Heritage Cases

BASIC PROJECT DESCRIPTION The current facility houses 950 herd of sheep at a density of 1 small stock unit per 17m2. The expansion will be to increase the density, which will exceed 8m2 per small stock unit with an increase in numbers up to 2247 small stock units. The current footprint of the existing site is 1.5Ha. The farm portion is 189.4Ha. There are and will be 5 pens with 420 lambs per pen. The standard cycle for a sheep kraal / feedlot is that 420 lambs are bought from an existing company at about 32kg per lamb and it must be at an age of about 3 to 4 months. The price is market related and the lambs are bought on live weight. The lambs are dropped into receiving camps and sorted. They are than fed on natural pasture and feed from about 3 weeks which consist of 18m2 per lamb available. In this adaption phase all lambs are processed against any illness and infections. The feedlot will make use of a local veterinarian that will make suggestions on what the lambs may need to attain a high level of health so that nay mortalities can be prevented. After phase 1, phase 2 will commence for the next 5 weeks. The feed composition is adapted, and the lambs are weighed daily to see if there is any increase or decrease in weight. If needed, lambs that does not show growth will be placed back onto natural pasture. Lambs are shaved in phase 2. At phase 3, lambs are fed “ADLIP”. All the feeding troughs are kept full, and they are not limited by the amount of feed intake. Phase 3 will continue for 2 weeks. Lambs are weighed at each phase change. When the lambs reach a weight of 50kg, it will then be marketed. The whole process takes a total of 62 days. The aim is to feed the lambs in a timeframe that is profitable, against what percentage meat it will produce per carcass and the total feed it consumes. The feedlot gets its water from a borehole that is pumped into a holding tank that then distributed it to the different pens. Lambs of about 32kg drink about 2 to 6 litres per day in summer and 1 to 3 litres per day in winter. Thus for 2400 lambs in summer they will consume between 4800 to 14400 litres per day and between 2400 to 7200 litres per day in winter. Power is supplied by Eskom, with a generator as a backup. All the manure are distributed onto natural pastures and cropland on the farm. All mortalities are investigated for the cause and symptoms. It is then buried in the natural pastures so that the soil can benefit from these carcasses. The mortality rate is usually less than 1%.