EVERY year a number of different short courses are presented by Grootfontein College of Agriculture during the June holidays.
The wool course is one of the more popular hosted to the public.
This year 19 students attended the wool course from June 24 to July 5. The highlight of the event was when the government of Lesotho contacted Grootfontein earlier this year to ask what the possibility would be for their officials to attend the wool course.
Their aim is to learn more about how farmers from the Karoo and Eastern Cape class wool so they can align their classing standards with the South African standards.
Twelve members from the Lesotho Small Business Development Co-operatives and Marketing arrived to attend the course at Grootfontein, outside Middelburg.
The other attendees were from Middelburg and surroundings and one lady even came from Fauresmith.
The course consisted of two sections. During the first week they were taught pieces classing and wool handling assistance and the second week they did the more advanced Springbokkop course.
This course is aligned with the NWGA standards for its competency relevance.
“It was quite an interesting two weeks with this group of candidates that we had this year.
“More especially when we consider what is happening in the Wool & Mohair industry in Lesotho.
“The two countries can benefit and grow together tremendously when coming to the agricultural sector, especially in the fibre industry.
“With the recent signing of an agreement to establish a statutory National Legislative Reform Authority in Lesotho one can be consoled in saying we are moving in the right direction to eradicate all the negative stigmas attached to working relations of the two countries.
“For us to be hosting people from Lesotho and also considering our recent tussles with Lesotho on this commodity, I found it very interesting to engage in the conversations relating to all that has been going on and said regarding these two neighbouring countries,” added Phutiane Letsoalo, the course presenter and wool lecturer at Grootfontein.
