THE first produce from the first farmer in South Africa accredited to the new Fair Game eco-brand – which highlights innovative ways to curb predators without killing them – was trucked into Port Elizabeth yesterday.

The special delivery coincided with the start of the 2009 International Mohair Summit in Graaff-Reinet, which draws farmers, wool processors and buyers from all over the world and both the developers of the Fair Game brand and their first signatory are hoping the event could launch a catalytic premium price for “green mohair”.

Stock predation is a steadily worsening problem across the country, with farmers reporting spiralling losses to especially caracal and black-back jackal despite increasingly aggressive efforts to eradicate them.

The methods they use have resulted in increasing conflict with environmentalists who argue that most of them not only do not work but are also inhumane and often kill the wrong animals. Methods include poisoning, shooting, hunting with dogs and trapping with gin traps (powerful leg-holds that usually cripple the animals they catch).

Roy Heydenrych, 51, of the farm Angora near Jansenville, spoke while on his way to delivering his first batch of Fair Game mohair, a 2,5-ton clip, to CMW wool brokers in Deal Party.

He said his approach towards curbing predators was part of his holistic approach to farming and his “moral obligation to the land”.

“Farmers in my area are at their wits’ end regarding jackal and lynx. They lose up to 70% of their kids each year to these predators – so that’s 70% of their income.

“I have farmed here for 25 years and I was in the same situation – until 2003, when I changed my direction. Now, I lose on average 1% of my kids to predators.”

His “million-dollar solution” was the introduction of Anatolian mountain dogs, a large shepherd breed renowned in its native Turkey for its steely defence of flocks.

They rarely have to kill a jackal or caracal as their alertness and imposing presence alone are enough to keep these predators away.

Heydenrych now has eight of the dogs. They cost him just R6,40 a day in terms of the pellets that he feeds them.

“One of the other things I have to do here in PE is to pick up a couple of tons of pellets. The price has gone up a bit, but of course they are still exceptionally cheap.”

He runs 3500 angoras on his farm and shears twice a year. His mohair will now be auctioned off by CMW to a processing company, which will wash and comb it before export to countries like Italy, the UK, China and Japan.

Besides using Anatolians to curb predators, he also avoids shooting altogether. This paid off particularly with jackal because, while a dominant territorial jackal pair might dispatch a few kids each year, killing them allowed in many more marauding youngsters, he argued.

He also kept pesticides to a minimum, rotated his grazing and did a regular census of the indigenous plant species on his land, he said.

“The Karoo is a brittle environment. My aim is to ensure that my farm is going forward, not backward, in terms of biodiversity. The idea, in the end, is to deliver a clean product that I can be proud of.”

The coincidence with the new Fair Game brand and the work of the Landmark Foundation to promote “green farming” was an excellent bonus, he said.

Landmark director Dr Bool Smuts, who spearheaded the creation of the brand, said it was part of his organisation’s efforts to “develop market mechanisms, through value adding to agricultural produce, to ensure good conservation land uses”.

The aim was to guarantee that accredited Fair Game producers complied with best practice ecologically, and in the way they managed their labour force, he said. Accredited farmers were independently audited.