•••
IN T HE SPO T L IG HT
Nico de Beer with one of
his sons, Dirkie.
Senwes does
farming loading
on this farm.
strength of our farming business,”
said Nico.
FARMING
Nico describes their farming ope
rations as mixed farming. They
farm on Witrandsfontein, between
Potchefstroom and Ventersdorp,
on approximately 1 040 hectares,
with an additional 700 hectares
which they lease and they plant on
approximately 550 hectares.
Talk about planting. Under
normal circumstances they plant
90% maize and 10% sunflower.
Over the past drought season,
however, they planted 70% maize
and 30% sunflower.
The rest of the land is used
for grazing, since they also have a
commercial Bonsmara and sheep
component in their farming operations. Breeding material and
good genetics are very important
to them.
HIS EARLY YEARS
We deviate a bit from farming
when Nico tells me that he has
always been living in this area. The
Ventersdorp-born Nico attended
Mooirivier Primary School and
matriculated at HTS Potchef-
stroom in 1982. After military
service in Heidelberg and Oshakati
he returned to Potchefstroom and
obtained his agricultural diploma
from the Potchefstroom Agricultural College in 1986.
JOINING HIS FATHER
He joined his father, Hansie, on
the farm in 1987 and in 1988 he
bought Witrandsfontein 2. Nico
is very enthusiastic as we drive
around the farm and shows us the
old store and ox wagon, which
lend a measure of nostalgia to the
farm.
THE PAST FIVE YEARS
They have not been doing any
ploughing over the past five years
and have done no tilling over the
past three years. Although it is
still early days, they hope that this
will make a huge difference to the
production on the farm. The past
season’s El Nino did not spare
them either. They received a mere
211 mm of rain from September
2015 until April this year, compared to approximately 600 mm
under normal circumstances. This
follows on the below normal 2014
and 2015 seasons.
MOTTO
Nico firstly believes that “Impossible is not a reality, it is an illusion”.
Two critical elements in farming,
according to him, is that one has
to be involved and should not sit
in one’s office. “You have to be
there. The best fertiliser is your
footprints in the fields.” In this
occupation you are dependent
upon nature, which was very
evident during the past season.
Nico and his family are only too
aware that “Everything we have is
by the grace of God and you have
to remain on your knees. You can
work as hard as you wish, whatever
you receive is by the grace of the
Father.”
ADVICE FROM PREVIOUS
GENERATIONS
One thing his grandfather and
father never did was to borrow
money. Having said that, some
unforeseen things happen at times
- a good example was when one of
two teams of oxen was hit by lightning years ago. However, even the
fact that his great grandfather was
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SENWES Scenario • AUG/SEP 2016
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