Central South Africans are being warned that this might lead to the spread of veldfires which may lead to loss of grazing land, infrastructure and animals. Jan de Villiers, Operational Manager of the Free State Umbrella Fire Protection Association, urges residents to, amongst others, not start open fires - except in specially designed fireplaces, always have personnel and firefighting equipment ready to respond and to report all fires to the local fire brigade or the fire protection association.

South Africa’s consumer food price inflation continues to surprise on the upside. This is according to Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber, who says that it was expected that the start of the second half of the year would moderate the increase that was observed in the past few months. He adds the data recently released by Statistics South Africa shows that consumer food price inflation accelerated to 7,4% year-on-year in August 2021, after registering 7% in the previous two months. Sihlobo says the underpinning drivers of this uptick in consumer food price inflation were meat and, to a lesser extent, fish and vegetables.

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AND... It is important that farmers take into account the different types of diseases that occur in their area in order to take the necessary precautions to prevent an outbreak amongst their herds. One of the diseases that are prevalent in the Eastern coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, as well as in parts of the North West and Gauteng, is heartwater, which is spread by bont ticks. Dr Berry Mutowembwa, a veterinarian at the Agricultural Research Council, says that farmers need to find out whether heartwater occurs in their region, and if it does, they have to implement appropriate tick control measures. He adds that heartwater is a fatal disease that can affect cattle, sheep and goats.

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