African Farming found out what seven farmers are currently doing on their farms.

SHEEP
Bongani Sibeko, Leandra, Mpumalanga

We have both Dohne and Meat Merinos on the farm. Most of our ewes will be lambing from mid-January until about March. We’ll be dosing them with Multivax-P Plus to prevent diseases like pulpy kidney, tetanus and blackleg.

Because it’s summer and we’re in a high-rainfall area, there always is the risk of worms, so we give Prodose Orange, which also helps with nasal bot and liver fluke. For external parasites such as ticks, lice and mites, we use Ivomec Gold.

I mix 50kg Dundee Lick Concentrate with about 5kg crushed yellow maize to help struggling ewes produce enough milk after lambing – but only ewes whose condition I’m not satisfied with. This supplement must not come into contact with water, so I’m careful to clean out troughs after it rains.

In addition, I give pregnant ewes Multimin for trace minerals like copper, zinc, manganese and selenium. This is especially good for maiden ewes going into production from April this year, because it really boosts their reproductive performance.