Adapting technology to tackle stock theft and other farm crimes

Property theft on South Africa's farms ranges from the petty and opportunistic all the way to well-planned, syndicate-led invasions, and profoundly affects incomes, production and the well-being of rural communities. but farmers and security experts are not taking this scourge lying down. Lloyd Phillips reports on how remote digital technology is being adapted to create practical, and highly effective, solutions.

- Lloyd Phillips

FAST FACTS

Over a period of just two years, KwaZulu-Natal beef cattle farmer Andrew Fyvie lost animals worth around R1,5 million to stock thieves.

With advice from farmers, technology company IoT Global has adapted track and tracing hardware, software and wireless communications to protect cattle and other farm assets.

It is hoped that the Rugged Cow Tracker system will become a widely used deterrent to would-be thieves.

During the course of 2019 and 2020, KwaZulu-Natal stud and commercial Santa Gertrudis beef cattle farmer Andrew Fyvie suffered the theft of animals worth a total of R1,5 million. He also lost hundreds of thousands of rands by having to hire a helicopter at various times to try to track these stolen cattle, as well as through the loss of potential income that the animals would have generated through breeding.

According to Willie Clack, chairperson of the National Stock Theft Prevention Forum, Fyvie and other livestock owners across South Africa lost animals valued at around R1,3 billion to thieves in 2019.

This was despite many owners being part of local stock theft prevention forums and implementing anti-stock-theft measures, such as hiring additional farm security, electrifying fences, and even replacing conventional barbed wire with thick steel cables.