also give the cattle energy licks to ensure that they maintain their body condition. There is a salt block in each kraal as we have divided the kraals to accommodate the cattle in groups.

The salt helps in many ways, especially in stimulating the appetite of the animals and encouraging water intake.

Cattle need to drink at least 50 litres of water daily and there is always enough fresh water available for the animals.