Farming tips for winter

Many communal farmer households run cattle and have fruit trees to provide fresh produce for the family or as a business initiative. In winter, you need to pay special attention to both animals and plants

- Shane Brody

Winter can create challenges for cattle and fruit trees in summer rainfall areas. It's important to care for your livestock and trees in good time, before any real issues develop.

CATTLE

Lice infestations can become a problem for cattle in winter. You should therefore dip your cattle as a preventative measure.

Another challenge in winter is that the nutritional value of grazing can drop quite dramatically. This appears to be worse with sweet-veld, where there is often winter frost, and grassy plants go into dormancy and become very dry.

Essentially, the grass has a higher roughage content and this affects the condition of livestock feeding on it.

The answer is to provide a lick for the cattle. The mix I've found best for the transition from green, succulent grass to dry, dormant grass contains urea, which enables cattle to utilize dry matter more effectively. The mixture also contains NPN (a type of synthetic protein) and other important trace elements such as calcium and phosphorus.

Never allow products or feed troughs containing urea or NPN-based products to accumulate water. This can be dangerous to livestock as it can result in poisoning.