N&B Crocodile Farm breeds crocodiles for skins and meat for export.The farm consists of 45 breeders being 5 male and 40 female all over 15 years old. These are kept in a large fenced breeding dam with strategically placed sandpits for egg laying.
Nearing September when laying takes place these sandpits are moistened daily, raked each evening and monitored for any signs of digging. If there is any disturbance in the sand, the area is checked for eggs.
When eggs are found they are placed in kaylite boxes in vermiculite and the boxes are packed into the incubator, which is kept at 34 degrees. An average of 35 eggs per female are laid with approximately 1400 eggs being collected. Some will be infertile and others rejected for various reasons.
Each box is clearly labelled with the date of lay and the period of incubation is roughly 90 days. About 3 days before the due period, which is in December, the boxes are monitored for hatching. The crocodiles make a chirping sound when hatching and are then removed from the incubator boxes and placed on dry sand for 24 hours. They are then moved to hatchling pens in enclosed tunnels where the water is warmed during the winter months to promote growth.
The hatchlings are fed on minced meat and liver and, together with the breeders and growers, consume approximately 700 kilograms of meat per week. At one year old the crocodile growers are transferred to open concrete pens where they grow out to approximately 1.5 metres in 2 years before being slaughtered for their belly skins and meat for export.
Our annual slaughter is approximately 900 animals done during April, May and June each year. Diseases such as brown spot are more prevalent during the summer months, Sept to March. Our Manager, Felix Makaza, and his staff of ten run the farm.
N&B Sugar Estates
The N&B Sugar Estate has a quota to produce 10,500 tonnes of sugar cane and a water allocation of 1 3/4 cusecs.
The farm employs 60 people who are housed, with their families, on the farm in two bedroom brick under iron houses. The staff have their own beerhall and entertainment area and a clinic.