The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) is forging relationships with dairy farmers during the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak. 

Similarly to beef farmers, dairy farmers are equally concerned about the department’s disease investigations for dairy cases that were recently reported in an uMzinyathi vaccinated herd and in uThukela.

KZN is one of South Africa’s leading milk producers, thanks to its 16 major dairy factories, including Clover Industries Limited. This represents about 30% of all total raw milk produced in the country. 

DARD MEC Thembeni kaMadlopha-Mthethwa held a solution-finding meeting with dairy producers at Orange Grove Dairy in Dundee. 

Currently, the department is investigating FMD cases in three dairy farms in the uThukela and uMzinyathi districts. FMD clinical signs were seen on farms. 

The 2021 FMD outbreak significantly impacted both communal and commercial beef farmers. Dairy farms had been spared FMD infections until recently in these districts. Veterinary services are conducting investigations following clinical signs of the disease. 

Orange Grove Dairy CEO Dave Durham, whose company in Dundee is heavily reliant on dairy, said that they sought a meeting with the provincial department to establish a collaborative relationship and strategise on possible solutions to contain the spread of the disease before it could spread to the main corridor, the N3 freeway. 

Durham said the corridor must be protected, as it is the heartbeat of the country’s economy, connecting the Durban Harbour and the country’s economic hub, Johannesburg. 

However, he said if parts of the N3 are declared a Disaster Management Area, this would impact their operations and lead to price increases for dairy products later this year, ultimately affecting consumers.

Durham said the dairy industry’s message to the government is clear: “Let’s keep this corridor and ‘FMD-free zone’ by collaboratively working together to find a KZN solution for the province’s challenges”. 

“One of the key things that we are concerned about is the busiest freeway through Africa that goes through KwaZulu-Natal, and if we are not careful, it goes to a Disease Management Area, which will then cause all the vehicles going through that DMA to be classified for having gone through an FMD area,” Durham said. 

About some of the dairy producers’ proposed measures, kaMadlopha-Mthethwa said: “The approach taken by the dairy farmers resonated well with us. Their concern is that when the government declares places to fall under the disaster management area, the demarcation also includes areas that may not necessarily have had the FMD.

“They also urged that we forge a partnership with them. They are even willing to procure the vaccines so that we can curb the disease. We agreed that we will be taking their concerns to the FMD imbizo in Pretoria this week so that we will be speaking in one voice.”

The MEC also emphasised the need for a stronger collaboration. 

“There’s a great need to work together with the private sector and leverage on our skills and weaknesses effectively. As the province, we may not have huge amounts of minerals, but farming is our mainstay of our economy, and as such, we have to protect the employment of the workers in the agricultural sector as a whole,” kaMadlopha-Mthethwa said. 

She said the government is promoting partnerships with all stakeholders to tackle FMD. 

“As part of our containment measures, we have issued veterinary movement permits, and we are pleased to report a high level of compliance among farmers, which has minimised the impact of the disease,” kaMadlopha-Mthethwa said. 

“Since the FMD outbreak in 2021, having started vaccinations in 2022, we have vaccinated over 700,000 cattle in the province and 24,000 cattle in the uMzinyathi district alone.”

Meanwhile, last week, the National Department of Agriculture said FMD was confirmed on a commercial farm in the Moqhaka Local Municipality, Free State. 

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za

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