The recently released 2020/2021 summer crop planting estimates from the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) indicate that farmers have planted about a 6,2% larger area to grain and oilseed crops at 4,19 million hectares.

The largest gainers were soya bean with a 14,33% increase in planted area to 806 000ha, which could easily yield about 1,53 million tons and set a new record for the harvest and planted area, according to Paul Makube, agricultural economist at FNB.

“Having surged to R10 000/t earlier this month, which placed pressure on livestock feeding margins, the increased output will improve the availability of the local crop and reduce the level of pricing.”

He said in the case of maize, the estimate of 2,78 million hectares, which could easily yield about 16,4 million tons of maize alone, was an estimate “just shy” of the record 16,82 million tons achieved during the 2016/2017 season.

“The preliminary area estimate for white maize is 1,7 million hectares, which represents an increase of 5,27% or 85 200ha compared with the 1,616 million hectares planted last season.

“In the case of yellow maize, the area estimate is 1,07 million hectares, which is 8,09% or 80 500ha more than the 994 500ha planted last season,” the CEC report said.

“Prices should start moderating in the near term and possibly fall in the second half of 2021. This is good news from an inflation perspective, as well as a positive development for livestock producers as feed costs are likely to decrease given the cheaper raw feed input costs,” Makube said.

For winter crops, the wheat harvest estimate (the sixth) showed a slight contraction from the previous estimate, but was still at a record high of 2,11 million tons, up 37% year-on-year (y/y).

The CEC said the total production for winter grain crops were as follows: “The expected production in the Western Cape is 1,09 million tons (52%), in the Free State 413 600t (20%), and in the Northern Cape 271 950t (13%).”

Makube stressed that the liquor ban would have a ripple effect on the barley value chain as none or little income and bulging stocks from recent operations would have a negative impact downstream.

“The latest data update from the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) show unutilised stock of [over] 719 300t as of December 2020, which is 25% and 49% higher relative to the November 2020 and December 2019 levels respectively.”

“The expected canola crop is 166 956t, which is 2,27% or 3 700t more than the previous forecast of 163 256t. The area estimate for canola is 74 120 ha, with an expected yield of 2,25t/ha. It is also the largest expected canola crop ever recorded for South Africa.

“The expected oats crop for 2020 is 52 400t, which is 10,55% or 5 000t more than the previous forecast of 47 400t. The area estimate is 26 200ha and the expected yield is 2t/ha,” the CEC report said.

The revised area planted and production figures will be released by the CEC on 25 February.

After starting the year with fuel price increases of more than 40c/ℓ for petrol and 55c/ℓ for diesel, the Automobile Association (AA) indicated that it expected the petrol price for both grades to increase sharply by more than 80c/ℓ in February.

The wholesale price of diesel was expected to increase by around 60c/ℓ.

According to the AA, the price of 95 octane petrol would jump from R14,86/ℓ to R15,68/ℓ during the first week of February, and the price of 0,05% and 0,005% wholesale diesel would increase from around R13/ℓ to R13,60/ℓ.

According to Dawie Maree, head of information and marketing at FNB Agriculture, the most significant factor that would determine fuel prices in the coming months was the extent to which demand would return to normal levels.

He explained that the price of Brent crude oil was directed by global economic growth.

“As the world recovers after the COVID-19 pandemic and economies start to grow, demand for oil will increase and thus put upward pressure on prices. This, coupled with a very likely volatile exchange rate, will cause fuel prices in South Africa to rise.”

Maree said the next couple of months could be volatile for the rand, which was expected to trade at between R14,50 to R16,50 against the US dollar.

He said this could largely be attributed to weak local economic growth prospects, the pandemic and the possibility of “more waves” of infection, as well as local and global politics.

Hugo Pienaar, chief economist at the Bureau for Economic Research, said he expected the price of diesel to rise to R14,75/ℓ by the end of the year.

“Given the assumption that the oil price is largely stable this year, rising to US$57/barrel [about R857/barrel] by year-end, with the rand weakening to R15,85/US dollar, the inland petrol price could rise to R17/ℓ by the end of the year. It all depends on the oil price and rand exchange rate,” he added.

The increase in fuel prices would notably be felt by small-scale farmers who did not benefit from economies of scale.

