A SIMPLE plastic collar which gives stock farmers a cheap alternative to the traditional "kill the predators" approach has won a R10 000 national environmental award for two Eastern Cape farmers. 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. The innovative collar was developed by Larry and Gray King, who farm in Tarkastad and Bedford. Larry says 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 in the Eastern Cape include jackal and lynx. 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 per cent recycled plastic, last for five years and cost about R5 each. The brothers now manufacture from Gray King's farm in Bedford and over 170 000 collars are in use across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and as far afield as Norway. The collar was also awarded two South African Bureau of Standards (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.