Quality hybrids yield high oil content
Oilseed crops are the second-largest source of food after cereals, with a large expansion worldwide due to high demand for vegetable edible oil. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is one of the four most important...
Machinery and implements for conventional farming systems
September 2018
JOHAN VAN BILJON and DR TINGMIN YU, ARC-Agricultural Engineering
The optimal use of the correct equipment and implements is necessary to optimise farming production and to maximise operational profit. All mechanisation actions need to...
Benchmarking – a powerful tool
The Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) is not new to benchmarking and the effective use thereof to measure farm-level competitiveness. BFAP is part of the international agri benchmark network, where various crop-producing...
Bread price not affected by wheat import tariff
Bread is an important staple food in South Africa and plays an integral role to ensure national food security. Consumers for the most part do not buy food directly from producers and the price...
Benefits of winter cover crops in a mixed farming system
April 2018
GERRIE TRYTSMAN, ARC-Animal Production
With a total of only 14% land suitable for arable cropping, South Africa is not well endowed with resources for dryland (rainfed) farming. Soil degradation often occurs due to monoculture...
Management of Sclerotinia head and stem rot
February 2019
MARLESE BESTER and LISA ROTHMANN, Department of Plant Sciences: Plant Pathology Division, University of the Free State
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a hemi-biotrophic fungal plant pathogen, therefore a biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogenic lifestyle is followed. This...
Gerbils in agriculture: Impact and ecologically based control
Grain crops worldwide are impacted by various pests that affect yield, profitability and in some cases food security. An important, but often overlooked pest of grain crops, is rodents.
In a recent meta-analysis it was...
An opportunity to discover basis premiums on a transparent and JSE guaranteed platform
June 2015
— Basis Futures coming next
CHRIS STURGESS, director: Commodities and Key Client Management, Capital Markets, JSE
There has been much published about the JSEs reference to location differentials in order to accommodate physical delivery in...
Local and imported wheat quality reviewed
Wheat samples of the 2019/2020 season were the first crop survey to be graded according to the latest bread wheat grading regulations published in the Government Gazette No. 42862, dated 29 November 2019.
These regulations...
Sunflower crop quality – a look at the2017/2018 season’s results
In the sixth annual sunflower crop quality survey that was performed by the Southern African Grain Laboratory (SAGL), 176 crop samples representing the various production regions were tested. Samples, provided by members of Agbiz...
