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We farm 300ha owned and 180ha leased, so about 480ha (1,200 acres) in total on the Garden Route in South Africa, between George and Port Elizabeth.
All our land is irrigated in circles using pivot irrigators and those areas not irrigated are effectively not farmed. Temperatures rarely go below 15°C and often exceed 40°C in summer.
We milk about 450 dairy cows and also supply vegetables such as broccoli directly to Marks & Spencer.
The milking cows stay out all year round and we have no cow sheds like you have in Ireland. When it gets very warm in the summer, we run the irrigator behind where they are grazing and the cows move in and out of the mist to help them cool down.
We have mostly pure Holstein Friesian and pure Jersey cows to help push up the butterfat. My father is considering breeding some crossbreds this year.
Milk price is good at the moment at around R4 (four rand), which is near 28c/l. Not that long ago it was R2.80, which was closer to 19c/l. At the moment €1 equals R14.
The big problem for us over the last two years has been the drought. We have had very little rain and that means feed gets very expensive. You can go out of business very quickly if you don’t have a margin over the cost of feed.
In South Africa, farmers very much have to look after themselves because there is nobody else representing them.
The last time the milk price crashed was because the government made a decision that no dairy product could be exported. Of course, the farmers kept producing and very quickly we had surplus product on the internal market and prices crashed. As my father says: “Milking cows means you get a pay cheque every month but you’re never sure how much it is going to be.”
The other issue with farming in South Africa is the challenge of managing people working on the farm – there are always issues that need to be looked after.
My father and brother are largely responsible for running the business while I’m away playing rugby. In total, there are more than 70 people employed on the farm. Essentially these are families that have grown up on the farm and hence the farm has grown to provide a source of employment for family members.
I think President Zuma retiring will be positive in the long term for the country. There is a lot of excitement in the country this week and, while we never know what the future will hold, I believe the holding president Cyril Ramaphosa is big into looking after people as safety is a big issue in South Africa. Also, from what I have heard, some of his policies on reorganising national security sound good to me.
Ireland and Munster ace CJ Stander on why farming is the best training for rugby
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