AGRICULTURAL
spring before the winter, when the win-
ter requirements in terms of dry material
intake have to be determined (a 100-cow-
unit requires approximately 500 tons of
dry material per year).
Successful survival of the winter depends
on proper feed flow planning. Feed flow
planning goes hand in hand with win-
ter survival. Studding, calving/lambing
and weaning time can be synchronised
with optimal environmental conditions
to ensure good production and repro-
duction. Many farms do not have stud
seasons, stocking rates are too high and
the value of the veld is overestimated. In
addition, there may be an additional factor
in the form of passengers, which make no
economic contribution to the business.
FEED FLOW PLANNING
The simple definition of feed flow is the
year-long supply of grazing and/or feed-
ing of animals, in the most economic
manner in order to maintain reproduction,
without detriment to the resource. In short:
how much feed does every class of ani-
mal require per month? The first prize is to
produce the best quality feed on the farm.
However, every producer's calculations
look different and are influenced by fac-
tors such as the availability of resources,
the production system being followed, the
cost of financing, the exchange rate and
international stock levels (since a number
of resources are imported and in certain
cases our products are exported).
the provision of feed on a month-to-month
basis and the medium-term plan involves
a year-plan.
It is also important to build a measure
of flexibility into the feed flow planning,
thereby enabling yourself to adjust to envi-
ronmental variation. An example is when
farmers sell their cattle and feed banks
due to the fact that the sum works and
that it is more profitable to buy cattle at a
later stage again. Producers are advised
to have a short- and medium-term plan in
place, where the short-term plan involves
Planning must take aspects such as feed
quality and quantity, the costs relating to
production, storage and logistics, wast-
age, buying of feed, production expec-
tations (with reference to herd flow) and
product income into account. It is not a
fool-proof solution, but it will create the
opportunity to make timely adjustments
should the need arise. After all, we are
busy managing risk.
Since we are in the process of balancing
the feed requirements of the animals with
the production potential of the farm, we
are sometimes inclined to create addition-
al risks. A good example is when we go
into new ventures, such as the planting of
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