 Have you always wanted to get into farming but just didn't know where to start? Well, don't worry, because private property's got you. My name is Marlene Walker and I am a farmer and I'll be bringing you a fresh new farming series brought to you by Private Property every Tuesdays and Thursdays where we discuss all things farming related. I'm talking where to find land, what infrastructure to invest in, even how to decide which crop to grow. You name it, you don't want to miss this. So be sure to catch the first episode premiere of the Private Property Farming podcast with me on Tuesday, 6th of October 1pm. See you there. And also please feel free to share, comment, like the video and also tell us about your favorite episodes that you have had or enjoyed right here on the Farming podcast. But firstly, to get the important stuff in, I just want to mention that we have the Real Estate Industry Summit brought to you by Private Property in partnership with Apsa, which is taking place on the 29th of October. So for all the private, sorry, for all your property lovers, this is a wonderful opportunity to expand your real estate knowledge and expertise. These are the most influential players in the property sector. So this is a virtual event, so be sure to tune on into Facebook on the 29th of October from 9am to 1pm. The link to the event will be in the comment section. And also you can get further details on our website. And the details are also available on the show description. Visit www.realestateindustrysummit.co.za. And so like I said, you are joining us for a very special episode, which is episode 100 of the Private Property Farming podcast. And just to think back, the Farming podcast started out as a mere idea and I remember it's quite nervous on the first episode because we weren't sure how you at home would consume this content around farming and how you'd respond to the information that's provided. And I remember the first episode was around finding land because that was one of the most frequently asked questions when we started this podcast. And also remember that we started in the midst of lockdown in the global pandemic. So yeah, it's been quite a journey and we're happy to know that the show has progressed and we've got a bit of engagement. We've got a lot of likes. We've got a lot of interest from people wanting to know more. And as a person, I definitely grew more confident in sharing my journey as a farmer, speaking to guests week in, week out and knowing that people really do care about agriculture and farming and people want to know a lot more information. And like I said, you know, we've got more likes, we've got more traction. And I think we've gained quite a good momentum to where we are right now. Again, this is episode 100. I love that the show has become more dynamic and that we get to share stories and journeys from various farmers, from various professionals across the industry with many walks of life and it's become such a collaborative platform and an informative space that I could not have asked for anything better. Just remember that we do have a competition running called Know Your Crop. It is still on and tonight, two people will walk away with 500 red cash prize each. So in order to stand a chance to win or you have to share this specific live video and comment on any crops or health benefits that you may have and we will select the winner at the end of the show. Basically, so know your crop competition, you're winning 500 grand and how you stand a chance to win is to share this specific live video and comment on this specific live video about any crop or health benefits that you know of and will definitely announce your name. So the team in the back end will be looking out for all your comments and for all your engagement behind the scenes and will announce your name if you are the winner. So just to start off with before we introduce our guests, I want to mention that I'll be sharing three of my top favorite moments from the Conversations on the Farming podcast and the one that I could think of which is the first, the top three, the third one in the list is one that we recently had and it's Episode 97 where we've had the topic was Wagyu Bee Farming and we've had two young entrepreneurs, two gentlemen by the name of Devin Wells and Haiming Kluper who told us about their Wagyu Bee Farming business. What particularly stood out for me is that, you know, they started this business in the global pandemic. They pretty much innovated and transformed their parents' farms which are both livestock farmers and they put an online element into this farming activity where they're predominantly focused in livestock. So what they're selling is Wagyu Beef online and, you know, they've grown immensely. They've got a number of orders. I think they've reached their target and are really going much further, you know, in terms of the goals that they want to reach in getting more customers across each province and, you know, they've got good partnerships that they've connected with and they're getting a lot more orders and what's special about their business is that they're selling Wagyu Beef which is a premium product. And I like how they explained the process of, you know, taking the cattle into the abattoir and what goes behind that meat production process before it gets delivered to your door. And another sweet spot in their business is that, you know, they are able to give you a recipe on how to cook Wagyu Beef so that it tastes succulent and sweet and that you enjoy your meal, you know, because it is quite a niche beef variety that they have going. So check out Devin Walls and Henning Globa on Episode 97 which is Wagyu Beef Farming. Let's get on to today's guest and his name is Darvi Fisser, who's not a stranger onto the show and he's currently working as an Agri Specialist Consultant. Darvi is running two projects, one in Ermelo which is a grain farm and a cattle farm and another one in Komati Burj which specializes in vegetable and citrus farming. Darvi, thank you so much for having you back. How are you doing? Molly, yes, good evening. Thanks for having me again. It's a pleasure and I'm quite honored to have you back onto the show especially on such a great milestone that we're celebrating today. So today's topic is all about crop production systems and nutritional farming practices or nutritional health. And you know, I think it's quite an opportune time to discuss this especially around sustainable crop production systems because