Gauteng Smallholder December 2015-January 2016 | Page 25

LIVESTOCK

Sheep are among ment, with the major
the most-stolen of difference being that they are
all livestock and so more intelligent and inquisimust be kept
tive and so require very wellunder lock and
kept fencing and gates to
key at night.
contain them.
In commercial
Goats are kept for their skins,
Dorpers make good mothers, have a high multiple- terms there are
meat and milk and are
birth rate and are kept for their meat.
sheep breeds
particularly useful therefore
From page 21
especially for wool, breeds
for people who are allergic to
quality animals in the belief
especially for meat and dual- cow's milk.
that you will upgrade as time purpose breeds. On a
K Pigs, by virtue of the bygoes on. Experience shows
smallholding the small
laws surrounding their
that that's unlikely to happen numbers would make it
housing, are not found in
and you will be condemned
uneconomic to keep the
great numbers on smaller
to keeping rubbish animals.
animals for wool, so dualsmallholdings. That's because
Rather start small and set out purpose and meat breeds are the regulations state that pig
to buy a top-quality ram and more popular. If the
a couple of quality ewes, join idea of slaughtering
the appropriate breed society, your own animals
learn a bit about breeding
doesn't appeal you can
and genetics. This may mean take your surplus stock
making contact with a
to one of the lamb
commercial stud farmer and
abattoirs in your area or
transporting in your stock
you can breed purely
from many miles away, or
for sale of live animals.
buying from a breed auction, K Goats are similar to
rather than buying animals
sheep in their husOn a small plot, to remain legal you will be
locally.
bandry and managerestricted to keeping a potbelly pig as a pet

23
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enclosures may be no closer
than 100m from any dwelling
or boundary fence and it is
thus unlikely that one can site
a pigsty within these parameters on a property of less than
five or six hectares.
Pigs are the most intelligent
and inquisitive ~ and
persistent ~ of all small stock
species and if a sow or a boar
sees something that interests
it outside of its field it will dig
its way under, or push its way
through, any fence it encoun-

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