According to Thandokwakhe Sibiya, strategic support executive at the South African Farmers’ Development Association (SAFDA), many small-scale sugar cane producers already farmed on small plots that were not economically viable.

These farmers also tended to be located far from the sugar mills where they had to deliver their crops, which meant they incurred high transport costs.

“When you analyse the cost structure of these farmers, one of the big contributors to farming costs is haulage and transport, contributing about 26% to total input costs.”

Further fuel price hikes would only continue to erode the slim margins for these farmers, he said.

A decision on whether the 2021 Nampo Harvest Day will go ahead in a physical format will be taken at a meeting to be held on Thursday, 4 February.

The majority of large agricultural shows such as Nampo were cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 related lockdown regulations. The 2020 event, which would have taken place at Nampo Park near Bothaville in the Free State in May last year, was initially postponed to August but was ultimately cancelled.

It was replaced by the first Nampo Virtual, which took place in September last year and was hosted as an online event.

According to Toit Wessels, assistant manager for Nampo and marketing at Grain SA, a survey had been sent out to exhibitors to determine whether they would prefer a physical format for the 2021 event, and the results were expected to provide a clearer picture for the council meeting on 4 February.

Other subjects under discussion would be a possible change of the dates for the event, and the possibility of staging a smaller event. The outcome will be communicated to the industry once a decision had been made, he said.

“We would like to host a Nampo 2021 maybe not in May, but later in the year, [but will have to] wait for the decision.”

Wessels said that the organisers would probably support a smaller Nampo, which would be run at 70% of capacity, with smaller numbers of people visiting the show, rather than hosting an online event again.

However, he said one of the challenges to hosting the event was that government was currently not allowing expos to be held, while COVID-19-related regulations with regard to gatherings of large groups of people also posed a challenge.

Some of the things that visitors could still look forward to at this year’s Nampo, whether in physical or online format, would be exhibitors showcasing the latest vehicles and machinery, as well as new technology, Wessels said.

At Pienaarsrivier, a grain and sheep farm near Riversdale in the Southern Cape, farm owner Kobus Horne and his sheep production manager, Dirk Liebenberg, have significantly improved production efficiency and reduced costs through their use of technology and a carefully planned management system.

One of the most noticeable features of the farm is the careful way in which the production facilities have been positioned and structured for the animals’ comfort and for ease of movement and management.

The handling facility, shearing shed, feedlot, lambing shed, feed mill and camps for rams, in-lamb ewes, and ewes with lambs are all set within a radius of a few hundred metres.

Computerised scale system
At the handling facility, which is set out in the shape of a wagon wheel, Liebenberg and his team use a computerised scale that sorts the animals into one of five pens based on pre-programmed instructions.

The animals are sorted primarily according to weight, and the ewes are separated according to the number of lambs they are carrying. The computer identifies the animals by reading their radio frequency identity tags, which are attached to their ears when they are two days old.

“Where we used to take at least six hours to weigh and sort 1 200 sheep, we’re now able to do so in less than two hours,” says Liebenberg.

The technology also allows for better utilisation of labour and enables Liebenberg and his team to monitor the growth of feedlot animals more carefully.

“Animals in the feedlot are weighed weekly and sold as soon as they weigh 48kg. We also sell those that aren’t picking up weight anymore, as we can’t afford to keep freeloaders.”

Management
The farm has three production groups, each comprising 1 200 Merino ewes. The ewes lamb every nine months, in January, October, April or July depending on the group’s production cycle.

Each group is divided into four subgroups, each of 300 ewes, to spread the lambing season over the month. The aim, says Liebenberg, is to obtain new lambs every second week, stretched over six weeks.

The farm boasts a weaning percentage of 140% per season, but having four lambing cycles in three years pushes the weaning percentage up to an impressive 180% per year. This translates into 1 800 lambs for every 1 000 ewes that reproduce each year, as opposed to 1 400 if there were only one lambing season a year.

The ewes are synchronised for breeding when their lambs are weaned at 100 days old, with first-timers being included in the group once they reach 48kg. The farm’s top-performing animals, making up one of the four subgroups, are superovulated for laparoscopic insemination with semen from two rams bought in for the purpose.

“The idea with the top subgroup is to improve the farm’s genetic stock. The selection of rams to use on the group will therefore be based on specific traits that we might want to improve,” says Liebenberg.

