It takes a fine balancing act for Grain SA chairperson, Jaco Minnaar, to serve the interests of members while still leaving enough time to pursue his true passion – being a farmer. Sabrina Dean visited him recently on his family farm near Hennenman in the Free State.
Jaco Minnaar is the fourth generation of the Minnaar family to farm on Uitsny, near Hennenman in the Free State.
Uitsny was purchased by his great-grandfather in 1918, but is today part of a farming unit comprising several contiguous farms and separate parcels of land. Jaco also owns land near Bothaville, which allows him to spread his risk.“The land in Hennenman usually does better in a wet year, whereas land in Bothaville tends to perform better in a dry year. Whether it rains a lot or very little, I have a harvest to suit either scenario. It may not be the best but I also won’t be the worst off,” he says.
Jaco plants approximately 2 500ha/year to dryland crops. Most of this is maize, but he also grows other summer grains such as soya beans and sunflower. In addition, he runs a small cattle component, and a small herd of buffalo in a joint venture with other partners.
PRECISION AGRICULTURE
Jaco bases his planting decisions on a number of factors, including soil moisture content, climatic expectations, grain prices and global grain supply levels.
He is a firm believer in precision agriculture and also tries to introduce conservation agriculture techniques into his operation where viable.
“Because my lands are so diverse, I treat each one differently. For example, about 30% of my lands are entirely no-till,” he says.
He manages the rest of the lands with conservation in mind but leaning towards more conventional practices.
“I try to do as little tillage as possible – just enough to create the necessary densification layers.”
ANALYSING EVERY SQUARE METRE
In addition to practising precision farming and no-till, Jaco tries to gain an understanding of the physical and chemical composition of his soil. To this end, he conducts extensive trials on all his lands annually.
This story is from the 27 October 2017 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
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This story is from the 27 October 2017 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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