Drought Feed Provides Handy Income

Jan Blignaut of Hertzogville began planting prickly pears to act as a supplement for his cattle during drought. However, he found that the crop provided a steady income stream for fresh and processed fruit.

Blignaut planted his first prickly pears (Opuntia ficus-indica) in 1984 because he wanted a feed for his livestock during drought periods. Since then, he has learnt that not only does this plant provide good feed during dry spells, but it has many other advantages.

He feeds the prickly pear leaves to his cattle, sheep and pigs with good results. Furthermore, he has developed a home industry over the years that brings in a handy extra income.

Apart from selling the fresh fruit via various outlets including chain shops, he also markets Goedgemoed (the name of the farm) prickly pear jam and syrup.

So far, Blignaut has established 14ha of prickly pears on his farm. Each hectare has 1 000 plants in 5m rows, 2m apart. He grows both the bush and chandelier types. He never plants fresh leaves, but prefers to leave them lying on the ground after pruning for a month or more. About half the fresh leaves rot when planted, he says, while leaves left to wilt on the ground all grow when planted.

Prickly pears are the opposite to most crops in their reaction to conditions, he says.