Long before Obakeng Ntshabele understood terms such as gross margins, soil health and mechanisation, he understood a simpler rule of farming: The cattle had to get home before dark.
By Lebogang Mashala, editor at African Farming
At just nine years old, when he was still in primary school, Obakeng was already helping his father, Butika Hosea Ntshabele, farm in Sefikile, a small mining village in North West’s Moses Kotane Local Municipality.
Before school, he would take the family’s cattle to communal grazing. After classes, he would fetch them and drive them home.
“I used to drive the cattle for grazing on my way to school and then, after school, I would fetch them and drive them back home,” he recalls.
Those daily chores were the beginning of a relationship with farming that would eventually become a career.
Today, Obakeng farms about 300ha of dryland sunflower in Ramoshibitswana village, and cattle remain an important part of the wider family farming enterprise.
His journey, however, has not been a straight line. It has taken him through agricultural studies, commercial farming ventures, significant losses and, ultimately, back to the production system he knows best.
A farming legacy built from very little
Obakeng’s farming story is inseparable from that of his father. Butika worked as a bus driver in Thabazimbi, but farming remained his passion. He started with a heifer inherited from his father and gradually built a cattle herd.
His crop farming began in the 1980s with just 25ha of sunflower. With limited machinery, planting was done largely by hand.
“I used to come back from work at around 3pm and head to the farm to start planting the sunflower through hand casting because I only had a small tractor and an old harrow,” Butika recalls.
When the family eventually got a planter, it brought its own problems. The machine was not designed for sunflower and often crushed the seed, resulting in poor establishment and disappointing yields. But Butika persevered. He bought another 25ha from a neighbour, paying with one of his taxis because he did not have enough cash for the purchase.
More land was acquired from neighbouring farmers, sometimes using cattle as part of the transaction. Over time, the family accumulated 181ha, forming part of the farming unit they operate today.
For young Obakeng, these experiences provided a practical education in farming long before he entered an agricultural classroom.
Also read: 11 emerging farmers begin 12-month journey to commercial independence
Turning a childhood passion into a profession
After attending Sesifikile Primary School and Makuka Secondary School, Obakeng boarded at Groenvlei Secondary School in Thabazimbi, where he matriculated in 2002.
He upgraded mathematics and science the following year before enrolling for a diploma in mixed farming at Tshwane University of Technology.
His studies covered beef production, agronomy and soil science, pasture management and small-stock production.
He also spent two years completing experiential training at the Agricultural Research Council’s (ARC’s) Roodeplaat facility in Pretoria.
After graduating, Obakeng returned home to join his father on the farm. But his career took him elsewhere before eventually bringing him back.
He spent about 18 months working in Limpopo and later joined a local mine as a project manager overseeing community social investment projects, many of which focused on agricultural development. The position exposed him to agricultural training, mentorship and partnerships with organisations such as the ARC and private-sector companies.
“We facilitated training and mentorship programmes, backyard garden projects and other agricultural initiatives. But my ambitions were more than that, and I eventually left and rejoined my father on the farm,” he says.
The price of growing too fast
Obakeng returned to the family farming business in about 2012 with ambitions to expand.
The family already operated a butchery in Sefikile, and he established a second outlet.
In 2016, he was introduced to Obaro Farmer Development, then headed by Patrick Sekwatlakwatla, through a backyard feedlot programme.
Then came an opportunity that appeared capable of transforming the business. In 2018, Obakeng acquired a lease on a 253ha irrigated farm from the Baphalane Communal Property Association (CPA).
The property had significant infrastructure, including 13 centre pivots and eight Eskom transformers.
Partially funded by the Grain Farmer Development Association (GFADA), he began producing barley. The reality of running an irrigated commercial farm proved very different from what he had known, and the venture ended in losses.
In 2019, he partnered with Buhle Farmers’ Academy through a sponsored programme and returned to barley production. This time, the operation made a profit, but the project was short-lived.
He later worked with FarmSol on non-GMO production. That venture also ended badly, leaving him with substantial losses and mounting rental obligations.
“I made big losses and couldn’t pay the rent, so I decided to cut my losses and move on,” he says.
The experience was painful, but it left him with one of his most important farming lessons.
“I learnt the hard way because I bit off more than I could chew. I had no experience with irrigation and learnt that it’s not as easy as some people think.”
The infrastructure itself carried substantial fixed costs. With 13 centre pivots and eight transformers, the farm required considerable expenditure before electricity and other production costs were even taken into account.
Obakeng recognised that growth requires sufficient experience, capital and management capacity.
Also read: North West builds seven packhouses to help emerging farmers reach formal markets
Finding his way back to dryland
After the setbacks, Obakeng returned to Ramoshibitswana and the dryland sunflower production he had grown up with. It proved to be the right decision.
“I think because this is what I know and grew up with, I understand the dynamics of dryland. Even when we don’t have the best rains, we are still able to break even and make some small profits.”
The operation now plants about 300ha of dryland sunflower, with yields ranging from 1.2t/ha to 1.8t/ha, depending largely on seasonal rainfall. Planting generally takes place between December and January, depending on when the rains arrive.
“Timing becomes very important,” he says.
The return to dryland was not a step backwards. It was a conscious decision to build around the production system he understood best.
After experiencing the financial and technical demands of irrigation, Obakeng had learnt to place greater value on managing risk and protecting the profitability of the core farming operation.
