Converting From Wheat To Sheep On A Small Farm

Alfreda Mars, who plants 160ha to wheat in rotation in the Swartland, has realised the limitations of growing this crop on such limited land. Today, she focuses more on sheep and feed crops, and the future looks bright.

- Glenneis  Kriel

Growing up without brothers, Alfreda Mars learnt the basics of farming from her father, Kikkie, who produced peas for the Rhodes canning factory in Tulbagh.

“As the eldest of two daughters, my hands were always ready to help with anything from harvesting to fixing implements,” Mars recalls.

Her own farming career started with vegetables and sheep on rented communal land near Saron in the Porterville area of the Swartland. In 1998, she and five partners pooled resources to buy a 1 300ha farm near Gouda for R4 million. The farm had 600ha of arable land on which the group farmed 450 ewes and 100 Brahman cattle.

The venture, however, proved a disaster. “I hardly knew the rest of the group and most of them weren’t really into farming. They never lifted a finger, but by the end of each year they wanted their share of the profits, which were hardly enough to keep the animals going,” she says.

The group did not have enough capital to cover the daily running costs of the farm, let alone develop its full potential.

“We fortunately made enough money when we sold the farm to cover the Land Bank loan with which we’d bought it. I had no alternative but to go back to farming sheep and vegetables in Saron,” she says.

A SECOND GO

In 2014, Mars and her cousin Evan Mathews entered into a partnership and acquired a 30-year lease under government’s Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) for a 266ha farm, Middelpos, near Gouda.

The odds for this venture were much better than for the previous one. Firstly, the group size was smaller, which meant that fewer people were dependent on the farm for an income.

Secondly, she and Mathews, who, sadly, died earlier this year, both came from farming backgrounds and shared the same work ethic.