If anyone out there in ‘blogworld’ is interested in travelling abroad in the near future than I would highly recommend Africa to be on your priority list right up near the top.

The hospitality we have been treated to has been excellent everywhere we have visited on this trip, and especially the farms, which as I have mentioned before is an indication of the type of people involved in positive, proactive & forward thinking agriculture that I’m proud to be a part of. Even if I am at the beginner’s stage of sponging off other people’s knowledge, all have been typically more than willing to give…and I am extremely grateful.

Graaff Rienet has been a fantastic region to look at progressive farming techniques as far as grazing management in a drier climate goes, as it represents a wide climatic variability and some really difficult conditions.

Our first visit after leaving the entrepreneurial Roly Kroons was to a contact of his a bit farther out past Nieu Bethesda at Howard & Judy Sheard’s place which was relatively flat compared to Roly’s. Still very rugged on the hill tops though and another beautiful house, with streams running past and water all around the place, a real feature in such a dry terrain. This included an old ‘water wheel’ that was still connected to a ‘hammer mill’ and quite usable despite its old age. This was another couple diving into diversity on farm, although probably not with quite the zest or scale of the Kroon’s. Still, they had quite a variety, with a woolen product enterprise, & “Karoo Moon” conserve enterprise both operating and employing quite a few people. The jams etc were all very good quality & Jenny proved to be quite a good host & chef that night with another neighbour joining us for dinner as well.

The next day we had lined up with another contact that we could unfortunately only get to spend a few hours with due to our tight schedule. We could easily have spent several days with Doug & Liz Stern on their very well managed and maintained farm, as Doug is the sort of bloke that just oozes optimism & passion for what he’s doing. I’m guessing he is about 60 years old & has been practicing HM or cell grazing since the late seventies with great results, especially on the lower ‘vlei’ or flatter country which originally was not too dissimilar to my hard capped bladder saltbush landscape. If you can imagine this country without the surrounding mountains of course!!

The amount of grass coming back into this landscape (after being gone for generations) is quite amazing, and he has lifted the carrying capacity from a government accepted 15 to 20 Hectares per cow, to an average of less than 10 Hectares per LSU & in some areas even less again. That’s at least a doubling of the stocking rate simply as a result of transforming the capacity of his soils to hold & utilise the meager rainfall received here through improved grazing management and control of animals. And of course, the ability of being able to have more cattle, sheep, goats or whatever is the result of improved capacity which flies in the face of conventional thinking which implies that “too many numbers of livestock” is the problem with rangelands. All these guys are adamant that their biggest challenge is getting the higher numbers and density required to continually improve the ‘veld’, because this brittle, dry & hard capped environment desperately needs the beneficial herd impact to stimulate water retention and plant growth.

I’ve de-stocked our place at home completely four times in the last eight years as a drought management & ‘land protection’ strategy and now I’m coming to the realization that maybe that was wrong (or at least ‘not quite right’) as the animals, correctly managed, have such a crucial role to play in improving that hard capped, clay pan infested country.

Doug & Liz have cattle as well as Dohne merinos, which has been quite a common mix & I must say that I’m surprised at the numbers of merinos still on places we have visited. That should please many of my colleagues at home where there is a strong history & attachment to the breed. We’ve seen a few other breeds on our travels as well such as Dorpers, but not as many as I had anticipated. Labour costs are quite a bit lower here which helps, with shearing costs around 5% of what it is at home, with wool and sheep values being a little higher here to help on the income side.

One other thing I’ve picked up over here off these guys is the idea of having a management group of like minded people (not necessarily farmers) get together several times a year to help on each others business. This is a concept that RCS have adopted in their Executive Link (EL) process, of which Pec & I were involved on the same ‘board’ for four & a half years, and it had great effect and appeal for me at that stage of our business.

However, these people have a voluntary agreement that has seen their continued commitment to each other span several meetings a year over the last two & a half decades. The trust level created by that is phenomenal, allowing them to strategically & critically examine any sort of issue, idea or drama that their lives and business could throw up. The energy & dynamics of a positive outlook has developed an optimistic environment in which the next generation are now becoming involved as well, & bringing fresh ideas & a youthful perspective on board. Its an exciting possibility, to have sons & daughters wanting to be involved, instead of parents pushing the willing youth away because farming is “too hard & not rewarding”…. 

I get the feeling that nothing is too hard for these folks.

That brings me back to Norman Kroon whom we visited next & stayed the night. After spending the first afternoon driving around he’s lower block which is relatively flat, and checking out the sheep, goats & magnificent Nguni bulls & then having a wonderful evening with him & Jenny, the next morning we were in for a real surprise.

Now, we have been over some rough roads this week & seen more rocks than would collectively fill the head space of the worlds wonderful politicians all put together…but the road up to the top of Normans second (of three) farms was a sight to behold & has even had to have loosened huge boulders blown off the road by dynamite from where they had fallen & blocked the path. Seeing the grazing country on top of the plateau was surely a surprise, but the attitude and tenacity that must have been needed from the men responsible to get a road up there at all in the first place was mind blowing. The landcruiser was in low range first & still struggling at times to climb the steep gradient, with the remains of a wrecked old dozer lying remnant beside one spot on the track (about 100 metres lower than where it fell from) being testament to the drivers foolish carelessness at the time.

