In case you missed it... recent Facebook posts
I
and snippets of information
pertinent to smallholders on
our Facebook page. These are
at least weekly, and more
often twice a week and
sometimes more.
In case you missed them,
here's a summary of posts we
recently put up on the page -
https://www.facebook.com/-
gautengsmallholder/.
These relate to articles that
have been published in the
magazine in recent editions.
Animal identification
marking
Most smallholders have a few
sheep or a horse or maybe
the odd cow, but they think
that it is only the commercial
livestock farmers that have to
From page 41
the top of the back of the
engaged for one last compac- brand their animals.
smaller than the inner
chamber.
tion while the two strings are However, according to the
Animal Identification Act,
dimensions of the chamber.
With the plunger lifted out of tied off nice and tight.
2002, it is compulsory to
A long lever on the plunger
the way hay is placed into the To remove the bale one
mark all cattle, sheep, goats
ensures that it can exert quite chamber until it is full,
disengages the plunger and
significant pressure on the
whereupon the plunger is
opens the front doors to allow and pigs.
In the magazine we wrote
hay in the chamber when the applied to compress the hay
the bale to be pulled out by
about the procedures for
lever is pulled down, the
into the chamber. The
its now-tight strings.
whole contraption being
process is repeated till the
Construction of either a bale getting registered, receiving
your own identification mark
steadied by the lever operator chamber is full of compacted box or a hand-baler should
for your animals and gave
standing on the floor panel
hay.
not be beyond the capabili-
some details on when and
which reaches out in front.
Next, with the plunger lifted
ties of even the most ham-
where different species must
To use the baler two lengths
out of the way, the top ends
fisted handyman, and plans
of baling twine are laid inside of the baling twine are pulled and suggested dimensions for be marked.
Firescape your garden
the chamber, one end
over the top of the hay and
both are available on our
Smallholders should be
protruding from the bottom
passed through the top of the website,
taking preventative measures
of the slots in the door and
two slots in the front door.
www.sasmallholder.co.za.
to protect their houses,
the other end draped over
The plunger is then re-
n addition to publishing
the monthly magazine and
maintaining the SA Small
Farmers Online Exchange
website , s asfox.co.za, we
regularly publish short articles
IN THE FIELD
Continued on page 45
43
www.sasmallholder.co.za