•••
KO L LI G
MARLON ABRAHAMS
ASHLEY WHITFIELD
A STEP AHEAD
OF THE GAME
AFTER ASHLEY INVITES ME TO TAKE A SEAT IN HIS
OFFICE BEFORE WE COMMENCE THE INTERVIEW,
I EXPECT TO RUN THROUGH MY QUESTIONS
QUICKLY, GET UP AFTER, DO A QUICK TOUR OF
THE FARM, TAKE SOME PHOTOS AND HEAD BACK
TO THE OFFICE. NOT SO FAST MENEERTJIE, WAS
PROBABLY WHAT ASHLEY WAS THINKING. BEFORE I
EVEN GET TO ASK A QUESTION, HE STARTS TELLING
ME ABOUT HIS KELLY DIAMOND HARROW.
A
nd just who or what
is a Kelly Diamond
Harrow, I hear you ask. Well
for starters there are only two
Kelly Diamond Harrow’s in the
country, and Ashley owns one of
them. Yes but Ashley, what does
it do? “It’s like a disc, but it does
so much more...Come let me
show you,”
I get up expecting to go
outside to see this contraption.
Instead, he guides me to the
huge screen of his Apple Mac
and opens up a video file. There
the KDH reveals itself, this
implement “rips out weeds,
but does not bury the stalks
and it gives you a perfect seed
bed”. The fact that Ashley has
this machine is indicative of
the way he operates...always a
few steps ahead of the game.
“It did not come cheap,
I’ll tell you,” he says. “But,
it’s so effective, I’ve been able
to hire it out as well and it’ll
12
pay for itself eventually.”
Ashley Whitfield is the fourth
generation to farm on Belvedere
in the Viljoenskoon district. He
started farming in 1983, shortly
after completing his studies at
Cedara Agricultural College.
He has bought additional
land since 2000. Whitfield has
always rented land. He plants
his high-potential soils to
maize and rotates maize with
sunflower on the mediumpotential soils. Whitfield also
runs a Bonsmara stud and a
commercial Bonsmara herd.
His wife and business
partner, Jacky, looks after the
farm’s finances, administration
and assists with the cattle
management. The Whitfields
believe in meticulous recordkeeping and hands-on
management. Their database,
built up over the years, is a
powerful management tool.
I realise quickly that this
June/July 2015 • SENWES Scenario
KELLY DIAMOND HARROW
interview will not go according
to plan and that the best way
to approach it is to go with
the flow and see where Mr
Whitfield will lead me.
I tell him about the reference
made to South African farmers
by Len Brand (Managing
Director: John Deere), who said
that “South African farmers do
not realise how good they are,
they are performing miracles
under the conditions in which
they farm.” Len was referring