what we have in the industry right now is that a lot of the input prices have gone up. You know, they say fertilizers have gone up by 60% kind of squeezing the farmer's margins and a lot of farmers are doing panic buying fertilizers in advance because you know, there are delays in getting fertilizers from abroad. So I want to know from your perspective and what you've been seeing on the ground for the past two, three or a month, past two, three weeks or a month, what have you picked up with regards to the agri-industry where prices are concerned and where should farmers look out for and most importantly with these red flags, if you may, how can we start farming more sustainable? Bali, yeah, I think everyone, I think it came as a bit of a shock in the last three months, the input cost in South Africa is a tremendous rise in the cost and the inputs that farmers need to face. I mean, we're talking fertilizer, we're talking seed, we're talking diesel fuel costs and we're expecting quite a huge increase in fuel next week already in South Africa. I mean, planting season is starting and it started in the northern part of South Africa and in the Western Cape, they're going to start harvesting the wheat. So it really comes at a very tough time and also on the demand side, the marketing side, we don't see that huge demand. So I think there's not only are we seeing pressure on prices in selling the product but also in the input process. So it's going to be tough times ahead of us, but yeah, the world is changing, so we'll keep on changing and how we adapt to it. I think that's the important thing and I think your topic is very valid tonight about sustainability. And that's where we need to get around the table and start making things. Absolutely. So what are some initiatives that we can start adopting as farmers? Like do we cut down on our fertilizer consumption? Do we move in the more organic way? And I know sometimes this is such a contested topic because when you're farming commercially with thousands and thousands of hectares, you really want to meet your tonnage per hectare and especially as a mains farmer, you might know this. And so what are some of the innovative solutions that we could get around this and curb these high prices in input costs? Mbali, what we've picked up in the more consul area where we're currently running a project on a farm there is that in the area there seems to be quite a lot of farmers that's converting from maize into swayers. The big idea behind that is that your input cost especially from a fertilizer point of view that your need for fertilizer is much, much less on the swayers than what you have on maize and what a lot of swayer farmers have been doing in the last few years and I think it's a standard probably been a standard practice that was new for me. But I mean they keep seed back from the previous year. So immediately if you don't need to pay for your seed, if you can keep some of your crop back from the past year and use it for seed for the following year and your demand for fertilizers lets your input cost tremendously, it comes down tremendously. Obviously you still have your running cost on implements and fuel that will never change and your labor cost will really change. But I mean if you probably look at the cost now you'll see that fertilizer and seed makes up probably about 60% of your production cost currently. If you look at maize and if you would look at maize. So yeah, there's good alternatives. Yeah, so I think that's the kind of things that farms are actually doing. Thank you for looking at alternatives. We've even got a little project going where we say well it's planted a bit of cash crops, vegetables, while we just after we finish planting our sways and our maize, if we have some time left on the farm and we have some resources left, let's develop 10 or 20 hectares of cabbages as a bit of a cash crop to help us on the cash from a cash drop point of view as well and to carry some crops on the farm. There's no reason why you can do it. On that specific farm there is some water. The Arimula region is fairly well known for good wet summers and obviously that's going to assist with some vegetable crops on the farm just to help the cash flow. So I think what you've done in the past is not necessarily what you're going to do in the future. What you're going to do in the future, you need to look at alternatives and what else can you do to sustain the farm and obviously increase your turnover on the farm. You have the resources, you have the tractors, a farmer working with Maes and Sawyer obviously he's not going to be busy full-time with all his staff 12 months a year. There is definitely some opportunities to do a few other projects on the farm as well and try and see what they can do on the increasing turnover on the farm. Yeah and obviously cash crops are quite nutritional and I know that you're quite close to the market and understanding market prices and trends. Which kind of cash crops right now are getting good prices at the market and which cash crops are maybe suffering at the stage? Yeah from a vegetable point of view we see there's quite a lot of onions around the market. I think it's got a lot to do with the demand. That's not the... Butternut has had a very good run the prices on butternut is coming down quite quickly. Potatoes also had a good run on the market in the last two months. That's also coming down but still to a level where it's not bad average prices to have. Most farmers will take those prices any day on potatoes selling for 55, 60 round, 10 kilo pocket which would be great prices. Obviously coming into summer we'll see with the good rain they forecast in poor South African and the northern parts of South Africa. A lot of rain doesn't necessarily mean it's not good news for vegetable farmers so we might see some prices on certain crops your cabbages and things like that that's susceptible to diseases to monitor things like that when we have a lot of rain probably December and January then some of those crops might increase but again everyone's going to be affected because we're going to have a wet season ahead of us and that might definitely influence the prices going forward. Obviously the Western Cape had a very good rain season but it just passed and those farmers will be in a better position where they probably won't have that in the Western Cape so that's an ideal opportunity for some Western Cape vegetable farmers to look at crops like peppers, tomatoes more high in value