Today we take a look back at one of African Farming editor Lebogang Mashala’s farm visits as featured in the September 2022 issue of African Farming magazine.

From our archives: September 2022 farm visit

Tshepiso Jantjies is a dynamic young farmer who farms in the semi-arid region of Taung in the North West province. Tshepiso grows lucerne and farms small stock. When he took over his ailing family farming business in 2019, he shouldered the burden of turning it around during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tshepiso Jantjies turned his family’s struggling farm around in just three years. He managed this by replacing grain with lucerne, by adding value to the lucerne and by applying some basic business principles to the farming operation. The Jantjies family had farmed maize and barley on 10ha in the Taung Irrigation Scheme since the 1980s.

Established in 1939, the Vaalharts/Taung Irrigation Scheme is the largest irrigation scheme in South Africa and s spread between two provinces, the Northern Cape and the North West Province, with approximately 35 302ha of land under irrigation.

“My grandparents, Zwelibangile and Lenah Jantjies, who stayed in Dryharts village, produced maize using donkeys and oxen back in the day,” Tshepiso explains. His uncle, Joseph, took over the farm when Tshepiso’s grandparents retired.

In 2019 when he got involved with the farm, Tshepiso advised his uncle to grow lucerne rather than the maize and barley they produced. He did not think they could make a profit growing these crops on 10ha. “We are talking about economies of scale,” he says.

Tshepiso also registered the business as two formal entities – Jantjies Boerdery and Jantjies Voere. Through these entities the farm markets lucerne hay and pelleted lucerne feed. Since this change in strategy, the business has increased its annual turnover from just under R500 000 to over R4 million. He says formalising the business and applying basic business principles, like record-keeping and managing financial flows, played a vital role in the turnaround.

From Our Archives: Lucerne Makes The Cut For This Young Farmer

All Experience Counts

Tshepiso picked up some useful skills while he worked as a community development officer for local government for five years after graduating from PC Training and Business College in Pretoria. He went to college in 2006 around the time that his grandparents passed away.

Part of his job as a community development officer was to encourage and help community members in the district to operate businesses. “This included helping them formalise their businesses. Because we are in a rural area, most of the business projects were agriculturally orientated,” explains Tshepiso.

He learned about maximising production on smaller pieces of land and acquired further skills by doing short courses in agriculture before he joined the family business full-time. During the eighties the family produced barley and maize and won several agricultural awards. His grandfather represented Bophuthatswana on the international stage during his prime farming days.

“But with time, things change. As the industry and technology evolved, so did the dynamics of farming grains, and producing grains on a 10ha plot became less profitable.”

The farm’s barley production turned over less than R500 000 a year. And this was before the contracting company was paid and other costs were handled. The Jantjies farm had a contract to supply SAB with barley or maize. SAB sourced and procured the inputs, and did the contract work for soil preparation, planting, and harvesting.

Tshepiso say this model was flawed in some respects. “It was almost like the plot owners were getting salaries for their efforts,” he says. Once he was in the business full-time he realised they were not going to make it if they carried on with the SAB contract. This is when he suggested switching to growing lucerne.

Productive And Perennial

Tshepiso says lucerne is a good crop in terms of cash flow as it can be grown year-round. He used contractors to plant his first crop of lucerne in May 2020, paying them to do the land prep and the planting with money he had saved from his previous job. They harvested only 300 bales of lucerne from the first cut that September.

“I was very disappointed with the yield because my calculations had predicted a higher yield. But little did I know that this was about right,” he recalls.

Lucerne gives a lower yield from the first cut with yields increasing from subsequent cuts as the crop matures. The harvest from the second cut was 700 bales. “This motivated me, and I was learning more, especially from my mistakes.”

He says some difficulties they experience are beyond his control. “Because we farm in a communal area where we share the space under a single centre pivot with three other farmers, their mistakes and mismanagement also affect me,” he explains.

The pivot irrigates 40ha with each farmer holding 10ha. The farmers schedule irrigation times and share electricity costs, but Tshepiso says conflicts can and do arise, and if the conflict is not handled properly it can have a negative impact on production. “I prefer irrigating at night when there is minimal wind and less evaporation,” he says.

