Molatek Drought Relief Feed Donation

Molatek recently undertook a project to offer drought relief to Mohair farmers in the Rietbron, Herold and Little Karoo regions of the Eastern and Western Cape. These major Mohair producing regions are the source of income for many farmers, and with the struggling ostrich industry, farmers have turned instead to Angora farming.

With most goat farming taking place on dry and irrigated lands, and with many farmers unable to properly irrigate their lands for the past three years, farmers were left to sell their excess stock and continue with the bare minimum of breeding stock in order to continue. The drought had an extensive economic effect on these farmers, due to the fact that replacement ewes could not be brought in and the number of lambs that were brought up in the last three seasons had decreased by 30-40% because of poor occupancy.

In the arid Karoo region, Mohair is a major source of income, and while some farmers have opted to disconnect their electricity in order to save money, many others were unable to afford various drought relief products that were available.

With the help of NWK Logistics, Molatek’s Drought Relief project aided 30 Mohair farmers in the Rietbron area and 13 farmers in the Herold area with drought relief.

Other institutions that have been key to drought relief aid over the last two years include the Sentraal – Suid Co-operative Ltd (SSK), South African Mohair Industries Limited (SAMIL), Suid Afrikaanse Sybokhaarkwerkersvereniging (SASKV) and South African Wool & Mohair Buyers’ Association (Sawamba), by providing drought relief in the form of maize.