Welcome to The Dairy Mail

by Liza Burger

It's dry in the Eastern Cape. So So dry that most farmers believe it’s the worst they have ever experienced in their lifetime. Nevertheless, a great sense of anticipation hangs in the air for what spring might bring.

Meanwhile, dairy cows on pastures have to be fed and the price of feed, input costs, the hardship and continued worry have forced more many a dairy farmer to stop dairy farming. Consolidation, tightening belts and culling unprofitable cows are some of the tactics generally applied at time like these.

BuBut then there are men such as Wahl Bartmann, who never give up. It might not be the safest and most economic option – the risks are high, but the rewards are also greater.

Alta van Zyl, regional coordinator of the MPO Eastern Cape, and Liza Burger of The Dairy Mail visited some of these relentless farmers in the province. They were greeted by a mixture of courage, modesty and foresight.

Lourens and Luana Fourie farm near Cookhouse with a herd of approximately 1600 Holstein-Jersey cross cows in total. The farm belongs to the Houghamdale Trust of which Lourens holds a 50% share. The other half belongs to Mark Holliday, a seasoned dairy farmer from Jeffrey’s Bay.

Further north of Cookhouse, Freddie and Michelle van Zyl are farming near the Fish River on his farm, Bracklyn. Here they have about 800 Holsteins, of which the dairy herd includes 500 cows.

Christo and Elsa Potgieter along with their son are farming at the coast between Alexandria and Boknes. Their herd of Frisian and a few Jersey cows make up 1 600 in total.

These three farms can be compared at various levels regarding herds and milk parlours – the greatest comparison is however that all three have taken risks in difficult times.

Seize the day
Christo Potgieter is a farmer who definitely follows his heart. He knows what he wants, and has been farming for years just outside Boknes in his own way. He bought the farm in 1977 from his father and started with a small swingover herringbone milking parlour. A turning point for the dairy farm only came a few years later when two other farmers in the vicinity installed turntables.

"We had a look at this wonderful way of milk and immediately decided to buy a turntable ourselves. Obviously, it wasn’t as easy as buying and installing it! First, there was no money to finance the project. The loan from the Land Bank would only cover the turntable, not the building, floors or other infrastructure. The cleaning of the area where the new milking parlour was to be built, and laying the cement floor and waiting area alone cost a considerable amount of money, time and hard work, because we had to do it themselves," said Christo.

Installing the turntable cost R1,2 million at the time, but by doing the work themselves, the Potgieters realised their dream. Today, the Rockwood 60 point turntable is still going strong and after his financial gambling with loans and selling oxen for extra money at the time, he ensured payment of a lifetime.

Partnership with a stranger
Farming is difficult at the best of times. Farming with a partner is usually even more difficult, as mutual trust is crucial and responsibilities are shared.

After years of struggling with inadequate water and erratic rainfall, Lourens Fourie decided to let the farm near Boknes go.

"It's very difficult to live from one shower of rain to the next," said his wife, Luana. She is responsible for administrative tasks, accounting and the pasture management programme. She handles the accounts along with Mark Holliday. Mark is a real number cruncher and helps a lot when it comes to the financial side of farming."

Mark is the other partner in the farming business. He is an experienced dairy farmer, originally from England and has been farming for many years in the Jeffrey’s Bay area. Mark and Lourens were introduced to one another by a consultant.

"I needed an investor to help develop the farm and Mark was looking for land for his heifers," said Lourens who moved to Houghamdale in 2008.

"We started with only 56 cows but today we have as much as 1100 cows in milk. We have come a long way since that first meeting when I could hardly believe that this Afrikaner boy of Vryburg could have such a good business relationship with an Englishman. He is a valuable source of information on irrigation and is very involved on the farm, and visits every week," said Lourens.

A lot of money and effort went into the farm to make it one of the top farms in the area. The turntable and milking parlour cost around R6 million to build. Another four central-pivot sprayers were added to the existing five. Roads were constructed and 47 ha of maize were planted for silage.

The herd is milked twice a day and delivers approximately 23 000 ℓ per day. Most of the cows are hired Holstein-Jersey crossbreeds. "I believe you should farm with the race you like best. We are very pleased with our crossbred animals."

One of the big challenges for Lourens was to master pastures under irrigation. He simply had to overcome the differences between irrigation and dry-land farming. But today he is thankful for the difficult decision they had to take a few years ago.

"It was my dream to milk on irrigated land," he says while describing how his situation differs from a dairy farm with dry-land pastures.

Pasture management is very important and a management programme must be followed to maintain the right length of grazing. Silage, concentrate (20% protein) and lucerne are offered as supplements, especially during winter when the kikuyu and perennial ryegrass pastures take longer to recover.

Lourens is very proud his staff for helping to make the farm a success. The farm has 26 permanent workers and the milking parlour managers, Jannie Fourie and Louis Vosloo, are clearly proud of what the team has accomplished in the past two years. Gerard Meiring is irrigation manager and Corlia Meiring looks after the calves.

"Everyone has a contribution to make and our success is the result of teamwork."

Lourens is confident about his future among the barren hills outside Cookhouse: "We have come a long way since Boknes and there is still a lot of work ahead of us, but it is nice to know you are living your dream."

Go big
Freddie van Zyl's farm, Bracklyn, is some distance outside Cradock, near the Fish River railway station. If it weren’t for the irrigation canal along the dirt road, it would be inconceivable that any farming – not to mention a dairy farm – could survive here.

Along the farm road, some dry cows and heifers are standing at troughs feeding. No sign of fields or pastures is to be seen.

“Actually, we have a mixed-feed system, which combines pastures with full feed,” Freddie explained. “Don’t worry about the veld. From 15 August it will be green again, and this will be paradise again," he said.

Freddie is the outgoing president of the MPO Eastern Cape. He is also a father of a baby girl, born a few months ago. Besides the pyjama parade, Freddie is also the owner of a brand new 60 point Rockwood turntable and a significant amount of debt.

"I have a lot of new responsibilities at home and on the farm, that’s why I resigned as chairman. However, my involvement with the MPO will not disappear," he said.

"It's an opportunity and a risk I took and hope it turns out well, but a lot still has to happen before I can say that this was the right decision at the right time," Freddie said.

He manages every aspect of his farm – from the calves to keeping an eye on the building work. "I’m looking forward to appointing a chief farm manager, as I hope to rent some more land soon."

Currently there are 160 ha under irrigation and a herd of about 800 animals in total.

Freddie is looking forward to the future. "I believe this area can perform just as well as the Tsitsikamma and that future may be closer than we think."

His Holstein cows currently supply (August) an average of 18 ℓ per day and in summer, it is usually around 23 ℓ.

Supplementation consists of yellow maize meal, maize and lucerne silage. He is part of a group of five farmers from the area who transport their milk to the buyers themselves.

Another improvement he is planning for his dairy is a new management system, which will monitor the performance his herd electronically.

Freddie is modest about the progress on his farm. However, if one has a look at the small 12-point swingover milk parlour next to the new milking parlour, it is easy to understand that he does not want count his chickens before they hatch. It's a big change costing a lot of money and a lot can still go wrong.

I hope everything works out as we planned. We have worked hard to make this dream to come true and we believe that the farm will benefit from the change."

It's still dry in the Eastern Cape, but there’s still hope. For these three farmers at least.