Adapting technology to tackle stock theft and other farm crimes
During the course of 2019 and 2020, KwaZulu-Natal stud and commercial Santa Gertrudis beef cattle farmer Andrew Fyvie suffered the theft of animals worth a total of R1,5 million. He also lost hundreds of thousands of rands by having to hire a helicopter at various times to try to track these stolen cattle, as well as through the loss of potential income that the animals would have generated through breeding.
According to Willie Clack, chairperson of the National Stock Theft Prevention Forum, Fyvie and other livestock owners across South Africa lost animals valued at around R1,3 billion to thieves in 2019.
This was despite many owners being part of local stock theft prevention forums and implementing anti-stock-theft measures, such as hiring additional farm security, electrifying fences, and even replacing conventional barbed wire with thick steel cables.
At his wit’s end, Fyvie did not know what else to do. Then, by chance, he met Brett Lee,
