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      E-mail:  delft@telkomsa.net

 
  03.  Business Activities  
 

Our Environment

We farm twenty kilometers south east of Piet Retief South Africa, on the border of Mpumalanga and Kwa-Zulu Natal close to the Kingdom of Swaziland.

Our rainfall is approximately 1000 cm per annum; our grazing is mainly sour veldt and the terrain hilly. We have mild winters and frost falls occasionally.

Our Farming Activities

We have a much diversified farming business.

Our core business is forestry where we grow gum, wattle and pine. We sell approximately 20 000 tons of timber per annum standing to major corporate companies such as Mondi, Sappi and TWK.

We breed Simbra cattle from Simmentaler, Brahman and Simbra females. We use Simmentaler and Brahman females to ensure genetic predictability and to have new F1’s at our disposal on a continuous basis.

We plant maize, Soya beans, potatoes and cabbage as a secondary part of our business.

To read more go to one of the following sub sections:

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FORESTRY

We have approximately 2150ha planted under timber. Fifty percent of our plantations are planted with black wattle, ten percent with pine and forty percent with gum.

We are in the process of converting some of our Eucalyptus Grandis compartments to GxN and Dunii. The yields of these species are considerably higher. We rotate our gum and wattle trees on a ten year cycle. In the past we regenerated our wattle compartments but we now replant with seedlings.  Gum is replanted every second cycle. We are currently experimenting with the rotation of gum compartments to wattle and vice verse. Gum do exceptionally well on wattle compartments.

Timber is sold standing to our buyers. Selling timber standing reduces management time on harvesting and no capital investment in expensive machinery is required. Standing timber prices also exceed our net prices where we do the harvesting and arrange the transport.

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BREEDING SIMBRA

Piet Retief is a tough cattle farming area. Sour veldt, ticks and tick related diseases are plentiful. This breed can adapt and our cattle are proof of their adaptability. We farm extensively and our cattle feed off grass and a summer and winter lick.

Our vision is to produce genetically superior, easy care and highly efficient Simbra cattle for the South African market.

Genetic predictability is important for us hence the use of our own Simmentaler and Brahman and Simbra studs to breed Simbra.  Our Simmentaler and Brahman studs also supply us with of a source of new F1 cattle.

It is our policy not to show cattle. Showing cattle is very expensive, unnatural and effects breeding values adversely. Instead we have field days on our farm, invite fellow breeders and prospective clients to visit our farm to see our cattle in working clothes and share knowledge. We make use of the internet and printed press to promote our stud.

Selection is one of our most important strategies. To produce genetically superior cattle the selection criteria must be stricter and the pool bigger. It is our quest to increase our Simbra breeding cattle to 800 head. Fertility is our number one selection criteria. Medium size, mature mass with above average milk figures are our target progeny. We prefer red animals with slightly more ear.  We are not obsessed with breeding SP animals nor polled animals. We strive to breed the best we can with the best, polled or not, F1 or SP animal.

Currently we have ten resident stud sires. Five Simbra, three Simmentaler and two Brahman stud sires. See our “STUD SIRES” section for more info. We do make use of imported and local semen and artificially inseminate approximately 100 females per breeding season.

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AGRICULTURE

We have amalgamated our agriculture division with CH Maree and formed a new partnership C&T BOERDERY.

C&T BOERDERY is growing from strength to strength. The partnership produces maize, Soya  beans, wheat, potatoes and cabbage.

We plant a wide variety of maize cultivars and yield approximately 11 tons per ha under irrigation and 6 tons per ha on dry lands.

We plant 22ha of potatoes twice a year. Mondial is an outstanding performer in our district, while we also plant small quantities  BP1 and Platina

 

 
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