South African farmers mix cattle, game and fruit to spread risk

Across South Africa, farmers are blending traditional livestock with game species to cope with climate uncertainty, rising input costs and the need to diversify income, Magda du Toit reported for Farmers Weekly South Africa on 30 October. Mixed land use, she wrote, is moving from a niche practice to a strategic response, adding revenue from livestock and game breeding, hunting and tourism.

Pieter Vorster, director of corporate and development at the Mahela Group in Letsitele, Limpopo, said integrating livestock and game into the group's fruit operation spreads risk and makes it more resilient. "The question is not whether livestock and game can coexist or be integrated with crop or fruit farming, but how we as producers can unlock the full potential of this evolving partnership," he said. Because climate, rainfall, vegetation, soils and pest pressure vary so much across the country, he said, the aim is to choose combinations that cut risk.

Mahela bought a game farm near Gravelotte with good grazing and turned it back into a cattle farm, introducing a commercial Bonsmara herd. Vorster said the breed was an easy choice: good red cattle fetch a premium at every auction, and Bonsmara suits crossbreeding and adds weight to calves at weaning. The group also breeds rarer game such as roan, sable, reedbuck, buffalo, klipspringer and bushbuck, and co-founded a sable breeding project in 1998 through the Gravelotte Study Group.

Danie Minnaar, a farmer near Kroonstad in the Free State and chairperson of Senwes, said diversification works best when the parts feed each other. "Systems where outputs from one component feed or compliment another create synergy, improve efficiency, and spread risk," he said, calling himself a risk manager as much as a farmer. Adding game also reduces exposure to stock theft, he said, which is pushing some farmers away from traditional livestock.

Wildlife veterinarian David Pretorius of Motsumi Darts in Pretoria warned that integration needs planning for carrying capacity, fencing, water and grazing. "Overpopulation or poor management can lead to land degradation and loss of productivity," he said, adding that veterinary support and disease control are crucial where wildlife and livestock share land.

Photo: Dumbassman / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Source: Farmers Weekly South Africa