Few things are as urgent for the South African cattle industry as the need to vaccinate the cattle herd against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
While most of the country enjoyed December holidays, cattle farmers continued to experience major financial losses as FMD spread across various parts of the country. Numerous auctions were cancelled as farmers tried to limit the spread of the disease, but this has led to significant financial losses for the cattle industry.
As we celebrated the excellent recovery of South Africa’s agriculture in 2025 — the major reason for which was favourable rainfall — the recovery has not been broad-based. The field crops and horticulture subsectors were the primary beneficiaries.
In an ordinary season we would also expect the livestock industry to do better, as it benefits from better grazing veld during rainy seasons. But 2025 was no ordinary year for the South African livestock industry.
Those in sheep and goat farming, among others, had a reasonably good year. But cattle farmers struggled with the spread of FMD throughout the year, having already been set back by higher feed costs at the start of the year in the wake of the 2023-24 drought.
In an ordinary season we would also expect the livestock industry to do better, as it benefits from better grazing veld during rainy seasons. But 2025 was no ordinary year for the South African livestock industry.
While we have had various public engagements across the country on avenues to address FMD, and task teams were established to help the department of agriculture, urgency is needed right now. The starting point is ensuring vaccines are available to farmers, and this remains a challenge. We are dealing with a biological matter, which requires rigorous scientific care and guidance before major imports, especially at a scale of vaccinating over 12.1-million cattle.
But time is not on our side, and farmers are losing daily as the disease spread continues to weigh on the industry. This compels the department to move far quicker in permitting imports and allowing farmers to use such permits.
It also means the department must consider importing vaccines from a variety of suppliers, and not rely mainly on Botswana. Another potential supplier some in the industry have identified is Turkey. Engagement with Turkey to assess whether its vaccine can be imported, and in large volume, is necessary.
South Africa faces a major challenge in vaccinating its entire cattle herd, and time is of the essence if we are to make progress this year to reduce the damage FMD causes to the sustainability of the South African beef and dairy industries.
This is a challenge for all farmers, large-scale and subsistence. As auctions dry up, tough economic challenges may arise in the communities where farmers rely on this mechanism as their primary point of sale. The effective way to reopen these auctions soon again is through significant progress in vaccination so that there is some level of control over the spread of disease.
Dairy farmers in the Midlands region of KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of the country have shared devastating pictures of the effect the disease is having on their stock. KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape are the country’s major dairy-producing areas. If these regions continue to struggle with severe FMD it raises concerns for the entire South African dairy industry.
Industry stakeholders and the government are aware of how much is at stake. But we continue to highlight the situation to call for greater urgency in the vaccination drive.
The government must also rely more on private laboratories for vaccine storage and manufacturing in the future. We should not leave this vital task solely to state-owned laboratories. Collaboration is key in our efforts to overcome this threat to the cattle industry.
• Sihlobo is chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa and a senior fellow in Stellenbosch University’s department of agricultural economics.
Also read:
Foot-and-mouth outbreak costs livestock sector R5.6bn in lost export revenue
South Africa adopts vaccination-led strategy to regain foot-and-mouth disease-free status
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