South African farmers play chicken with Trump tariffs

FILE PHOTO: Chickens are seen at a poultry farm at Hartbeesfontein, a settlement near Klerksdorp, in the North West province, South Africa, August 15, 2018. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo

HARTBEESFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - Herman Pretorius is just the kind of white South African farmer U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concern for when he barged into the country's delicate land reform debate by ordering an investigation into the "large-scale killing of farmers".

But for the greying, bespectacled 58-year-old, wading knee-deep through some 35,000 chickens at his isolated homestead in South Africa's North West province, it's the United States and its cheap poultry exports that are a threat.