The other three subgroups are placed with teaser rams before being serviced by the fertile rams.

A ratio of one ram for every five ewes is used and they are run together for just three days. Two weeks later, the ewes are placed for 17 days with Dormer rams, which service those ewes that failed to conceive with the first breeding attempt.

The ewes are scanned 35 days later to ascertain the number of lambs they are carrying and, based on the size of the foetuses, whether these are Dormer hybrids. Ewes that are still not in lamb are sold the next day.

“The system can’t accommodate ewes that don’t conceive, as we work with too many sheep. We produce around 700 ewes with each breeding cycle, of which 200 will have to be culled,” explains Liebenberg.

The 120 rams used for breeding are subjected to fertility tests every six months to ensure they can perform. Most of the ewes and breeding rams are kept until they are five years old, after which they are sold, irrespective of their productive performance.

Lambing house
Three weeks before the lambing season starts, ewes are sorted according to the number of lambs they are carrying.

They are thereafter kept in large camps near the lambing facility, and fed ad lib so that they are well able to look after their lambs and regain condition rapidly afterwards. Taking the ewes off the veld and feeding them pellets also helps prepare them for the feed they will receive in the lambing pens.

They are moved into pens in the lambing house the day before they are due to lamb.

“The ewes carrying multiples usually lamb earlier than those carrying singletons, with the time of lambing ranging from 145 to 150 days after being serviced,” says Liebenberg.

Birth data, such as date of birth and number of lambs, is recorded on a white card attached to each lambing pen, to be incorporated into the rest of the farm’s production records.

Each lamb receives an energy booster within 12 hours after birth, and their navels are treated with iodine to prevent infection. Two days later, RFID tags are attached to their ears and they receive another energy booster.

Singletons (along with their ewes) are removed from the pens when they are four days old. Liebenberg and his team carefully monitor the growth of twins and higher multiples before releasing them in order to ensure they are strong enough to cope outside.

The lambing facility is thoroughly cleaned between entries to prevent a build-up of parasites and diseases.

In addition, the bedding, comprising straw, shavings and sheep manure, is collected after each batch of animals leaves the pens, and added to material collected from the feedlot to make compost. This is spread over the farm’s wheat lands to boost soil health and structure before planting.

Larger camps
Once they leave the facility, the ewes and their lambs are moved to a series of camps of increasing size at three-day intervals to ensure strong bonding and to identify potential problems.

During the first stage, the ewes and their lambs are kept in small camps, at five ewes plus their lambs per camp, alongside the lambing shed.

They are then merged into groups of 10 in slightly larger camps behind the small camps, and thereafter to even larger camps at a stocking rate of 20 ewes plus lambs per camp. Finally, they are moved to the largest camps, each of which holds 40 ewes and their lambs.

Creep feed is introduced at the last camp. Although the lambs consume little of this at first, it helps them get used to the pellets and eases the transition from milk to solids when they are weaned, according to Liebenberg.

When the lambs are 21 days old, they and their ewes are moved onto pastures or veld on the rest of the farm. At 45 days, the lambs are tattooed and their tails docked to prevent blowfly problems. They are also dewormed and given a multivitamin product at the same time.

At 70 days, they receive an inoculate against the major diseases prevalent in the region, anti-parasitic medication and a multivitamin and mineral supplement. The ram lambs also receive a product that stimulates their appetite, helping to accelerate growth.
When they are 100 days old, the lambs are once again dosed, inoculated, and given multivitamins and minerals.

Selection
The Merino lambs are weaned at the age of 100 days, and the hybrids at 75, as hybrid vigour results in accelerated growth. The ram lambs and hybrid ewe lambs are then moved to the feedlot, close to the sorting camp.

An expert contractor then helps to physically evaluate the build and fleece quality of the ram lambs produced by laparoscopic insemination. The top rams are kept for the farm, and the rest sold to other farmers.

Liebenberg says that they are planning to select only polled rams in future to prevent accidental injuries.

The remaining animals are finished in the feedlot. Here they are fed ad lib, with the troughs being refilled automatically under the control of a smart auger system that senses the amount of feed left. They are sold once they reach 48kg, with the first animals usually market-ready within two weeks.

Shearing
The sheep are sheared twice a year, in February and August. “The farm is too busy to shear at other times, as we have to plant in April and harvest from October,” says Liebenberg.

