With such a lot of variables within the farming panorama, diversification is an invaluable method to hedge one’s possibility and make sure a gentle money float. Then again, managing a couple of divisions comes with its personal demanding situations. Jan Gray, who farms in Mpumalanga’s Bethal area, spoke to Lindi Botha about his successful methods.
Picture: Lindi Botha
Fourth-generation farmer Jan Gray inherited a varied farming trade when he took up the working of the Janvos Landgoed farm in Mpumalanga’s Bethal space.
Then again, proceeding with the combo of actions hasn’t ever been set in stone, and opting for what to pursue and what to exclude from the operation are components that Gray will have to repeatedly and moderately weigh up to verify the good fortune of the trade.
Having been on the helm of Janvos Landgoed for the previous 30 years, Gray has overseen its transition from a casually varied farm to an undertaking the place each and every department has a selected objective.
“When I used to be rising up, farms had slightly of the whole thing – there have been a couple of chickens, a few geese, and a patch of maize. It was once extra of an approach to life than a specialized trade. However these days, it’s a extremely centered trade that must be run precisely proper, or there’s no position for you on a farm,” says Gray.
“It’s really easy to move bankrupt in farming. Those that proceed to make a good fortune of it are really outstanding and they’re farming giant, neatly and proper. There are such a large amount of demanding situations going through farmers in South Africa, and so they want to be on the most sensible in their video games to stay succeeding,” he provides.
In 1994, when Gray joined his father Vos at the farm, Janvos comprised a small dairy, a Merino sheep stud and business herd, a business livestock herd, and grain plants. Gray greater the dimensions of the dairy and boosted the era therein, and added a Boran livestock stud, grass-seed manufacturing and an apple orchard.
“It’s no longer simple to increase and it takes blood and sweat,” he admits. “It calls for capital, extra control and bigger possibility. However if you wish to stay farming, you might be compelled to increase, another way the trade will transform unprofitable.
“An agricultural economist as soon as mentioned that farms want to develop by way of 3% each and every 12 months – both in dimension, efficacy or turnover – or they received’t make it on account of the emerging prices. That’s why you want to stay having a look at tactics to control prices and inputs extra successfully. You’re both a part of the race, otherwise you will have to go away it.”
Department Control
Gray takes care to put money into succesful individuals who will take possession in their explicit divisions.
“My largest funding is in folks. I glance for many who are enthusiastic about what they do, as a result of that makes their jobs more uncomplicated. Even supposing they don’t have all of the wisdom, their interest will inspire them to be told.
“Offering workers with up-to-date coaching is an important, as we want to stay tempo with the newest tech and inventions, and know what’s happening within the trade,” he says.
“Being a part of organised agriculture is essential as a result of I consider that we, as farmers, are more potent after we stand in combination. I may no longer be capable of get to all of the conferences, however I all the time make certain that I’m represented.
He notes that excellent employees are extensively to be had within the nation-state, particularly since such a lot of kids go back and forth to the United States to paintings on farms, however then go back to South Africa to relax.
“They arrive again with wisdom and revel in. Our South African boys are excellent, robust farmers. There are lots of who wish to farm however don’t have land, and giving such folks a chance is helping all folks.”
Janvos has 77 everlasting employees, and each and every department has its personal supervisor and price centre.
There is not any cross-subsidisation of the divisions, and if one department desires to make use of every other’s apparatus, they will have to rent it, no longer borrow it.
The cattle department, for example, buys its hay bales from the grain department. The machines paintings for everybody, however the department that can pay for a tractor hires it out to the others, as an example. And the grain department sells its product to the dairy for feed.
Spreading possibility
Every department is controlled as though it have been a trade by itself, thereby making sure that Gray has a transparent figuring out of which of them are winning and which don’t seem to be. It takes time and nice care to make a decision whether or not to care for, develop or scrap a specific department.
“You’ll’t make a momentary, emotional determination about what to farm and what to not farm, as a result of farming has its ups and downs, and that is all a part of a herbal cycle of occasions.
“If there’s a downward pattern over the years, I will have to make a decision whether or not to evolve or die – both the department shall be culled or I will be able to to find new and cutting edge tactics to make it extra winning,” says Gray.
He explains the significance of diversification: “Diversification spreads possibility since you don’t have your whole eggs in a single basket. We will do each in depth and extensive farming, because the latter boosts our benefit/ha.
“Subsequently, we milk intensively and do extensive farming of high-value fruit like apples. Diversification additionally assists with money float.”
Within the grain department, Gray spreads his possibility by way of planting one-third of the fields to traditional maize, one-third to Roundup Able Maize and one-third to soya bean. Additionally they practise conservation agriculture and minimum tillage. Opting for to move this direction and maintain the soil was once probably the most highest selections Gray has ever made for the farm, since he believes in taking accountability for the land he occupies.
He notes that the divisions must supplement one every other, reasonably than compete for sources. “The sheep don’t compete with the livestock, as they may be able to select up the small maize kernels that the livestock can’t.
“So whilst you’ll stay 100 livestock or 100 sheep, you’ll stay excess of 100 of both when you’ve got each, as they utilise the fields another way.
“By means of having soya bean and maize, I unfold my possibility throughout two plants and I will totally utilise my implements. The residues additionally function further meals resources for the cattle,” explains Gray.
“The dairy supplies day by day money float, and because the trade is solid, I will plan a long way upfront. The apples supply a large source of revenue from an excessively small piece of land. We additionally attain the marketplace previous than the remainder of South Africa does, and we’re a few of the earliest to achieve the marketplace within the Southern Hemisphere, so we’ve a worth benefit.”
