In this edition, we spend a day in the life of a feedlot manager. Andre Bergh, the general manager of feedlots and farms at Beefmaster Group, talks about everyday challenges and everything in between. We ask him about his career highlights and some advice for those who wish to follow in his footsteps.
For Bergh, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to go into the agricultural field. Even though he grew up on a farm, he was fixated on becoming an engineer.
“I always wanted to go into engineering and I grew up on a farm in the Northern Free State. I always had a love for animals and the nutrition of animals,” he shares.
Challenges in the industry
In the episode, he shares how load shedding has impacted beef production in the country. “The first thing will be the issue of energy and load shedding. The navigation of it is actually getting alternative energy. We use generators on our farms and [we are] trying to go over to solar,” he says.
He also zooms into animal diseases and why biosecurity is a top priority for them. He mentions that some diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease have rotationally made their rounds in South Africa. Therefore it is becoming important to mitigate the risks as much as possible. He shares how they are doing it.
“We really have to take into account the risk and how we move the animals and where from we move the animals,” he says.
In this episode, Bergh also discusses:
- Best practices incorporated in feedlot business;
- How technology is helping the feedlot sector thrive; and
- Advice to farmers.
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ALSO READ: The ultimate guide to understanding feedlots
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