Lucerne is a perennial crop with a productive life of between five and seven years, depending on how well the crop is managed, which includes irrigation and fertilisation programmes. “We irrigate at least eight times a month and fertilise with 5 x 50kg bags/ha of LAN every alternate month.”

The condition of the lucerne dictates the fertiliser needs of the crop. “When it still looks good, we can reduce the fertiliser to about 3 x 50kg bags/ha of LAN.”

They cut the lucerne every four weeks but stop harvesting in the winter from May to July during plant dormancy. He explains that this variety of lucerne does not grow during the winter months and cutting it at this time would damage the plants. “We just put the fertiliser down and let it rest until spring.”

Field Work

Weeds, especially grass, are the enemy of a lucerne grower, says Tshepiso. “Grass competes with lucerne and can easily outgrow it, so it’s important to keep your fields clean.” The weeding is done by hand. Although this is labour intensive, it is effective and cheaper than a chemical solution. “I don’t like using chemicals because it is expensive. Going the chemical route also takes time and sometimes has a negative impact on the crop.”

During harvesting, cutting starts midmorning when the dew has evaporated. The lucerne is then left on the ground to dry for a day. “On the second day we rake it and then we leave it for another two to three days before baling it. You shouldn’t leave lucerne to dry for too long as you may lose a lot of the leaves,” warns Tshepiso.

He says they start baling when the moisture content is between 30% and 40%. “Once it has been baled, we take it for grading using our feed analysers to see which grade the lucerne has made. We normally harvest premier grade, which is a top grade, very high in protein, as well as A grade, which is also good quality.”

Adding Value

Tshepiso says he has invested heavily in marketing his products locally and internationally, mainly through social media platforms. His biggest clients to date are resellers in Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana. His greatest challenge remains a lack of funding. But despite this, he has reinvested some of his profits back into the business and bought two second-hand 4-ton trucks and one 8-ton truck for local deliveries.

“The trucks are old and break down quite often but fortunately the international clients collect from our sheds,” he explains. He has also bought some second-hand equipment for cutting, raking and baling.

Increased yields from more mature lucerne meant Tshepiso needed to move his product faster while staying profitable and value adding provided a solution for him. He started producing milled lucerne and pellets to kickstart a line of animal feed products.

“We now have four products for cattle and small stock. We sell lucerne hay bales, milled lucerne, pellets and a finisher feed which is made of milled lucerne, crushed yellow maize and some concentrates we buy from Feedtek who are helping us with ISO 22000 standardisation,” he explains.

Tshepiso is working on registering poultry products, from starter meal to grower and finisher meal. “We’ve had some clients asking for poultry products because of the high feed costs they have been experiencing lately,” he adds.

In November last year Tshepiso ventured into the food-processing business by launching his own mealie meal brand, Kgora Maize Meal. However, he had to suspend production, which he had outsourced to a nearby mill, because of distribution and storage challenges.

“The brand was selling through 70 outlets, including Fruit & Veg City in Taung, some informal spaza shops, and Barcelo’s in Pretoria,” he says.

According to Tshepiso, the business was growing faster than his own resources. “It came to a point where I couldn’t keep up with the demand. I had to put the operation on hold so that I could come up with a good scaling plan,” he says.

Tshepiso also has a small stock operation of goats and sheep. “All my surplus in the lucerne production, mainly broken bales and leftovers, go to feeding the small stock in the feedlot. This brings another income stream into the business and improves the cash flow,” he explains.

Up Close And Personal

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

To be patient in farming and to value teamwork, especially with other farmers to leverage on each other’s strengths.

If there was one thing you could have done differently, what would it have been?

I would have gotten involved with the business earlier and pushed harder for the use of modern technology to advance production.

What has been your single biggest success to date?

Being able to penetrate the export market this early. I’ve also been able to share my knowledge in my export destination countries of Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana.

Who has made the biggest contribution to your success?

The people in my family who have been there for me throughout this farming journey.

What kind of relationship do you have with your neighbouring farmers?

Our arrangement on the irrigation scheme has its challenges but we work at continuously improving the relationships. However, I have great relationships with other farmers who are not part of the scheme, both black and white.

What advice do you have for anyone looking for financing?

It continues to be a struggle and my advice to farmers is not to rely on outside funding, especially at the beginning. Push hard with what you have, and help will come in time.