vegetable crops especially for the window January, February, March when we normally have a lot of rain in the British area than in Lampoko and Northwest because of weather we saw it last year next year Absolutely those are very valid points because I've definitely experienced those seasons Darfi, before I ask you to carry on with our conversation I just want to encourage people that they need to share this live video and comment below on any crop health benefits so that you can have something to celebrate in this very special episode of the farming podcast as we've reached a milestone episode episode 100 so please do comment and tell us what crop do you know and what's its health benefits so that you can win your 500 grand cash price so we do have a team that's on standby that's looking at some comments right now and we definitely want to announce a winner so come on guys please do engage with us in the comment section and let us know about your crop so that we can announce your name and that you could win 500 grand in cash price Darfi, you mentioned something about the rand.exchange at the moment and that if you're a farmer another way to make a farm sustainable especially around crop production but this is on the selling part is that you should look across the borders of the crops that are in demand from an export level Mali if you're going to have a look where all the crop in South Africa was from in the last 10 years you've definitely seen citrus has been a big move in South Africa I think it's important just to touch on that point that you mentioned about the crop and the crops now it's a fact that we are commercial inputs in South Africa so we actually farming in dollars or our inputs is dollar based inputs now if you're only going to sell your crop locally and earn rands from it obviously you're going to start getting into a position where you can't cover all your crops so and I think part of the success in the citrus industry was that even though the input base the inputs are all dollar based but the income from those farmers from export point of view was also dollar based so they could actually absorb all those extra costs and additional costs that they had to attain for there's huge exciting opportunities happening in China for us I believe the lemon and the citrus market is expanding into China the avocados is not too far away from the exports into China a lot of our berries and nuts the berries and nuts they're also getting into China the demand in China seems to be fairly strong it keeps on growing and now Minnet gives great opportunities for southern farmers because we're in the southern hemisphere we count the season to what's happening in China so the demand for our crops is going to be exactly when they don't have it in their own market so I think the growth is probably going to be and where farmers need to look is on the export crops, the berries, the nuts that seems to be exciting markets, cherries is doing fairly well from South Africa there's some exciting projects happening with that but yeah, are there exciting things that we saw in Erumelua I never knew it but Erumelua is one of the earliest apple production areas in South Africa now you are associated apples with the Western Cape but there's no reason why you can't have early apples out of Erumelua it's really great opportunities for farmers in that region to diversify obviously the input cost and your return on your investment takes a bit longer on fruits fruits and nuts and berries it's not as quick as a cash crop but it definitely creates some opportunities for farmers oh wow that's interesting, apples in Pumalanga which is relatively known as the high-fold regions that's correct I think they get enough cold units out there that might be even opportunities with things like berries out of that same region because the cold units it's cold enough out of the Erumelua region in the Pumalanga region it's cold enough I also believe there's some exciting work being done on early low demand apples that's actually been grown in a popper there's definitely been some developments in the Mokupani region with some early apples as well and in the Pudupani region so yeah, I think that changed we need to change the times absolutely changing with the times and if you're listening tonight Darvi has dropped some serious gems on the different types of crops you could start growing so that you could get a good return on investment within your farm some tips in terms of how you can make a farm sustainable with very high rising input costs at the moment but quickly Darvi before we end our conversation this evening I just want to mention that without wasting any time our first winner is Bianca Combs and she is from Facebook so congratulations to you Bianca but you have to comment before the end of the show so that you could win your 500 cash prize tell us anything about your crop what is it that you like about it nutritional benefits health benefits so please Bianca comment before the end of the show so that you could claim your 500 grand cash prize and as I said in the beginning that I'm sharing some of my best moments from the show and the second episode or the second favorite episode that I enjoyed was having a farmer named Silondue Numalo from Isimbabende farming in KZN and she's a chicory farmer if you don't know what chicory is google it but in simply put she's a coffee farmer and it's not every day that you meet a coffee farmer chicory does sound very niche and complicated to grow and what I liked about her is that she's a new farmer into the space and she thoroughly is enjoying what she's doing she's had corporate partnerships where the corporate client has not only given her an off take agreement but also has given her some technical knowledge and how to grow chicory to the highest standards within her region she shares such an amazing journey from humble beginnings and how now she's successfully growing chicory and trying various alternative methods to increase her production year after year so that was episode 149 a young female farmer based in KZN and her name is Silondue Numalo and I remember we also had her back on to a panel discussion around women in farming or so and she had some really really good advices for women in farming for young women in farming and especially women in her region and how they can gain access to this thriving industry wonderful industry and most importantly how to just grow your farming enterprise so Darvi before we let you go I just want to know I