ON THE PLOT
Keep it clean, prevent death & injury
A
heartbreaking post on
Facebook recently
about a prize Boergoat
that died after ingesting a
plastic bag highlights the need
by every livestock-keeping
smallholder to clean up his
boundaries and pastures.
Because of the close proximity of smallholdings to each
other, and because many
South Africans are lax about
litter, fences and corners of
fields are great collecting
points for wind-borne and
carelessly discarded rubbish.
And while the number of
plastic bags littering the
countryside has diminished
greatly in recent years
following the introduction of
pay-per-bag laws, there are
still plenty attaching themselves to trees and fences,
along with other litter, such as
bottles, cans, disposable
From page 21
bees roll around in the meal
to their delight!
Article by Peter Clark at 011
362-2904, author of Tales of
an African Beekeeper and
chairman for 2016 of the
Eastern Highveld Beekeeper's
Association, assisted by
secretary Mike Alter at 011
965-6040.
BEEKEEPING
produce good strong swarms
in the early spring.
Hang the feed, spread 20mm
thick in a large plastic lid
under cover of an inverted
refuse bin lid to protect it
from the rain in a tree off the
ground a short distance away
from the hives and up from
rats and mice, and watch the
nappies and other unmentionables.
A regular stroll around one's
fields, armed with a rubbish
disposal bag, is thus a useful
exercise, for apart from the
rubbish one will collect it
gives one the opportunity to
check on the state of one's
pasture. (How heavily grazed
is it? What grass species are
being eaten and what left
behind? What weeds are
emerging among the grass
tufts?).
Plus, of course, it allows one
to check one's fences, both
for broken strands as well as
strands that have become
loosened from their uprights.
Indeed, apart from plastic
bags and other litter, bits of
rusty wire are an equally
lethal waste item in the field.
Like nails, wire can become
lodged in livestocks' hooves,
23
www.sasmallholder.co.za
at best rendering them lame
but also possibly infecting
them with tetanus. Plus, small
bits of wire ingested while
grazing can cause very serious
intestinal damage.
Continued on page 25