Fire has no mercy
Ouboet – I find it exceedingly difficult to wrap my head around the fact that veld fires have destroyed more than 400 000ha in the Free State so far this...
Agriculture is responsible for its own destiny
Boet, you know how much I dread the annual congress season! But so far this year I’ve been very impressed by the standard of the agricultural congresses.
Grim legacy
My heart aches for every person in South Africa who has lost a child, a spouse or a loved one to farm violence.
Farmers are tough enough
A farmer is a farmer is a farmer, irrespective of where you farm and what you farm with.
Welcome to winter
O glorious day! Winter has finally come. This is my favourite time of the year. I adore a cold winter.
Zokwana and Cele – the mind boggles!
You don’t need the Rosetta Stone to decode the message behind President Zuma’s appointment of NUM stalwart Senzeni Zokwana as the new minister of agriculture.
Creating false hopes
Can you imagine burning your grain lands and killing your livestock and then buying your food at vastly inflated prices from your neighbour?
SA’s bright young farmers
Boeta, how I wish you could have attended this year’s Free State Young Farmer conference with me.
SA beef cattle ranchers up there with the world’s best
Jong, Ouboet, I’m telling you South Africa’s commercial cattle farmers really are world-class.
Are you a snollygoster?
Snollygoster. What a delightful new word I’ve learnt! A ‘snollygoster’ is someone, especially a politician, who is guided by a desire for personal advantage rather than by consistent, respectable principles,...
Disdain and contempt
Jong Boet, some or other clever guy in history once said the people in a democracy deserve the government they get because they voted for it. What balderdash!! Let me...
And so the rains came…
And so the rains have come… blessings in abundance! Genadewater, as we in the Free State like to call it.
Open letter to President Zuma
Dear Mr Zuma: This is Annelie from the Free State. I’m writing on behalf of myself and all the farmers I deal with. In this, your last election year, I...
The good, the bad & the ugly
Boet, I’ve seen many things in my life, but the drought in the North West is the closest I’ve come to hell on earth.
Amazing Mauritius
Mauritius really is what it’s jacked up to be. I’m not a beach person and I hate being sat down under an umbrella, smothered with suntan lotion.
Nothing new under the sun
Boeta, with genetics and genomics being the buzzwords of the century, let me tell you the story of Robert Bakewell, the farmer from Leicestershire who transformed the quality of Britain's...
Yes, but where’s our money?
I’ve tried and tried and tried again to find something positive to blog about this week. I’ve watched the news like a hawk and read every newspaper I could lay...
Askies baas Jannie & voracious appetites
I stand corrected! Grain SA’s Baas Jannie has pointed out that he never implied that Agri SA is jealous of Grain SA.
Grain SA vs Agri SA
Agh nee man! Why the remarks about Agri SA in the latest Grain SA newsletter? Baas Jannie, you might have had very good reasons for saying that Grain SA’s relationship...
