He was assisted at the event by his sons Robert and Stuart.
Hendrik van Pletzen, one of the judges and the original founder of the competition, currently in its thirteenth year, said the competition had two main purposes.
The first was to give recognition to farmers in the industry who were getting it right. The second was to plough back into the industry by sharing their winning recipes with other producers.
“We want to see what they’re doing at ground level, what their farming practices are, and how they achieve their successes,” he said.
Despite the severity of the drought, the Southeys managed to achieve a weaning rate of 116%.
The programme for the day included a series of technical presentations on nutrition, breeding and market conditions.
Thereafter the Southeys shared the reasons for their success, which were based on the principle of keeping things simple and getting the basics right.
The family said that they took a long-term view that incorporated the inputs of the entire family, and placed a strong emphasis on employee relations. They also tried to optimise
They also tried to optimise use of resources through careful attention to pasture management, livestock management and business management.
Stuart said that they had converted to the accelerated lambing system, an eight-month cycle rather than the traditional one lamb a year.
This enabled allowed them to tie in better with pasture management and optimise feeding around lambing. The sheep were also sheared according to an eight-month-cycle.
The family worked according to nett profit per hectare. After converting to the eight-month cycle, they had doubled annual nett profit from R10 000/ha R20 000/ha, Stuart said.
He added that one of the most important parts about farming was the focus on human resources.
“I just feel that if you ignore your people, what are you doing anyway? So my feeling is to put all my effort into them, ensure that our relationships are right, that their families are right. It’s the soft issues [that count],” he said.
After the presentation, visitors were able to see some of the Southey Merino stock first-hand before enjoying a Karoo braai.