Out with the previous
Janvos eradicated its sheep department in March this 12 months, having fallen prey to Gray’s philosophy: if it can pay, it remains. The farm was once, for a few years, famend for its Merino stud, run by way of Vos. Together with his father’s passing remaining 12 months, Gray determined to take away this department from the farm.
“My father was once very enthusiastic about the stud and he gave it numerous consideration. With out him, we don’t have the eagerness and experience to stay it on the excessive stage that he did, so I consider it was once higher to promote it.
“The excessive occurrence of sheep robbery additionally influenced my determination. The losses have been so giant that it simply wasn’t price it to farm sheep anymore. The continuous robbery additionally has a unfavourable affect in your morale, and it’s soul-destroying to position such a lot into one thing, just for it to be stolen from you.”
The Boran stud was once the latest department integrated within the operation, having been registered in 2008, and provides price on a small piece of land.
“A business bull and a stud bull consume an identical quantity of meals and require an identical quantity of house. Then again, you are making significantly extra from the stud bull. It does require additional admin and registration charges, nevertheless it boosts your price according to hectare,” explains Gray.
Apple farming was once added to the combo in 1998, at a time when the rand had weakened significantly in opposition to the United States buck. This export product now is helping the farm building up its profits via international source of revenue, thereby performing as a buffer in opposition to the depreciation of the native forex.
Apple manufacturing additionally enhances the opposite actions at the farm, since harvesting takes position throughout the primary few months of the 12 months, when the opposite divisions have bogged down.
5 other cultivars are grown throughout 30ha, all below nets to protect in opposition to hail harm. The fruit is packed at Hello-Veld Fruit Packers in Ermelo, during which Gray is a shareholder, and it’s dispensed in the community and across the world.
Move giant or move house
3 years in the past, the economics of milking compelled Gray to have to choose from both increasing his dairy department to higher utilise economies of scale, or scrapping it altogether.
“Milking cows additionally takes numerous effort. It’s no longer the perfect task at the farm and profitability is below power. The truth that [the number of] dairy farmers is dwindling is surely evidence that profitability is shrinking. The associated fee-price squeeze is rampant, and you might be compelled to increase your dairy to extend manufacturing to make your funding in new era profitable.”
Because the dairy trade has historically equipped solid returns, Gray determined to double the milking parlour’s capability and set up new era to optimise cow convenience and subsequently milk yield.
The parlour now has a 50-point rapid-exit device that permits for the milking of one 000 cows 3 times an afternoon. The Holstein herd these days incorporates 700 cows in milk, and Gray is within the means of increasing the herd to check the entire capability of the device.
This new era desirous about cow convenience has paid off, as Gray has greater his milk yield from between 18ℓ and 24ℓ/cow/day to between 34ℓ and 39ℓ/cow/day.
“Analysis has proven that cow convenience has a large affect on milk manufacturing. The faster a cow can move lie down, get relaxed and get started consuming after milking, the simpler, as each the milk yield and butterfat [content] building up.
“A cow whose ft are sore, struggles to discover a position to lie down and is uncomfortable registers a drop in milk manufacturing,” he explains.
Milking below a roof has additionally made a giant distinction, because the cows are saved cooler in summer time and out of the rain and dust.
“Cows are very delicate to warmth. On a scorching day, there may be an 11°C distinction in temperature between status within the solar and below the roof, and this affects milk manufacturing,”he says.
Demanding situations and alternatives
A generator is used to energy the milking parlour, offering a relentless reminder of the demanding situations that farmers face with load-shedding.
“Milking turns into extremely pricey if you want a generator to energy your device. Additionally, as our irrigation is scheduled for twenty-four hours an afternoon, if we simplest have energy for part of the day, then we’re simplest 50% efficient. The plants dry out on this warmth in the event that they move with out water.
“We’re additionally left to our personal gadgets with regards to the issues that executive must be offering. We’re totally on the mercy of cattle thieves and different criminals. I additionally need to care for the municipal roads across the farm myself at an enormous expense, or I will’t shipping my produce and my workers can’t get to paintings.
“It takes months to obtain VAT [refunds] from executive, which has a large affect on money float.”
Nonetheless, Gray wouldn’t wish to be anyplace else. “From a tender age, I by no means doubted that I’d farm. There may be nonetheless numerous attainable and lots of alternatives for farmers in South Africa if we will be able to simply stay bettering our productiveness.”
That’s why he embraces new era, which he believes is a sure-fire method to be simpler and make sure sustainability.
As we stroll across the farm, it’s transparent that era is prevalent right here – a drone hovers above a soya bean box, making use of crop-protection chemical compounds {that a} tractor would another way be not able to, bearing in mind how rainy the lands are at this time.
The drone additionally sprays with extra precision than a twig cart or aeroplane can, as it’s in a position get into difficult-to-reach portions of the sphere. Gray says that, in long run, drones shall be used to depend cattle and guard in opposition to inventory robbery.
The farm’s tractors are fitted with precision era programs that assist to scale back enter wastage. As an example, autosteer ends up in a saving on diesel, as it makes the tractors paintings extra correctly.
Lengthy-term averages in maize manufacturing have additionally risen because of new era, with yields rising from 3,5t/ha to 7t/ha.
Gray’s willingness to embody new era stems from his assumption that there’s all the time one thing new to be told and give a boost to upon, and that one will have to by no means surrender at the quest to do higher. “There are numerous demanding situations in farming, however we will have to battle to search out the easiest way ahead,” he says.
E-mail Jan Gray at [email protected].