The Mpumalanga Highveld was once as soon as the wool capital of South Africa, however rampant inventory robbery through the years has in large part decimated the trade right here. Alternatively, whilst some farmers are shifting clear of sheep farming, Johan Steyn has plans to make bigger his flock. He spoke to Lindi Botha about his good fortune with Merinos.
Photograph: Lindi Botha
Mpumalanga’s Bethal area is understood for its different farming operations, the place manufacturers use the crop residue from maize and soya bean harvests to feed their cattle.
Whilst farm animals manufacturing happens all the way through the world, sheep farming is nearly totally absent.
This is, till you get to Joubertsvlei Boerdery Agree with, the place proprietor Johan Steyn runs a flock of five 000 Merino sheep. Additionally, he targets to develop this quantity.
“Managing [stock] robbery prices cash, however safety prices the similar whether or not you utilize a guard to look at 1 000 or 5 000 sheep. So, the extra I make bigger my flock, the fewer I pay consistent with sheep for safety, and the better my source of revenue,” says Steyn.
He provides that inventory robbery is via a ways the most important barrier to farming sheep at the Highveld. Alternatively, as he seems to have this beneath keep watch over, there’s a lot scope for bettering his industry’s final analysis.
Sheep manufacturing has a quicker turnover than farm animals manufacturing, thereby making sure a gentle money waft, and the truth that the Merino is a dual-purpose sheep implies that an extra source of revenue will also be earned from the wool.
Additionally, sheep utilise maize and soya bean residue higher than farm animals do, in order that they don’t require further feed in iciness.
Sheep have lengthy been part of Joubertsvlei Boerdery Agree with, having been presented to the operation via Steyn’s father, Naas, in 1965. Father and son farmed in combination for 27 years prior to Naas retired in 2014 and Steyn took over the reins.
Steyn explains that all the way through his father’s time at the farm, the Merinos had been bred to have much less wrinkly pores and skin, making sure they’d a extra streamlined form. Whilst having extra wrinkles produces a better wool yield (because of better floor space), this finally ends up decreasing the full measurement of the sheep, which is counterproductive for meat manufacturing.
Lately, his Merinos can rise up to the Dohne Merino breed, a really dual-purpose sheep that gives abundant wool and meat.
Feed high quality and wool power
A large issue within the good fortune of Steyn’s flock is that he follows an in depth sheep-farming device. “I don’t need sheep that wish to be pampered. I chase my Merinos onto the veld, dose them accurately in opposition to parasites, after which they deal with themselves,” he says.
The sheep are living off purple grass (Themeda triandra) veld between October and April, at a stocking price of 0,33ha/SSU, and feed on crop residue in iciness. The manufacturing of robust, top quality wool depends upon feed of a constant usual.
“It’s no longer handiest unwell sheep that produce wool that breaks simply; the issue is quite common when sheep unexpectedly transfer between feeds of various high quality. “The cost paid for this wool is clearly decrease, as probably the most parameters during which wool is judged is the power of the fibres. Making sure there aren’t any vulnerable spots within the fibres is the most important for acquiring just right costs,” explains Steyn.
To stop his sheep from generating wool with vulnerable spots, he provides them grain feed all the way through the closing two weeks of April, when the dietary high quality of the grass has began to say no.
On this manner, by the point they’re positioned at the croplands, they’re already conditioned to the higher-quality feed, so the power in their wool stays solid.
Between August and October, when crop residue has been eaten however the veld has but to be replenished via rainfall, the sheep are given bales of hay constructed from Eragrostis harvested from land across the vegetation. Additionally they obtain oats and a manufacturing lick. The latter is particularly essential, as each mating and lambing season happen in spring, so the sheep wish to be in just right situation at the moment.
Two breeding seasons
Steyn has two five-week mating seasons for his 2 500 ewes, at a ratio of fifty ewes to a ram.
Roughly 2 000 ewes are positioned with rams on 10 October, this means that they begin lambing in March. The rest 500 are put with the rams on 10 Might, and their lambing season begins in mid-October.
The 2 lambing seasons strengthen the farm’s money waft and likewise give ewes that didn’t wean lambs the primary time round a moment likelihood.
“The purpose of mating ewes in Might is to complement those who lambed in March, however didn’t wean their lambs. I additionally promote ewes that don’t conceive, so the full fertility [rate] of the herd isn’t negatively influenced,” says Steyn.
“There also are the ones ewes that lambed however didn’t wean their younger since the lambs had been unwell, died from the chilly, or had been taken via jackal. Those are cases past their keep watch over, so I don’t wish to take away them from the flock, however fairly give them some other likelihood.”
After weaning, the ewe lambs are decided on in step with on-farm functionality trying out. The weaker lambs are offered, and the wethers are stored for 3 years in a separate camp. That is a ways clear of the others, and Steyn says he doesn’t position the remainder of the flock there as they’d be annihilated via jackal.
“I wish to take advantage of all of my land, so I stay about 850 wethers on this separate camp and don’t wish to give them further feed. I am getting about 3 wool harvests from them prior to they’re offered as C-grade animals.”
Steyn achieves a conception price of 94%, of which 25% are twins, a lambing price of 92%, and a weaning price of 82%. The inter-lambing length is 12 months. The largest hurdles to expanding the weaning price are parasites and predators, the latter being a selected danger to lambs.
