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JASPER RAATS
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A winning recipe for feedlot lambs
Nowadays he doesn’t struggle to wean Dorper lambs of more than 40kg at four months of age from their mothers. In fact, the lambs that arrived in August last
Iyear all weighed 42-45 kg, says Mr Alwyn Botha.
t’s not as if this farmer from Jamba Jamba Farming owns about 2 000ha Farming near Polokwane pampers a and hires 3 000ha to 4 000ha on which he few sheep in his backyard. Mr Alwyn farms with, amongst others, potatoes and Botha’s intensive Dorper farming other vegetables, crops, game and cattle. enterprise consists of 813 white-hea- Alwyn delivers his wethers to Vencor ded ewes and 500 black-headed. The Feedlots or the Bandelierkop abattoir. He herds are separated and kept on two sells most of his ewes to Dorper breeders
different parts of the farm, quite far apart. in the area.
Both herds are intensively managed. Because of his ewes’ good build and
cles. Pasteurella and heart-water create problems. Alwyn has found
a way over the ye-
ars to make sure his animals survive the adjustment.
AREA
Polokwane, Limpopo
The pastures on the farm are mainly used for the cattle. The lambs and ewes there- fore usually stay in the feedlot, although the ewes are sometimes let out to graze. Alwyn keeps his calves in the kraal to combat predator attacks and theft.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
The sheep farming spontaneously came to life after he arrived on the farm in 1992 to farm with his father-in-law, Mr Willie Burger. I started out as a crop farmer and bought a few lamb ewes for myself in the process.” Those few ewes laid the founda- tion for a significant branch of the large and diversified farm, which now operates on more than 6 000ha.
fertility, he doesn’t struggle to sell them. “I also have a big family that loves mut-
ton,” says Alwyn laughingly.
Although he hopes to eventually breed
his own rams on the farm, he doesn’t keep any rams at this stage for his own herd. He buys rams from approved Dorper bree- ders, mostly from Upington or that part of the country.
“That area is Dorper world. There are also good local breeders, but I’ve found that I get the best breeding material at the national Dorper sale in Upington.”
ADAPTING
To move sheep from the Northern Cape to Limpopo is of course not without obsta-
MR ALWYN BOTHA. PHOTOS: JASPER RAATS
“I block them with ordinary, short-ac- ting antibiotics, every seven days for three weeks, and then switch on the 28th day to a long-acting product,” says Alwyn.
He gave his sheep blood and tried other, more scientific methods, but says by then he already had losses and saw large groups of ewes wither. That’s why he now keeps with his way of doing things.
“It’s hasn’t been scientifically proven, but it works.”
Alwyn says nutrition, genetic traits and healthy ewes play a key role in good re- production and if these things are right, your ewes easily have multiple offspring.
He specifically selects ewes for multi- ple offspring, because with single lambs a 100% lambing rate is the production ceiling.
HEALTHY LAMBS
He contributes his lambs’ good weaning weight to two factors: a little extra protein in his feed ration, and Bayer’s Byboost and Baycox.
Alwyn farms right next to the main road between Polokwane and Dendron.
He says he sees every new miracle cure for any cattle disease first.
“So I am obviously sceptical when a representative from an animal health company arrives with another bottle of miracle medicine.”
That’s why he didn’t use Bayer’s By- boost and Baycox immediately to dose his Dorpers, but now he reaps the rewards.
“The problem with a sheep feedlot in Limpopo is that it is a good breeding ground for parasites. It’s a wet environ- ment, and I use silage, which in essence stays wet, although it’s dried to a degree. In a dry, extensive grazing system as in the Karoo, there are significantly fewer parasites,” says Alwyn.
“Since using Byboost and Baycox, I no longer see a lamb with a wet behind in my kraals, which is usually a symptom of coccidiosis or worm infestation. Because I dose all of my lambs, I no longer tests for worms, as they stay healthy.”
ENQUIRIES: 011 921 5736;
web: www.bayeranimalhealth.co.za
ALWYN FARMS WITH 813 WHITE-HEADED AND 500 BLACK-HEADED DORPERS IN A FEEDLOT SYSTEM.
6 | BAYER | Supplement to Landbouweekblad
Product registration numbers in terms of Act 36 of 1947 on page 3.