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Agriculture

Welcome rains bring own set of challenges

───   14:00 Fri, 13 Jan 2017

Welcome rains bring own set of challenges | News Article

Cradock - While the rains have brought much needed relief to most people involved in the agriculture sector, it has also presented some with challenges.


A farmer in the Cradock district of the Eastern Cape is missing 18 of his young Heifer cows after they literally washed away in floodwaters after the Fish River broke its banks. Roy Copeman says the heavy rain caused a lot of damage.

“I received a call from farmers lower down the river that the river had burst its banks. We immediately went down to the river camp where all my heifers were running. From there we collected most of them.

“Unfortunately we are still missing about 18. We also had quite a lot of damage to the soil, being washed away, and to fences.”

Wheat producers in the eastern parts of the country were also impacted. Grain SA CEO, Jannie de Villiers, says the rain during the harvest has resulted in some quality issues.

“It sounds to me like the farmers got good yields but with this late rain that they received – and they hadn’t harvested everything yet – it sounds like there are some quality problems here and there.

“Some of the farmers I spoke to deep in the Eastern Free State have already mentioned that their quality was affected by the rain.”


- Algoa FM and OFM News

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