•••
ED I T O R I AL
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Marlon Abrahams
Tel: 018 464 7349
[email protected]
REQUIRE COURAGE
any a
word
has been used to describe farmers
and courage is, in my opinion,
the word which describes it best.
It is clear that 2016 will be a
watershed year. We are entering
the season on the back of the
worst drought in 100 years, one
of the worst heat waves in history
early in January and dust storms
of an unprecedented nature. A lot
of courage has already been necessary. Figures don’t lie - the rainfall
in the Senwes area of operation
over the past seven months has
been 35% lower on average than
the previous year, with an average
of 208 mm from 1 July 2015 to
26 January 2016, compared to
319 mm during the corresponding period of the previous year.
But where does courage come
from? The Bible says: Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be
strong and courageous. Do not
be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will
be with you wherever you go.”
The Senwes Group Chief
Executive, Francois Strydom,
analyses the interim results and
points to the best possible way
ahead. He manages to bring calm
to the situation in an effective
and unique manner. We start the
year as a family, with renewed
faith after all the prayers for rain,
assistance with the provision
of feed and water and financial
actions to keep our producers
going. The drought is discussed
in more detail in Thys Grobbe-
2
laar's Grain Market Prospects
and Come Rain Come Shine.
It requires courage to persist
and carry on. Our focus in this
edition is on Kroonstad, following
on those of Hartswater, Ventersdorp and Hoopstad. The Crous
brothers, who will be having their
first game auction at Sun City,
is our spotlight focus. We also
provide more information on four
Certisure brokers in Kroonstad.
Our columnists focus on the
drought with Healing for the
Soul, in which the positive side
of a drought is highlighted. Our
new columnist, Carel Botma,
tells us about the positive side of
the harvesting process in Whe ɔ)ѡ