Protective sheep collar wins award

By Justine Gerardy

EAST LONDON -- In the Eastern Cape, trendy sheep wear award-winning armour.

A simple plastic collar that gives stock farmers a cheap alternative to the traditional "kill the predators" approach picked up a R10 000 national environmental award for two Eastern Cape farmers this week.

The KingCollar, a non-toxic, plastic protective device, won the Green Trust Awards natural resources category for its eco-friendly method of preventing the loss of small agricultural stock to predators.

The collar covers the animal's cheek and underside of the neck, which means predators -- which kill by throttling their prey -- can't get access.

It was devised by Larry and Gray King, who farm in Tarkastad and Bedford.

Larry said the collar was devised after normal control methods had failed, and a decision was made to instead focus on protecting the prey.

"It is well known that all predators kill by throttling and we thought that if that's all we have to protect, we'd make something that would armour the throat."

Predators are a major problem for stock farmers with increases in lynx and jackal populations, said Agri-Eastern Cape's Johan Hendriksz yesterday.

Larry entered the competition on behalf of the brothers after seeing an advert.

The Green Trust award judges commented that the collar was an innovative solution to protect natural resources and that King was a role model by encouraging other farmers to look for "good-news" solutions.

The experiments started in 1990 and included painting a mixture of axle grease and chilli on the throats of sheep. That was followed by hand-made collars using scrap tin.

The plastic collars, which were patented in 1998, are made from 40 percent recycled plastic, last for five years and cost about R5 each.

The brothers now manufacture from Gray King's farm in Bedford and over 170000 collars are in use across South Africa and in Namibia, Botswana and even Norway.

The collar was also awarded two SABS Design Awards in 1999.

Poison Working Group chairperson Gerhard Verdoorn said the collar meant that livestock and carnivores could now live together without loss.

He said farmers who had problems with carnivores could contact him on 0824468946.