Shearing represents about 40% of the income from sheep, and lamb sales the remainder.

The goal is to produce fibre with a diameter of 18 to 20 microns, but this has to be balanced with the volumes of fleece produced.

“We aim for at least 5kg to 6kg of wool per sheep, ewes and lambs included,” says Liebenberg.

He adds that the feed influences the thickness of the wool, with sheep on good-quality lucerne producing a stronger fibre, and those on poorer-quality feed producing finer wool.

Liebenberg explains that Pienaarsrivier’s intensive sheep management system, which requires considerable planning and management, was not thought out overnight, but grew systematically out of lessons learnt over the years.

“Having to switch to a system like ours would be overwhelming if you had to change everything in a short time, but we’ve refined our system over time so that it works for us. Today, it‘s embedded in the way we do things, almost like second nature.”

Email Kobus Horne at horne@easycoms.co.za.

South Africa’s wine industry is finally heading to court over the third liquor ban that was compounding financial losses already suffered by wine farms, retailers and related businesses during previous COVID-19 lockdown related bans on the sale of alcoholic drinks.

In a statement, Vinpro indicated that it would approach the Western Cape High Court to ask for urgent interim relief, which would afford the Premier of the Western Cape the power to adopt deviations to enable off- and on-consumption sale of liquor in the province.

The matter is set down for a hearing on Tuesday, 5 February.

The third ban on liquor sales was announced on 28 December 2020 as part of harsher lockdown measures that were implemented due to a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections, and according to government it was intended to free up hospital beds that would normally be taken up by liquor-related trauma cases.

Vinpro said it was believed that a more flexible, nimble approach was needed, based on credible empirical data, in which provincial authorities should be empowered to deal with the retail sale of liquor during the remainder of the pandemic.

The organisation explained that provincial authorities were normally responsible for regulating the sale of liquor, and were in charge of healthcare and provincial hospitals. Therefore, local government was better equipped to manage “the delicate balance between lives and livelihoods”.

“Also, the pandemic affects provinces differently at any given point in time, and capacity requirements in hospitals will therefore differ across the country. Despite this, government has never differentiated between provinces when it comes to implementing or lifting of the liquor ban.

“Instead, a nationwide ban has been imposed and then again lifted, without regard for the circumstances in individual provinces.”

According to Vinpro, the number of new infections, active cases and hospital admissions were dropping across the country, particularly in the Western Cape, which made the liquor ban no longer justified in the Western Cape.

“Accordingly, [if] the situation does not change for the worse, and if the liquor ban is still in force in the Western Cape by 5 February, the Western Cape High Court will be asked to invalidate Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s ban in the Western Cape with immediate effect.”

Vinpro added that ultimately, similar relief would be sought in respect of other provinces.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said during his weekly digital press conference on COVID-19 that he fully supported Vinpro’s action. He said he supported the allocation of more federal powers to local authorities, as well as managing ‘hot spot areas’ for the rest of the year.

“The Eastern Cape and parts of the Western Cape went into an earlier lockdown and I supported the differential approach, but now it seems as if we are all coming out of it at the same time. In future, we need to be able to differentiate to manage the virus, but also in balance with the economy,” he said.

The recent foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in Namibia at the end of 2020 was largely contained and did not pose a threat to areas south of the veterinary cordon fence in the north of the country, according to Thinus Pretorius, chairperson of Nambia’s Livestock Producers’ Organisation (LPO).

The veterinary cordon fence divided the veterinary buffer zone and the veterinary surveillance zone, and commenced at Palgrave Point on the west coast of Namibia, running to a point on the common border between Namibia and Botswana.

According to a directive by the Namibian Department of Veterinary Services, the outbreak occurred at the Onamulunga Village in the Olokunda constituency on 29 December.

Two cattle showed clinical signs of the disease and the constituency was consequently declared an infected area. FMD surveillance was intensified to determine the extent of the outbreak and farmers were requested to subject their animals for inspection by veterinary officials.

Farmers’ Weekly previously reported that the LPO’s concern about the poor management of the veterinary cordon fence resulted in the Meat Board of Namibia getting involved in the management of the fence.

Pretorius said the meat board had provided logistical support, funded by the livestock producers’ levy. The levy was initially earmarked to support Namibia’s organised agricultural structures as well as market development and analysis.

