As a new year rolls off and we take off on our farming journey for 2025, there is a need to do introspection and take stock of both our triumphs and shortcomings for 2024. How far did we go in meeting our targets? Were the targets realistic? How do we recoup our failures to meet set targets? All these questions and more need to be considered when we review the year.
The key to moving forward in farming is experimenting with new methods of innovation, enhancing your current operations and being on the lookout for new opportunities and markets. As you can see, the trend is about moving on and never keeping still; it is about introducing new methods to replace those that have not been yielding results. Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is described in Psychology as ‘insanity’. Let’s remain sane as much as we can.
If you are the type that has never kept a health and nutrition schedule for your livestock, perhaps this year is a great opportunity to start on that, and make sure your livestock are well taken care of in this regard.
While a large percentage of animal body weight comes from natural foraging – which is vital to its diet – there is a great need to supplement feed and licks, and make sure its vitamin needs are taken care of for the animal to build sufficient antibodies.
Also, let us make it fashionable to feed lick and vitamin supplements to our livestock throughout the year – in dry and wet season. Waiting for when the fields are dry to give licks to livestock defeats the purpose. Remember, they are licks – not feeds. While licks are also needed in dry season, feeds would take prominence as livestock virtually have nothing to graze on during such time. All in all, both are vital for the development of an animal.
Another thing you could improve on this year as a farmer would be the infrastructure on your farm or communal holding. We cannot in this day and age be chasing lambs around the kraal, and be diving to catch them every time we have to deworm them. A proper, but small and affordable vaccination facility would do you well. How do you dip your small stock? Do you still pick them up and throw in an old bathtub? We cannot afford to keep doing this. Build a proper dipping ‘hole’ and ramp. Think veterinary control points – where the red line ends – and construct something similar to where car wheels are partly submerged in treated water for animal disease control. Be creative and build it to your own needs, but make sure it meets the intended purpose.
Or your Achilles heel could perhaps be your inability to keep proper records of your farming operations? Work on it this year. Start with basics; record the birthdates of calves, lambs and kids. Keep records of when you dewormed them or vaccinated them. This will help you to get the most out of your livestock. By the way, most of these – especially the vaccination records – are legal requirements from government.
Try out those creative designs you have seen at your neighbour’s, and make them work for you too. Whatever happens, keep moving. Keep reinventing yourself. Keep farming.
Until then…