Eastern Cape farmers suffer devastating fire losses
01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author
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Eastern Cape farmers affected by runaway veld fires in recent weeks will be holding an urgent meeting on Tuesday so that a proper assessment and needs analysis can be done.
Agri Eastern Cape says members in the areas of Molteno, Sterkstroom, Dordrecht, Jamestown and Somerset-East, had suffered severe losses following a series of devastating veld fires last week and this week.
It says initial estimates indicate that approximately 45 000 hectares of grazing land has been destroyed while more than 300 heads of cattle, perished in the fires.
Small stock and infrastructural losses have not yet been determined.
Agri Eastern Cape spokesperson, Johan Wege, says the fires came at a particularly difficult time, in the middle of calf and lamb season, and on the back of a second consecutive drought year.
"It is very dry and the wind was howling those 3 to 4 days. There was some cattle losses, one farmer lost 350 heads of cattle. Then it's the infrastructure including fences, electricity losses, it's absolutely unbelievable." says Wege.
Agri Eastern Cape has called on all farmers in the province to stand together and assist one another during this stressful time.