“Following a decision taken in the last quarter of 2020, a portion of the levy is now channeled to the meat board for the purpose of the upkeep of the cordon fence. However, the Department of Veterinary Services ultimately remains in charge of the fence,” Pretorius added.

So far, the meat board has conducted extensive inspections along the fence. Pretorius said the part of the fence (640km) that stretched from the Botswana border to Oshivello was in an acceptable condition. The meat board had also deployed private contractors to upgrade all surveillance points.

“It must nevertheless be kept in mind that farmers to the north of the fence farm communally and that the traditional grazing areas often straddle the Angolan border. FMD is endemic in that country The Kwanyama tribe’s ancestral lands, for instance, occur on both sides of the border and cattle movements across occur regularly. This makes it extremely difficult to manage diseases such as FMD north of the cordon fence,” Pretorius said.

The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza recently gazetted the new statutory citrus export levy for 2021, which has been welcomed by the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa (CGA).

Justin Chadwick, CEO of the CGA, said the statutory levy increased from 74c per 15kg carton in 2020 to R1,64 per carton in 2021.

The levy has been gazetted for four years from 2021 to 2024. The increases for 2022 to 2024 were R1,68; R1,73; and R1,79 respectively.

He added that the response from export citrus producers had been overwhelmingly positive.

Chadwick said that there were about 1 400 citrus growers that exported their fruit and paid levies on export cartons, which would provide an additional income of R134 million.

The funding received from these levies would be utilised for research, transformation in the sector, increased market access and administration, logistics, and information.

The improvements in terms of research would take the industry to the next level by providing government with all the information they needed to finalise market access negotiations, he said.

He added that it would also “provide the industry with the tools to remain compliant with phytosanitary and sanitary requirements, to produce excellent quality [fruit] and to be responsible environmental stewards.”

According to the Government Gazette of 11 December as set out by Didiza, the statutory citrus export levy built on the statutory levy introduced in 2008, and would not be detrimental to the number of employment opportunities or fair labour practice, and would only affect role players in the citrus industry.

The statutory export levy aimed to maintain the position of South Africa as one of the largest producers of fresh citrus in the world.

A recent ruling in the South African Land Claims Court (SALCC) has opened a door for landowners to successfully achieve court orders compelling farm dwellers to reduce their livestock numbers on overstocked land.

According to KwaZulu-Natal-based labour and land law attorney, Rob McCarthy, of McCarthy and Associates Attorneys, a landowner in Mpumalanga had long been trying to have a farm dweller on his property reduce his livestock numbers on the 112ha of grazing that the landowner had allocated to the farm dweller.

“The condition of the designated area for the occupier to graze his [livestock] was being jeopardised due to the occupier grazing more livestock in his designated grazing area than was sustainable. This resulted in severe overgrazing and extensive damage to the grazing in the designated area,” said McCarthy, who represented this landowner in the SALCC.

He explained that the landowner had obtained a Veld Condition Assessment Report conducted by the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs.

This report was compiled in terms of the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act 43 of 1983 (CARA). CARA obliged owners and users of agricultural land to use such land in a responsible manner, including by preventing overgrazing, to avoid its productivity being diminished.

“The learned Judge Spilg decided […] in favour of the farmer [and] granted an order for the removal of the occupier’s [livestock] in order to give effect to the directives in the [Veld Condition Assessment] Report. Judge Spilg stated during the hearing […] that we have a duty to protect agricultural land, and that courts also have a duty to protect agricultural land,” McCarthy said.

Both McCarthy and Sandy La Marque, who is CEO of Kwanalu, separately told Farmer’s Weekly that Spilg’s order was “ground-breaking” and “precedent setting”.

La Marque said that in circumstances where farm dwellers reneged on either a formal or informal “gentleman’s agreement” with a landowner regarding how many animals he/she may graze on a particular area of land, this frequently led to many land rights issues.

These issues included tensions between landowners and farm dwellers, as well as a trend of “expropriation by self” where farm dwellers began acting as if the land belonged to them.

“If we are now able to use CARA and this latest judgement as tools [in future similar court cases], it will be very helpful to landowners,” La Marque said.

McCarthy said that Spilg’s court order highlighted the importance of a landowner obtaining a Veld Condition Assessment Report if the landowner believed that his/her farm was being overgrazed by the livestock of a farm dweller.

