If I were to be asked to name one word, I used more extensively than any other this week, it would be – confidence. I participated at the Citrus Growers’ Association Summit held in Port Elizabeth on 13 March, and the South African Feedlot Association’s Cattlemen’s Annual Conference in Bloemfontein on 14 March.

A cow lazily swishes its tail at a persistent buzzing, but the drone maintains its station hovering above the herd.

Imagine this: You have a sudden, virulent, painful infection (think gonorrhoea, meningitis, pneumonia).

It seems intuitive that forests would provide better habitat for forest-dwelling wildlife than farms. Yet, in one of the longest-running studies of tropical wildlife populations in the world, Stanford researchers found that over 18 years, smaller farms with varying crop types—interspersed with patches or ribbons of forest—sustain many forest-dependent bird populations in Costa Rica, even as populations decline in forests.

South Africa remains the major supplier of RWS-accredited merino wool for 19 micron and broader merino wool. This article looks at the South African merino clip in 2023-24 and compares it to the Australian merino clip.