Also read: Young black farmer breaks barriers in livestock auctioneering
Machinery is an investment, not a luxury
Mechanisation has played a major role in the family’s development.
The farm started with an old 188 tractor producing about 46kW when the family was farming roughly 25ha. As the operation grew, a Massey Ferguson MF 275 was acquired with assistance from the former Bophuthatswana government-owned agribusiness AgriCo. A Massey Ferguson 1105, producing 110 PTO horsepower, followed.
Obakeng was operating tractors from a young age. “I was the one who used the tractors. They used to leave me the whole day in the fields, and I would do all the work by myself at that age.”
One of his most memorable machinery moments came after the family had a good harvest during the 2007/08 season.
They attended an auction in Dwaalboom and bought a 104kW 4×4 tractor with power steering. For Obakeng, who had spent years working with older tractors, the upgrade was transformational.
“I was so excited that I drove that tractor from Dwaalboom to our farm the whole day.”
The family later invested in spraying equipment, including a Vetsak boom sprayer in 2013 and a Quantum boom sprayer in 2015.
Before GPS-equipped tractors became standard, they marked rows using bags. Obakeng’s agricultural training proved useful in calibrating the sprayers and ensuring more accurate applications.
Today, the operation has most of the machinery it needs. The major gap is a combine harvester.
Also read: The transformation programme opening doors for emerging potato farmers
Also read: Land reform cannot succeed if CPA governance fails
When does owning a harvester make sense?
Harvesting has become one of the farm’s biggest annual expenses. For the past eight years, the operation has spent between R350 000 and R500 000 a year on harvesting contractors.
That amounts to more than R3 million in harvesting costs over the period.
Obakeng has convinced his father that buying their own harvester could make economic sense. But they first need more hectares.
“We’ve agreed that we at least need to increase the planting fields to 500ha, which we are still negotiating for.”
The decision illustrates the way Obakeng now approaches machinery investment. Equipment must earn its keep.
A combine harvester may reduce dependence on contractors and improve harvesting flexibility, but at 300ha the economics still need to be carefully considered. At 500ha, the calculation starts to look different.
It is a lesson he learnt through experience: Farmers should not allow the desire for bigger machinery to get ahead of the economics of the business.
Building the soil for the future
For Obakeng, modernising the farm is about more than machinery. He has also changed the way he manages the soil. The family traditionally ploughed and disced before every planting season. Obakeng gradually introduced minimum tillage after learning from commercial farmers in the area.
One of his mentors was Jan Buitendaght, a commercial farmer Obakeng visited while studying at university. “I used to visit and watch how he did things. This is where I learnt how to properly prepare the soil before planting.”
Those visits introduced him to minimum tillage and more moisture-conscious production practices.
Obakeng believes unnecessary soil disturbance contributes to moisture loss, damages soil structure, affects soil organisms and increases fuel consumption through additional field operations.
“We’ve introduced minimum till. We only do the ploughing and discing every few years. I spray and plant in the other years.”
He also plans to experiment with increasing organic matter and rebuilding soil fertility over the longer term.
The plan is to start by applying about 500kg of organic compost and 50kg of chemical fertiliser per hectare.
His long-term goal is to reduce dependence on synthetic fertiliser.
“If I apply this formula every year for at least five to six years, I’ll probably stop using chemical fertiliser completely at planting and only use it as a top dressing,” he says.
It is an approach that reflects the broader evolution of the farm: Less emphasis on doing more, and greater emphasis on doing things better.
Also read: Breeding for growth: How Masala Murovhi is building his livestock operation
Cattle remain part of the family enterprise
Although sunflower has become Obakeng’s main production focus, cattle remain an important part of the family business. The cattle are kept at Morewag Farm, which covers just over 1 000ha.
The family has traditionally farmed with Brahmans and has, in recent years, introduced Simmental bulls.
Obakeng says his father remains closely involved in the cattle operation, and he plays a smaller role.
For a family whose farming journey began with a single inherited heifer, livestock remains an important link to the past.
Also read: Big dreams in rural KZN – poultry and vegetable farmer Bukhosi Dlamini
Patience, experience and knowing when to change course
Obakeng’s farming journey is a story of evolution rather than overnight success.
His father started with one inherited heifer and 25ha of sunflower, much of it planted by hand after working hours. Today, the family farms about 300ha of dryland sunflower with significantly better machinery and a more deliberate approach to soil management and production.
The journey has included failures. The irrigation ventures came at a high financial cost for Obakeng, but they also gave him lessons that cannot easily be taught in a classroom.
He learnt that expansion without adequate experience can become a liability. He learnt that infrastructure comes with costs that must be carried even when production disappoints. And he learnt that knowing when to walk away can be as important as knowing when to invest.
His approach to mechanisation has followed the same gradual path.
“The transition from doing things the old traditional way to modernising our operation has taken years of convincing the old man. I had to be patient with the process.”
That patience has become central to his farming philosophy. Obakeng is not chasing hectares simply for the sake of growth. He wants to build a business that can carry the next generation.
For the nine-year-old who once knew only that the cattle had to be home before dark, farming has become a sophisticated business of margins, machinery, rainfall, soil and risk.
But at its heart, his philosophy remains simple: Know your farm, understand your limits, protect your resources and make every investment count.
Also read:
How a Free State apple farm is transforming agriculture
Less diesel, smarter sunflower: Obakeng Ntshabele’s conservation turnaround
From Brahman roots to Simmental growth: Obakeng Ntshabele’s strategy for a stronger beef herd