Such a report would be “an effective way” of proving the extent of such overgrazing and of providing possible measures to rehabilitate the degraded agricultural resource.

“Our goal is to preserve the original Nguni traits by letting nature guide us,’’ says Clive Biggs, who, with his father, Lionel, and brother, Brian, is a member of the LBC Biggs Trust.

This approach, in a nutshell, is the main breeding objective of the family’s Nandi Nguni stud of 700 breeding female animals, one of the oldest and largest Nguni studs in South Africa.

The Nandi stud, which is run on sourveld at an altitude of between 1 600m and 2 100m, is expected to produce efficiently despite minimal inputs.

The herd’s abilities under these extensive conditions are continually fine-tuned by selection from some of the finest Nguni bloodlines to improve functional efficiency, adaptability, disease resistance, fertility, balanced milk production, mothering ability and productive longevity.

“A central factor in improving our herd has been the use of the best genetics we could find,’’ explains Clive. “There are some bloodlines that have proven to be the best, and today, we have a combination of some of the oldest.’’

The development of Nandi Ngunis
As early as 1977, Lionel and his older brother Victor began selecting Ngunis while farming in Matatiele in the Eastern Cape. The brothers’ involvement in livestock speculation enabled them to source optimal Nguni-type genetics eight years before the Nguni Cattle Breeders’ Society of South Africa was established in 1985.

By early 1979, however, the consolidation of the former Transkei and resultant expropriation of land claimed their farms in the Ongeluksnek area near Matatiele.

Victor saw the loss of his farm as an opportunity to return to the Border region of the Eastern Cape, where he had grown up with his grandfather, but Lionel opted to move to the nearby Cedarville district.

The brothers split their Nguni herd accordingly, and in 2002 Victor dispersed his then commercial herd on the farm Haddon in the Kei Road district, achieving record prices.
Clive was two when the family settled on Mooifontein in Cedarville in 1979.

He and his older brother, Brian, watched the Nandi Nguni stud (registered in 1985) develop in leaps and bounds, thanks to genetics bought from a wide variety of sources: Makhathini Flats (Zululand), the Bartlow Combine Research Station herd (Hluhluwe), the Shashweni Breeders’ Society (Zululand), the Owen Sithole Agricultural College herd (Empangeni), the University of the North herd (in today’s Limpopo), the Natal Parks Board herd, the former Ciskei government herd (at Mpekweni in the Eastern Cape) and the well-known Ngunis of Ted Riley in eSwatini (formerly Swaziland).

Although these genetics played a crucial role early on, considerably more genetics have been sourced countrywide since Brian and Clive became actively involved in the operation.

“Our father started the Nguni herd with passion and with an eye on the future,’’ says Clive. “We’re hoping to do the same, and farm for our children.”

Today, the Biggs’s operation, which is run on 4 500ha, comprises the Nguni stud, 500 commercial Nguni cows, a 400-ewe flock of Nguni goats, and a 100-ewe flock of Meatmaster sheep.

Adapted to tough conditions
The climatic, topographical and grazing challenges of the area place exceptional demands on their Ngunis, which include medium-framed cows with an average weight of 370kg.

“Our Ngunis must be able to maintain their condition through extremely harsh winters on the veld; they have to be hardy and capable of utilising all sourveld grazing in mountainous areas,” says Clive.

He adds that the last few years have seen significant changes to the regional climate, and the Nandi herd has done well to adapt to this too.

“The rainy season has shortened, and our dry periods have become longer. The Nandi Ngunis’ ability to adapt to these conditions has been amazing; the cows walk huge distances for water and still maintain themselves and raise calves.”

The Biggs’s veld management system is based on high-density rotational grazing and sparing selected camps for winter.

During the breeding season, cattle are rotated in camps every two to three days; once the bulls are removed, smaller groups of cows are amalgamated into herds of between 300 and 400 and placed in camps to graze non-selectively and crop the grass short.

With the increased hoof action and large amounts of dung and urine, the soil receives a boost of natural fertiliser to ensure good regrowth.

In February, selected camps are rested until June/July, when the cattle are reintroduced to take them through winter.

Production
The Biggs family gauges the success of beef production by how cost-effectively the maximum number of kilograms of beef can be produced from the veld. Minimising inputs is therefore of crucial importance.

