Unseasonably hot weather is expected in the country’s north as the Weather Service predicts abnormally high temperatures in the next three months. There will be little rainfall in this period. It spells bad news for both livestock and grain farmers.
Tosca farmers have been brought to their knees by a prolonged dry spell. Grazing fields have dried up and livestock is dying. That has become a burden to cattle farmers like 60 year- old Sarel Marx. He has been farming here for 11 years and is now losing hope.
“We start to sell our cattle. Now, we can’t buy anything because there’s no rain and we have lost a lot of cattle.”
Nicol Muller of Agri Molopo Farmers says that economically, this is a roller-coaster for farmers.
“We were trying to do a building up of production animals, but again, we have sold them off this year already. You cannot keep them.”
However, good Samaritans have volunteered to provide cattle fodder to these struggling farmers.
Burre Burger of Drought Relief says that they have delivered almost 12 truck loads.
“We delivered almost 12 truck [loads] now. We’ve got some trucks coming this week again. We had trucks last weekend here, three trucks on Sunday. We deliver everyday if we can.”
Michael Donaldson of Roundtable Donours has made a humble plea for more help to keep farmers in business.
“If I can ask the farmers, or any people, businesses, companies, just to help us with donations; to buy more lucerne and stuff and feed for the animals and for diesel for the trucks, it will be appreciated.”
Dam levels are also getting lower in other areas too, with overall dam levels for the Western Cape at 26% and KwaZulu-Natal at 51%.
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