Theme:
im
An al feed
AGRICULTURAL
Staalmeester offers options
to survive this winter
Wood and bush food is the answer
Although good rains were received in most of the Senwes areas in April, a number of
areas are still experiencing severe drought conditions, such as the drought in Namibia.
It is their worst drought ever and the government declared an emergency situation there
in May. There is absolutely no grazing and producers are desperate for feed. Farmers are
looking at alternatives such as wood and bush.
By Martin Coetzee
Staalmeester CEO
I
t was the answer and the demand
increased. Staalmeester did some
tests on various implements in order
to solve this problem for the farmers.
Two clear winners: JF2D
hammer mill and JF 50 cutter
JF2D
The JF2D is available in an electric, petrol
or diesel version. It is an affordable option
for farmers wanting to mill anything from
maize to livestock feed, in this instance
bush and branches. It is very effective on
bush because the cutting action cuts wood
with two blades, which is then processed
in a milling space with six hammers. The
JF2D model comes with five standard
grids, from 0.8 mm to 10 mm and big-
ger. In this instance the branches are
processed into 5 mm or 10 mm pieces,
depending on whether cattle or sheep are
being fed.
JF50 CUTTER
The JF 50 comes in PTO, diesel, electric
or petrol. Staalmeester found the answer
18
SENWES SCENARIO | WINTER 2019
*BUSH FOOD is
a term used by
farmers for pro-
cessing wood and
bush and to make
it part of the feed
blend
A typical bush food blend:
bush 80%, molasses 8%, salt 0.5%,
urea 1%, P21 phosphate 1%, chop 5%
and legumes 4.5%.
The feed blend is suitable for cattle
and sheep and can be used for game
as well, but the urea would have to
be adjusted for game. Staalmeester
is the sole supplier of JF-products in
Southern Africa and has been import-
ing the product from Brazil for the
past 20 years. It has been involved in
Namibia for 15 years.
in the JF2D model, but at a solution was
not yet available for large-scale farmers
requiring larger equipment.
Staalmeester cut a variety of bushes
and branches and successful tests were
done. The JF 50 works very well since it
has a larger feeder than the JF2D and
has two rollers which pull the bush and
branches into the machine for easier pro-
Staalmeester’s JF 50 cutter is the solution
for large-scale farmers requiring larger
equipment.
cessing. The JF50 also has two cutting
length adjusters, namely 5 mm and 13
mm. It is perfect for making the bush food
mixture and it does not have to be pro-
cessed again by a hammer mill.
Staalmeester sold more than 200
units in Namibia alone over the past two
months, all for the purpose of milling
bushfood. The problem will unfortunately
not be solved soon, since winter is upon
us and grazing will only recover after the
first rain.