They have, for example, not dipped their cattle during the past 17 years, despite the fact that redwater (both strains) and gallsickness are prevalent in the area. They also keep inoculations to a bare minimum, with five-month-old calves receiving a shot of Covexin 10 (a 10-in-1 clostridial vaccine), while heifer calves get an extra shot of Brucella abortus S19 vaccine.

All the cattle receive a phosphate P6 lick in summer and a 20% urea-based lick in winter, while the only forage crop on the properties is a 20ha block of Eragrostis.

Bulls (90% of which are self-bred because of the broad genetic base provided by the

700 stud female animals) are put to cows in multiple- and single-sire herds. The potency of Nandi bulls is best illustrated by T12 58, who in the past season was put to 80 female animals, of whom 78 were in calf after a three-month breeding season.

Cows and heifers calve from September to November (90%) and February/March (10%), and achieve a herd conception rate of 90% and an average inter-calving period of 402 days.

Stud heifers calve at 35 months and all breeding female animals receive Eragrostis bales on the veld while calving. Late in their gestation, the stud female animals are brought closer to home to calve so that the calves can be tagged and registered.

During this period, the breeding female animals receive Eragrostis hay for about six weeks before being moved back onto the veld.

Calves are weaned at about seven months, by which time they weigh about 50% of their dams’ weight; bull calves average 190kg and heifer calves 180kg.

Every season, half of the stud heifers are kept as replacements and selected bull calves are retained as future herd sires or to be marketed as breeding bulls. All weaner oxen, besides 125 that are grown out exclusively on the veld, are sent to a private feedlot.

After about four months in the feedlot, the weaner oxen achieve an average carcass weight of 210kg, while the oxen on the veld are marketed on reaching an individual weight of about 450kg at an age of three to four years.

“We produce cattle suitable for a feedlot as well as organic, grass-fed animals, raised in their natural environment and sold for quality meat,’’ says Clive.

The sale of genetics
About 30 Nandi stud bulls and 100 stud female animals (including in-calf heifers) are sold at the KZN Nguni Club Sale (in March), KZN Elite Nguni Sale (May), the Sentrale Nguni Club Sale (October) and the National Nguni Sale (November).

According to Clive, demand for female Ngunis is insatiable; in 2001 they sold an in-calf heifer for R45 000, which remains their top price for a female animal. “We can’t keep up with the demand for females,’’ he says.

This year’s KZN Elite Nguni Sale took place via WhatsApp and exceeded expectations, not only due to T12 58’s world-record price, but the overall prices.

“We sold 100% of our animals. Times are uncertain, especially in lockdown, so we were very happy with the prices and the interest shown in the cattle.”

Phone Clive Biggs on 082 308 8568.

The mango harvest is in full swing, and an increase in volume on the market has led to pressure on prices.

Johann du Preez, operational manager at Bavaria Fruit Estate, said they had started harvesting last week and that feedback from the marketplace was that the season had begun about a week earlier than last year, with bigger volumes already on the market.

“[While] the volumes [on the market] aren’t that much higher [than last year], the market is sluggish, with everybody reporting that buyers are opting for volume-for-money products.”

While the harvest this season was slightly higher than the 70 000t produced in the 2019/2020 season, this was still below the five-year average of 84 000t, as previously reported by Farmer’s Weekly.

He added that direct feedback from sellers was that shoppers were staying home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and not venturing out as often as usual to purchase fresh produce.

“This is obviously not good for farmers, since peak season is coming, and mangoes have to be picked when they’re ready.”

Du Preez said that farmers would have to juggle supply between export, fresh sales, factories, and direct sales to hawkers, while problems with fruit transport and shipping schedules made exports a challenge, too.

“The overseas situation is not favourable, with the strengthening of the rand, oversupply of Brazilian fruit on the market, and the COVID-19 measures in the UK dampening the sales of fresh and fresh-cut [fruit salad] sales,” said Du Preez.

According to Derek Donkin, CEO of the South African Subtropical Growers’ Association, the current market price for a 4kg carton of mangoes was between R38 and R40, and around R20 for a 2kg carton.

Donkin added that lower prices meant lower profits for producers.

“As with any product, there is a threshold beyond which sales are no longer profitable. This will differ from grower to grower depending on their yields and production costs.”

He said that increased supply had brought on the current lower prices.