More Productive Veld Starts with Better Water and Better Rotation A good livestock year should do more than improve the bank balance — it should strengthen the veld base that carries the business through the next drought. Before buying more stock, building another...

Successful extensive (veld-based) livestock businesses are not built on knowing more—you build yours by consistently executing the few management actions that matter most. The actions that matter most this year are not always the same as last year. Where livestock...

Profitability in farming is achieved by consistently executing the few management actions that actually drive profit. Everything else, however interesting, is just a distraction. The missing link is not knowledge—it is recognising that the drivers of profit are...

Most farmers do not start keeping records because they enjoy administration, They do it because the law requires it. In reality, that legal compliance is only the starting point, records may begin as a legal obligation but the big bonus for the well-run farm is they...

It was not a farmer, but a botanist, who first sounded the alarm about veld degradation and the eastward spread of the Karoo desert. This was long before regenerative grazing became a serious conversation. For generations, livestock producers have inherited firm ideas...

The debate between set stocking and rotational grazing is one of the oldest in extensive livestock farming, and one of the most polarised. Advocates of rotational systems often present them as the obvious path to improved veld health and profitability. Defenders of...

  South African livestock farmers are under increasing pressure. Input costs continue to rise, rainfall is less predictable, and the margins that once absorbed a difficult season are becoming thinner. With a significant probability of El Niño conditions...