Characteristics of small-scale sheep production systems in some communal areas of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the characteristics of small-scale livestock production systems in some communal areas of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The parameters surveyed include sex, age, educational and marital status of the farmers, types of livestock raised and production system practiced. The study revealed that mixed crop-livestock production systems were dominant in the study area. Majority of the respondents (72.4%) were male and approximately 59% of the older male farmers were more than 70 years old with the highest mean flock size of 86. A total of 62% of these farmers had basic education and a mean family size of 5.9±3.0. Most of the sheep farmers (70.9%) bought their foundation stock, but 6.5% of them obtained theirs through bride price (lobola). Generally, livestock species owned by the respondents were sheep (71.8%), poultry (12.9%), cattle (7.7%), goats (4.4%), dogs (1.3%), pigs (0.6%) and others (1.3%). Family labour is mostly used for animal management and herding, being done by men (65%) and boys (30%), respectively. The natural veld provides highest feed resource base for the animals and almost all the respondents provide night shelter for their sheep, in the kraal that is adjacent to the main family house. The prevalence of gall sickness was ranked the highest (22.1%) among the diseases and parasites affecting sheep. While 80% of the respondents treated their animals with stock remedies, a very low proportion of them (3.4%) adopts an integrated approach of using commercial drugs and local herbs or call animal health technicians to treat sick animals.

Impact of Farm-Scale on Animal Management Practices in Pırlak Sheep Enterprises

“…It was detected that two-thirds of the enterprises still need to produce feed. These results generally agree with medium-and small-scale sheep farming (Mthi et al 2017). These results show that the feed input of Pırlak enterprises in the Emirdağ district heavily depends on foreign sources.…”

A Systems Analysis and Conceptual System Dynamics Model of the Livestock-derived Food System in South Africa: A Tool for Policy Guidance

“…Sheep, Goats, and Pigs: Commercial sheep farmers hold 87% of the total stock, and production relies primarily on extensive grazing in the drier and semi-arid areas (Cloete, Olivier, Sandenbergh, & Snyman, 2014). Noncommercial farmers keep sheep within mixed farming systems, with low inputs and low productivity (Mthi, Skenjana, & Fayemi, 2017). Total sheep meat production was approximately 0.18 million tonnes in 2016, showing an increase of 6% over the previous decade (FAOSTAT, 2018).…”