The top of the mountain is only about seven kilometers from the house as the crow flies and yet is 4000 feet higher and averages about 27 inches of rain a year, as opposed to only about ten at the first farm. We stopped half way up to start a diesel pump which supplies water up there & to our utter amazement Norman pointed to a sheer cliff of around a hundred metres height off in the distance where the pipe actually goes up. This water system & the many miles of fencing (goat proof 7 wire!) all have to traverse rocks, thick scrub & incredibly steep inclinations & will surely be a stark reminder for me if I ever choose to complain about any work I need to get done at home.

Norman has split all his country into camps (paddocks) of around ten to forty hectares for maximum control & has inspired me to be much more intensive in my approach at home. The following may or may not be relevant with today’s land prices, which by the way are much higher here than the drier country at home, but I’ll tell it anyway.

When Norman bought the second farm in the 70’s the previous owners were reputedly the best pasture managers of the district & held in high local regard for their ability & experience as long time farm owners. Within three or four months of taking over & putting in many more ‘camps’ on the place Norman was carrying 50% more livestock than the long term average, & insists that he paid for the whole farm purely out of ‘increased production’ in the following three years. Like many others I’ve met he also insists the best investment you can make for improving productivity in your land is to buy wire…

By the way, their other farm is in 7 inch rainfall country & all the same principles apply.

We left there reluctantly once again leaving behind warm hospitality from our hosts, & headed back through town & out to Bob (Francois actually) and Laura Segers place where they specialize in breeding Arab endurance racing horses & Nguni cattle.

Horses are their passion, and what a difficult enterprise to run in this country with the continual threat of ‘horse sickness’ hanging over them. This disease is the catalyst behind the legend of ‘darkest Africa’ and the reason why colonising this country was such a difficult task for the British. Its also one hell of a lot worse than the recent threat of ‘horse flu’ at home (which they simply vaccinate for here) as this one does kill, & can be incredibly quick about it. Bob & Laura have lost 15 this year & considering one of their best sold for almost 200,000 Rand (about 28,000 Aussie) than it also represents a huge economic, as well as emotional strain. Ironically, it has been exacerbated this season because its host, the midge fly, has flourished following a high rainfall summer last year. This couple has a very philosophical outlook on their life & business, and they remain positive & optimistic in the face of quite a challenge. Actually, another real issue they have is the continual threat of horse thieves due to their close proximity to town, and their latest ploy to deal with that is to employ a Hottentot Bushman to live out with the animals to guard them. Yes, it’s a different world over here…

They already use, as do almost everyone we’ve visited, Anatolian guard dogs to stay with livestock & I would have thought these huge Jackal killing beasts would have been enough of a deterrent to the ‘two legged pests’ as well, but apparently not.

Had an early start from there the next morning after being up quite late in lively discussion the night before & once again we hit the road with plenty of miles to cover.

And quite a few more eventuated, as the GPS lady was inexplicably turned off (Peca dislikes her voice!) and I missed a turn which saw us take quite a few back roads & almost run out of fuel. Of course this happened while going through some of the most isolated country we have seen so far on our journey! Luckily, with only fumes keeping us going we came across a small depot that had just got a load of fuel in the day before & was owned an operated by a local farming couple.

Interestingly this pair are far from the positive mindset we had encountered in Africa so far on the trip, and they bemoaned everything from the lack of rain to bad lambing percentages, political turmoil, feral predation, high winds and low pay…and were insisting that there children leave farming, their families & country and head off to Australia instead of staying home. We were lucky to bolt out of there before their negativity drove us to depression & sullied our view on all we had learned and enjoyed so far.

After getting out of there alive we kicked on right down to East London to our rendezvous with David Oldfield (not the Pauline Hanson one!) who gave a talk in Harrismith on the development of Biogas digesters, which had both Pec & I interested. This is a system of capturing the methane gas from either human or animal waste & turning it into energy for hot water or cooking etc. You can also incorporate the run off effluent into algae ponds for protein production, then the cleaned, oxygenated and filtered water can be used for fish farming or growing vegetables etc in a completely closed & self sustaining system.

Great stuff & David was very helpful with explaining it to us in more detail & driving us all over the countryside to look at projects his company is involved in.

Unfortunately it got late in the day for us before we realised it & our bed and visit for the night with Nigel & Gayle Flannigan had to be cancelled so that we could start to make our way south towards Capetown. They have been using camels on their farm to control woody regrowth & I would have been interested in checking that out.

I really need about six months over here to see everything that I’d like to. My wife and daughter would have to make the journey as well though, otherwise I may not be welcome home….

Actually this trip has been fantastic, but after almost four months, about a dozen countries, countless road miles & 34 flights it is starting to wear me down. And I’m looking forward to getting home & getting stuck into incorporating some of what I’ve learned into our business and getting back in touch with my wonderful family….

Cheers again.