Our Environment

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

Our rainfall is approximately 900 mm 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 diversified farming business.

Our core business is forestry where we grow gum, wattle and pine.

We farm with Simbra cattle and we have two production sales annually.

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:

• Forestry
• Breeding Simbra
• Agriculture

FORESTRY

We have approximately 2250 ha planted under timber. Fifty percent of our plantations are planted with black wattle, five percent with pine and forty five 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.

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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 functional Simbra cattle for the South African market.

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.

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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.