Each and every yr, Steyn markets round 20% of the flock for meat, and replaces 20% of the ewes with others from the flock that experience reached the two-tooth degree.
Flock well being
The Highveld local weather creates a breeding floor for pests, and farmers need to care for an ordinary dosing and vaccination programme. Steyn’s flock is vaccinated in opposition to enzootic abortion and Rift Valley fever. As soon as they’ve been shorn, they’re dipped to keep watch over ticks after which returned to the veld.
Wireworm is particularly prevalent all the way through classes of prime rainfall, and holding the sheep worm-free is going past further dosing.
“For wireworm, I attempt to use a unique lively component each time so the pest doesn’t increase resistance,” says Steyn. “I additionally attempt to use the newest drugs with new lively components handiest every year, in order that I will lengthen their efficacy within the flock.
“Sadly, there aren’t any new lively components within the pipeline, so if we lose efficacy with the present drugs, we’ll be in large hassle.
“I wish to inoculate the six-month-old rams in opposition to brucellosis with a vaccine referred to as Rev-1. I’ve been looking for this vaccine since September 2022 with out good fortune. It merely isn’t to be had, and Onderstepoort [Biological Products] can’t supply it.
“There are non-public corporations that may and can produce it, however govt gained’t let them. The [shortage] of vaccines is a significant issue that may be solved, however govt must wish to remedy it. As farmers, we will be able to make a wide variety of plans to continue to exist, however some issues are past our keep watch over.”
The full hardiness of the animals is important, and this highlights the desire for deciding on animals with the suitable genetic makeup.
Tailored animals
For Steyn, having rams which are tailored to the veld, and particularly the Highveld with its distinctive demanding situations, is among the keys to a hit sheep farming. That is one reason why he’s a member of the Highveld Merino Veld Ram Membership, a bunch of 10 breeders who farm in the similar space and breed animals that thrive on this atmosphere.
“Acquiring sheep from the Karoo, as an example, wouldn’t paintings, as a result of they’re raised in an atmosphere the place the pest and illness load is a ways decrease [than it is in our region], so their resistance is [lower],” he explains.
The entire membership individuals put their rams thru functionality trying out, the place they’re stored in combination and handled similarly. After the check length, the sheep are shorn and the rams graded. The ones with an above-average functionality are offered on the membership’s biannual public sale.
This may be the place Steyn buys rams if he desires to convey new genetics into his flock. He additionally breeds his personal rams, deciding on about 150 ram lambs from his flock. The most efficient 15 move directly to be performance-tested and offered during the membership. Any other 120 are put thru on-farm functionality trying out, and their wool is examined after shearing. Of those, Steyn helps to keep the top-performing rams for breeding and sells the remaining.
Reaching stability
Steyn believes achieve a fascinating center floor between wool and meat manufacturing. He subsequently targets for a just right amount of wool with out pursuing overly high quality fibre.
“My wool averages round 18,5 microns, which is excellent for me. With sheep, lots of the traits have destructive correlations. Finer wool achieves increased costs, but when I breed for finer wool, then the [meat] yield has a tendency to dip, so I finally end up with smaller-framed animals that produce much less meat.
“Large animals and powerful wool in most cases move hand in hand, whilst finer wool is received from smaller animals. I take a look at to succeed in a stability.”
Steyn’s sheep are shorn each 365 days to make sure that the wool achieves a period grading of no less than a C. Many farmers make a selection to shear each six months, however because of this the wool has no longer had a lot time to develop to a just right period.
The longer A, B and C classes are essentially the most desired on Eu markets, whilst the Chinese language marketplace prefers fibres of a shorter period.
Shearing takes position in January, a quieter length at the farm, because the planting season has been wrapped up via then, and far of the summer season rainfall has dissipated. Steyn shears with a iciness comb, as he prefers to go away the sheep with just a little further insulation in case the world is hit via a chilly entrance.
His common wool yield is 4kg consistent with sheep, with some animals offering up to 7kg each and every. Because the marketplace is matter to fluctuations, Steyn helps to keep his wool again till he can get the most productive conceivable worth.
Level of profitability
Whilst lamb and mutton retail costs have risen considerably through the years, Steyn says farmers haven’t benefitted an ideal deal. “There’s a large hole between what farmers
obtain [for their meat] and what the supermarkets fee. All costs move up with inflation, however they must be in keeping with each and every different. As a substitute, the space is widening between what I am getting for my product and what I’ve to pay after I wish to purchase one thing.
“In my father’s day, he needed to promote 100 wethers with the intention to find the money for a brand new Land Cruiser bakkie. Now, I’ve to promote 500 to find the money for the similar automobile.”
Creating a good fortune of sheep farming is subsequently depending on minimising enter prices and maximising output. This implies holding inventory robbery to a minimal, managing pests correctly, and making sure that the animals are neatly cared for with no need to spend an excessive amount of on licks.
For Steyn, the mix of herbal veld and crop residue implies that sheep have their position inside of his industry.
“Sheep manufacturing enhances crop farming, such a lot in order that it’s very cost-effective to stay those animals. I imagine there’s nonetheless a large number of possible to farm sheep at the Highveld, if inventory robbery will also be controlled,” he provides.
E-mail Johan Steyn at [email protected].