Category: POULTRY AND LIVESTOCK

Rico Vergotine of Idas Valley in Stellenbosch was an electric gate technician, “who happened to be at the right place at the right time”. In 2010, he was repairing gates at the Spier wine estate in Stellenbosch when he met Angus McIntosh, who runs the Spier Biodynamic Farm. “At that stage, I was bored with…

The conditions under which chickens are housed – including heating, ventilation, air quality, water availability and feed – have a direct impact on the profitability of a poultry farming business. Sonét Roux, technical advisor at Country Bird Holdings, says that managing broiler chickens can be challenging for producers, especially in winter, as they have to…

Despite a challenging trading environment, large-scale South African poultry meat production remains internationally competitive. This competitive advantage can be ascribed to the industry’s significant investment in automation and technology – an attempt to reduce costs to ensure the industry’s survival. According to Dr Charlotte Nkuna, head of transformation at the SA Poultry Association (SAPA), only…

In September 2022, Astral announced that it was expecting market conditions to deteriorate, with record-high feed input costs, devastating levels of rolling blackouts, and the general decay of municipal infrastructure having a negative impact on operational costs and efficiencies. As rolling blackouts had continued unabated this year, the situation was worsening. Schutte said that based…

Lipidos Toledo, S.A. (LIPTOSA) is an animal nutrition company commited since 1996 to provide effective solutions to nutritionists, veterinarians and farmers in the animal feed sector all over the world, improving animal production performance and helping to decrease the usage of antibiotics. Being present in more than 60 countries on 5 continents, LIPTOSA has a…

The level of ammonia young chicks will be exposed to during the first week of their lives is determined to a large extent by what was done to the litter between the flocks. Michael Czarick, Extension Engineer; Dr. Connie Mou, UGA Poultry Science (PhD 2020)  Towards the end of a flock the birds are adding thousands…

Reducing rates of foodborne outbreaks in humans caused by salmonella and campylobacter continues to be a major task across the globe. Figures from 2016 showed there were more than 356,000 cases of human zoonoses reported across the European Union with Campylobacteriosis (246,307) and Salmonellosis (94,530) by far the most predominant. Earlier this month, Ireland reported…

The South African poultry industry – the second-largest agricultural sub-sector contributing to the economy – has grown to be a R59 billion industry over the last three years, thanks mainly to additional investments made by the industry’s participants. At a State of the Poultry Industry Round table on Wednesday, the South African Poultry Association (Sapa)…

In recent years, animal product consumers have started demanding higher standards of welfare for pigs in food production. There is no consensus on a unique definition of animal welfare within or across species where applicable. Definitions vary depending on different factors such as cultural, scientific, religious, and political background. There are several proposed approaches to…

CP Kriek and his wife Gerda swapped their industrial engineering careers for farm life in 2012 with the purchase of Bloubank Estates, the holding company for Taaibosch Piggery. “As engineers, we love challenges and taking things that aren’t working optimally and making them better,” says Kriek, who grew up on a farm. The Krieks have…