know you mentioned a few tips earlier on in terms of how farmers can hedge against these high prices and we focus more on crop farming but any advice that you could give to farmers maybe who are livestock farmers who are also saying you know feed is going up they could have heard you say you know diesel is growing up and the transport costs from transporting feed from one place to another is also expensive so what tips can you give to livestock farmers maybe to cut down costs to farm more sustainably do they start growing their own maize do they start growing their own feed do they research that yeah maybe just if you could give us some few tips before we end the show with you tonight yeah I think the first thing that comes to mind especially in the wet year that we're expecting the summer and we already started seeing early rains in certain regions in South Africa from Popo and Mokomolanga it creates opportunities for especially cattle farmers to go and plant some extra feed so you can start building your feed reserves for winter now obviously the maize farmers I can only imagine that they will keep on looking and buying more animals for the winter to eat from there so yeah I think the weather is going to be enough this year for things like pastures and for feed for animal feed so make use of the opportunity we don't always we don't always going to have this great opportunity free water so yeah use it yeah thank you so much Darvi for your insights today and thank you once again for being a friend of the farming podcast we thoroughly enjoy your knowledge and expertise and it's great that we know that there are agri-specialists like yourself who are willing to share some knowledge because farming can be a very lonely journey you know because we have to deal with so many elements as we run our day-to-day businesses but thank you for your time this evening and all the best with your two projects in Ermelo and Gommar Duport thank you my buddy good evening it's a pleasure that was Darvi Fissar who is an agri-specialist consultant and he's running two projects within Ermelo and Gommar Duport grain and cattle farming as well as vegetable and citrus so we really spoke about sustainable methods around crop production systems and also some nutritional benefits you know and obviously for farm vegetables and citrus those are definitely nutritional crops to have in your farm and what I like is that to also share some you know valuable tips for not only crop farmers but also for livestock farmers and how to maybe be innovative and try to cut down costs in your farming operations now to more exciting use as well my team has just let me know that our winner Bianca Komp has claimed her prize so congratulations to you and her comment if I could read it was that soybeans are high in protein and are a decent source of both carbs and fat they are rich in source of various vitamins and are beneficial compounds so for this reason regular soybean intake may alleviate symptoms of menopause and reduce risk of prostate and breast cancer who would have thought so thank you so much Bianca Komp for your comment and for your insight as well and she puts the hashtag episode 100 hashtag the farming podcast hashtag so thank you so much Bianca and you walk away with 500 grand in cash prize before I announce the second winner of the show this evening I just want to mention my last favorite episode of the top three that I've mentioned tonight I started with Waggy B farming which is episode 97 and then told you about episode 49 where I spoke to Ucilundi with Umado and the last one I've got picked up here and just by the way this is not me choosing any specific favorites but you know I enjoyed all the farming podcast because you get to speak to just amazing people that we have in this industry of ours and I think the one that also stood out for me is Uzza Mugulhetwala from Agri Cool he started farming on his I'm not sure if it was his own backyard or on a small plot but you know really struggled as the time went by to just keep abreast of the costs involved in farming and also he saw an opportunity in the market where a lot of farmers were really desperate to find market and he thought maybe let me quit farming and rather help the farmers that already exist in the industry by helping them find market so he definitely uses skills and talents of selling and marketing and that's how he founded Agri Cool and I know a couple of weeks after having him onto the show he had won a significant prize with a competition that was running with a JSE listed company and yeah I think he walked away with about one million rands and I'm sure that was extremely beneficial to his business and Agri Cool has become one place where a lot of farmers are now relying on just to get their produce out to consumers so look out for Agri Cool on social media and maybe if you're a farmer and are struggling with market maybe reach out to the Agri Cool team and see how they could market your product so as the show comes to a close I'm happy to announce the second winner and I believe they're also from a Facebook and it's great to know that the second winners the two winners tonight are females and the second winner of tonight's show is Tembi Maryland and her comment was rice health benefits may help maintain a healthy weight brown rice protects against chronic diseases hashtag know your crops hashtag episode 100 and hashtag farming podcast thank you so much Tembi for commenting and please you walk away with 500 rand cash prize and yeah that's as simple as that this was your know your crop farming competition that we have running will you tell us about the crop that you're currently growing all that you know of it's nutritional benefits it's crops benefits and why you like that crop specifically thank you so much for joining us this evening both our winners Bianca and Tembi have now claimed their prizes and that you that they walk away with 500 rand so thank you so much for watching our 100 episode and we look forward to the 100 episodes within the farming podcast maybe we might do a bit of a spin-off you know have more more engagements more panel discussions maybe be more on the field who knows but send us comments and suggestions if you would like to see some more dynamic content on the farming podcast because at the end of the day this podcast is for you to equip you and empower you with farming and aggregate knowledge that's it for me tonight and I look out for episode on Thursday and I will see you then take care