The 2015–2017 summer rainfall seasons in both South and southern Africa saw drought and heat stress severely impacting the livestock production sector, as well as agriculture more broadly. Although the region has a longstanding operational forecasting system; tailored forecasting, including that designed for the livestock sector, has declined in presence and operational use in recent years. The potential use of such information to enable the livestock sector to better cope with difficult seasons such as those of 2015–17 is clear. A range of promising initiatives attempt to move South Africa (and the broader southern Africa region) in the direction of improved tailored forecasting, integrated, in part, into the operational system. A number of gaps in application remain, however, and the paper concludes with a discussion as to how the field might move forward, particularly in the light of possible increased frequency of drought and heat stress in the future.

南部非洲和南部非洲的2015-2017年夏季降雨季节，干旱和高温胁迫严重影响了畜牧生产部门以及更广泛的农业。尽管该地区拥有长期的业务预报系统；近年来，包括针对畜牧业的预测在内的量身定制的预测的出现和实际使用率均有所下降。显然可以利用这些信息使畜牧部门更好地应对诸如2015-17年度这样的困难季节。一系列有希望的举措试图将南非（以及整个南部非洲地区）朝着改进的量身定制的预测的方向发展，并将其部分地整合到业务系统中。在应用方面仍然存在许多差距，但是，