SDSU South Africa 2017

Today started out like our previous days, bright and early with an amazing breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast at 7am we loaded the bus and headed to our first stop which was a hydroponics sheep operation. This operation was producing mutton and wool. A couple of the problems that the operation has were with predators and people stealing the sheep. Everyday they would count the sheep to see how many they lost. On this operation they were growing barley to feed to the animals. The barley is grown on a 6 day cycle. This means once you place seeds into the container it would take 6 days before it was ready. There was always new barley ready to be fed to the sheep and if there was extra barley it is fed to the cattle that are on the property. At this property we had dinner before heading to the second stop. The second stop was at Spitsvuur Holsteins which is a 540 cow dairy farm. They raise their own calves and they are chosen to stay in the herd as replacements, become bulls, or be sold. They had many different pens that divided each group of cattle for specific uses. In the milking barn they are able to milk 32 cows at a time. They are also known for their embryo transfers that they do among the cattle. They have been doing large scale embryo transfers since 1986 and in June 2016 they were ranked 11th in the world for the average milk production per 305 - day lactations, percent butterfat and percent protein. On the property they have other farming divisions such as beef cattle, Merino sheep, and crops. These beef cattle are the carriers for the Spitsuur embryos. They are able to grow a lot of the crops that they need to feed the animals that they have. After this stop students and faculty were able to head back to the hotel and relax before tomorrow's visits. All in all, it was another busy day in the books! (Written by Ashley and Jessica)