In these tough economic times, farmers are called upon to be innovative in their approach to farming and are also expected to save at all cost in the interest of their farming enterprises. Sadly, farmers often miss out on feasible opportunities to save much needed dollars due to the discard of traditional farming knowledge.
As I always say, adopt new and modern ways of farming but do not completely scratch off tried and tested ways that have stood the test of time. For instance; traditional farming wisdom will tell you to have your chicken coop next to your livestock kraal.
This, according to this school of knowledge, will assist with the clearing of ticks from the livestock kraals as chickens are known to be great at tick control. Simply put, they feed on the ticks, meaning lesser problems for you and cheaper too.
While we are still on chickens, have you ever tried using chicken manure as fertiliser for your garden? Well, many probably know this but if you didn’t, please avoid discarding chicken manure and instead use it for your garden. Some poultry farmers even sell these at good price margins.
Also, next time you see those brave mothers and sisters sitting by the roadside on your way out of Windhoek towards Okahandja with bags of camelthorn pods, don’t ignore them. Besides the fact that buying a bag or two from them will surely feed some hungry stomachs, these pods are a good source of protein for your livestock.
Take the bags along, crush them and feed them to your livestock. If you fancy spoiling them, add a bag of yellow crushed maize meal to the crushed pods too. Or even better, go into your mealie crop field and pull out all the stems that remain after you have harvested your mealies and crush them with the pods. It works like a bomb!
While commercial fodder comes with added nutrients, it is equally not a bad idea to have some feed of your own to keep your livestock well fed continuously, especially in areas where grazing is not sufficient.
I probably do not have to tell you about those beautiful animal hides that you keep throwing away every time you slaughter an animal! Traditional knowledge tells us that such was used – and can still be used – as your own version of a Persian carpet. Dry it out, do what you need to do on it and soon you will be having a beautiful hide by your bedside for a carpet.
The bottom line is; whatever worked in the past, examine why it has fallen off the rails and bring it back to your farming if you see it fit. Trust me, most of those methods appeared old school, somewhat ‘uncivilised’ to the untrained mind and obviously out of fashion for social media farmers, but they worked. So get started by working on it today without delay.
As for those who think traditional farming knowledge is a thing of the past, well you are right. But so are various ideas that have revolutionised many sectors in the world we live in today. So, put aside the doubts and try it out. You have nothing to lose.