Local poultry farmers are terrified they may not have new chicks or broiler chickens in 2024 as stocks at major suppliers have been decimated by the ongoing avian influenza in SA. While the livestock disease has not been officially discovered in the province, some farmers said there were suspected outbreaks awaiting official confirmation.
The Eastern Cape is bracing for a deluge of snow, rain and freezing temperatures after an official stage 6 weather warning from the SA Weather Service on Sunday. Farmers in Stutterheim and Hogsback welcomed the wet weather, recording more than 60mm of rainfall since Sunday, but poultry farmers in Dikeni fear that the sudden drop in temperatures and extreme load-shedding will result in livestock fatalities.
Dry run for disaster: Small-scale farmers battle for survival in drought-crippled rural Eastern Cape
by Tembile Sgqolana, Daily Maverick
July 21, 2021
Dry run for disaster: Small-scale farmers battle for survival in drought-crippled rural Eastern Cape
by Tembile Sgqolana, Daily Maverick July 21, 2021 Xolisa Bomela is a small-scale sheep farmer in the deep rural Nteshe village of Nqamakhwe in Mnquma municipality in the Eastern Cape. He wakes up early every day to feed his livestock before releasing the animals on to the overgrazed land in his village.
Ten years of drought in parts of Amathole District Municipality (ADM) have cost Bomela R785,000. From 2010 until today, Bomela has lost R270,000 through the deaths of his cattle, sheep and goats, including calves, lambs and kids. He has spent R440,000 on feed and has lost R75,000 through theft of his cattle, sheep and wool.