A 90-minute drive from either Johannesburg or Pretoria offered visitors a weekend of agriculture, live entertainment, and family activities in a scenic setting below the Witwatersrand mountain range, with views of the Magaliesberg mountains to the north.
A highlight for the agricultural community was the Farmer’s Weekly Agricultural Forum on the Friday. The panel featured Minister of Agriculture Willie Aucamp, political analyst Prof Theo Venter, agricultural economist Dr Johnny van der Merwe, and agricultural and political analyst Roland Henwood. Prominent journalist and television presenter Lourensa Eckard moderated the discussion.
Minister Aucamp praised the organisers of Die Krip Landboufees for stepping up to mobilise members of the community through this local initiative.
Current agriculture affairs
The panel explored current issues affecting South African agriculture, ranging from local and international politics and biosecurity, with specific reference to foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), to climate and weather, and how to navigate the anticipated El Niño season.
Audience participation formed an important part of the discussion, with the panel fielding pertinent questions from the floor during an open question-and-answer session. Minister Aucamp faced questions about perceived failures by the state, including rail infrastructure, the management of state-owned land, title-deed backlogs, and the lack of rural policing.
Aucamp assured the audience that he was investigating alternatives for tax relief on services that farmers fund themselves, including private security and local road maintenance.
Country atmosphere
Apart from a prestigious musical line-up, Die Krip also offered tractor and implement demonstrations, as well as agricultural and lifestyle exhibitors showcasing products, services, and expertise. The live entertainment included artists such as Spoegwolf, Appel, and Nicholis Louw.
Farmer’s Weekly spoke to the organisers and owners of Die Krip, Neil Dry and his daughter, Zandri. Despite the first seasonal rains threatening to hamper the event, visitor numbers had already surpassed the previous year’s weekend total of 1 500 by Friday.
“We wanted to create an event that would give people from the cities in Gauteng an opportunity to escape city life and relax in a country atmosphere,” Zandri said.
“It is a community festival with basically everything, from a theatre production to various stalls selling traditional food and clothing. We aim to create a happy atmosphere for families from all walks of life to enjoy,” she added.
Disc demonstration
Farmers attending the festival had to brave a light spring drizzle to see the demonstrations. Before conditions became too wet, Farmer’s Weekly spoke to Johan Roos, sales representative at TerraTill Implements, about the Horsch Joker 8HD heavy-duty disc demonstrated at the festival.
According to Roos, the Joker 8HD is a low-maintenance machine. “There are no grease nipples or grease points on the disc,” he said.
The machine is ideal for farmers planting cover crops and produces high quantities of fine soil within the germination zone. Roos also highlighted the double RollPack packer, saying it has a high load-bearing capacity and an excellent levelling effect for strip consolidation.
“The whole machine is in float, so it follows contours independently of the tractor. This takes the stress off your machine frame and it follows the contour of the field very well, leaving a good seedbed with finely cut material. It comes into its own on cover crops, with the big disc cutting them in and getting that organic matter under the soil where you want it,” he explained.
A prominent feature of the Joker 8HD is the 17° angle of its cutting discs.
“This helps get rid of that compaction layer that a disc usually leaves behind. You can basically compare the effect to that of a plough, but it has more of a push-cutting angle than a straightforward cutting angle,” Roos said.
He also described it as a high-speed, heavy-duty machine. “It likes speed – the faster you disc, the better it mixes up everything.”
Firefighter
Visitors to the open-air exhibition area had to tread carefully at the Wash-Vac Industrial Equipment stand, where salesman Janu du Plessis demonstrated the capabilities of the company’s firefighting equipment.
The mobile firefighter displayed an output of 100 bar at 41 litres per minute, using the Hyundai H420E, a 15-horsepower, 420cc horizontal four-stroke petrol engine with electric key start.
It is mounted on a skid built from heavy-duty steel, allowing the entire system – the water tank, pump, engine, and hose reel – to be built as a single, self-contained module.
“A mobile firefighter needs instant high pressure and therefore we use this dependable engine on our firefighters and pressure washers,” Du Plessis said.
The self-contained system makes it highly versatile. It can be adapted for use in wash bays, where farmers need high pressure to wash trucks, tractors, and other equipment. It can also be adapted for agricultural and industrial biosecurity, acting as a mobile vehicle-wash or decontamination spray system at farm and factory entrance gates.
