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Intensive sheep farm achieves 180% per year weaning rate
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. ...Read more -
How to deal with mites on poultry
As mentioned in previous articles, farming free-range chickens offers many advantages over running livestock such as cattle or sheep. Not much space is needed, marketing is easy due to high consumer demand, birds grow rapidly, and far less capital outlay is required, particularly if you can grow ...Read more -
Dairy cows exposed to heavy metals worsen antibiotic-resistant pathogen crisis
Dairy cows, exposed for a few years to drinking water contaminated with heavy metals, carry more pathogens loaded with antimicrobial-resistance genes able to tolerate and survive various antibiotics. That’s the finding of a team of researchers that conducted a study of two dairy herds in Br...Read more -
Biosecurity measures on an animal farm
In agriculture, biosecurity refers to procedures to reduce the risk of infectious diseases being transmitted amongst animals. It is an important factor in the livestock industry. Symptoms of a disease may not always be obvious, especially in the early stages of infection. This makes it necessary ...Read more -
Benefits and risks of a digitised farm sector
Digital technology is rapidly transforming all stages of the value chain, from the farm to the table. Its adoption is improving efficiency, creating new jobs, generating new income streams and saving resources. Digital technology can help markets function better and improve farmers’ access to the...Read more -
Predicting the Animal Susceptibility and Therapeutic Drugs to SARS-CoV-2 Based on Spike Glycoprotein Combined With ACE2
Recently, a few animals have been frequently reported to have been diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Whether they are SARS-CoV-2 intermediate hosts is worthy of great attention. The interaction of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and its acceptor protein ACE2 is...Read more -
Traits that could boost livestock productivity found
African indigenous cattle have traits that enable them to survive blistering heat, drought and diseases such as trypanosomiasis, giving hope of breeding a new, superior generation that could boost productivity, a study has found. Researchers say that interventions such as selection of cattle bree...Read more -
The importance of maintaining reproductive health in a herd
Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, Gerhard Grobler, of Smitsfield farm in Lothair, Mpumalanga, started farming intensively about 10 years ago. His great-grandfather started out as a sheep herder and systematically bought pieces of land in the area. When Grobler began farming, he was bre...Read more -
Supporting Ugandan women to keep goats healthy through COVID-19 pandemic
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people living in rural pastoral and agro pastoral areas across sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to care for the animals on which their livelihoods depend. Curfews and restrictions on movement and gatherings have cut communities off from markets, ...Read more -
Strengthening wildlife health capacities and use of One Health can support global efforts to eradicate ‘goat plague’
PPR, which is also known as ‘goat plague’, is a viral disease of sheep and goats that is related to rinderpest of cattle, which has been eradicated. While PPR is not a zoonotic disease, it is a contagious transboundary disease affecting the livelihoods of millions of small-scale livestock farmers...Read more -
Speculators blamed for recent African swine fever outbreak
A limited outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) on a farm near Potchefstroom earlier this month has been confirmed by the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO). A total of 100 pigs have been culled on the farm and properly disposed of, SAPPO said. “Indications are that the infection ...Read more -
Scours management begins well in advance of spring calving
Commonly referred to as scours, calf diarrhea can be caused by factors such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins, congenital conditions or nutrition. Many causes of scours are contagious, so scours can become a concern for the entire calf crop. A severe case can result in animal death. “Produc...Read more -
Research identifies potential sustainability benefits for beef production industry
Syngenta Seeds, in partnership with the University of Arkansas Resiliency Centre (UARC), has published research highlighting the potential for beef producers to reduce their environmental footprint by using Enogen corn for feed from Syngenta Seeds The life cycle assessment is based on studies con...Read more -
One Health Key to sustainable livestock—and human and environment—health
Livestock play multiple roles in the livelihoods of over half a billion people in developing countries, especially in rural Africa. Livestock keeping enables Africa’s smallholder farmers to build resilient livelihoods, to maintain their food and nutritional security and to escape chronic to sever...Read more -
On a quest to breed ‘the perfect Brahman’
Auldrich Spies grew up attending shows where his grandfather exhibited his prized Brahmans and instilled a love for the breed in his grandson. But health reasons saw him selling his herd before Spies could farm himself. Spies then followed a career in construction, which, five years ago, enabled ...Read more -
New feed additive reduces dairy cows’ methane emissions
A total of 64 Holstein-Friesian cows in mid-lactation were involved in the study, which was designed to determine the effect of dietary composition (3 different ratios of grass silage and maize silage in dietary roughage, covering most of the range one would encounter on Dutch farms) on the level...Read more -
Namibian dairy industry in fight for survival
The Namibian dairy sector is battling to survive, with production decreasing and the price-cost squeeze forcing producers to exit the sector. According to Kokkie Adriaanse, chairperson of the Namibia Dairy Producers’ Association, raw milk production dropped from 21,8 million litres in 2019 to 17,...Read more -
Methane emissions rising in Africa
An increase in methane emissions from Sub-Saharan Africa occurred between 2010 and 2016, with most of the upsurge emanating from the East African region, a study has found. Experts say that methane, a heat-trapping gas about 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, when emitted into the atmosphe...Read more -
Meat board takes charge to control FMD outbreak in Namibia
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)....Read more -
Lato Milk to export to Ethiopia, South Sudan and Malawi
Pearl Dairy Farms Limited (PDFL), the manufacturers of Lato Milk products, are now exporting their product portfolio to Ethiopia, Malawi and South Sudan underpinned by the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) ratification agreement Algeria is next on the list of potential markets as the Ug...Read more -
Keeping animals out of home key to improved nutrition
Improved housing with piped water and keeping animals out of the home may be the key to improving childhood nutrition, a study suggests. According to the 2017 WHO Africa Nutrition Report, 58.5 million children suffered stunting— being too short for one’s age — in 2016. The WHO global targets incl...Read more -
New Year, New Hope.
After a year’s efforts, Fangtong will take a holiday from 8th to 22nd February, 2021 to celebrate Chinese Spring Festival and welcome the new year of the Ox. At this time of welcoming Chinese new year, We would like to send our sincere thanks to all our customers. Thank you for your suppor...Read more -
Farmer-herdsmen conflicts linked to climate change
The increased conflicts between crop farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria could spill over into other countries if the competition for climate change-induced scarcity of resources such as water are not addressed, a study says. The study says that activities such as burning of vegetation cover, defores...Read more -
Climate induced heat stress in pigs will require joint action to protect and sustain the pig industry in Uganda for years to come
Science experts, policy makers and other pig industry stakeholders gathered in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala, in December last year to discuss important findings and insights on the impact of heat stress on the pig sector in the country, as a result of climate change. Pig farming is a profitable...Read more
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