 Good evening. Welcome to the Private Property Farming Podcast. My name is Mbali Moukw. And thank you so much for joining us on this cold Tuesday. Today, I'm joined by a woman farmer to discuss all things farming, of course. But most importantly, farming in a cooperative. She's currently the owner and founder of Matubella Farming Enterprises. And it's also great to meet and connect with women in the agri industry, because there's so few of us, and we're all in our individual corners in South Africa, pushing our farming enterprises. So if you've been thinking about farming and wanting to go into farming, but most importantly, go into farming with a group, forming a cooperative, I think this conversation is for you, as we will definitely learn a lot from Impileng's Guadi's journey within her farming career. And like I say, every Tuesdays and Thursdays, please share, like, and comment on the farming podcast, because this podcast is for you. We're here to attend to all your farming needs, all your farming questions, and most importantly, bring it into the farming or agricultural landscape. But most importantly as well, grow your agri business. So please, if you have any comments or questions for our guests tonight, please feel free to write your question in the chat box, and we'll make sure that we answer your question. And yeah, without further ado, I'd like to bring Impileng onto the show. Impileng, how are you doing? And thank you so much for joining the Private Property Farming podcast. Thank you, Mali. How are you? I'm doing fine. Thanks for asking. Awesome. It's such an honor to be part of this show. That's fantastic. Awesome. I'm doing well. Thanks. Impileng, I think I just want to start off with your journey. How did you get into farming, and why the most important question? Look, I grew up in a family where there are farmers, and on weekends, each and every one of us has got the responsibility within the farm. So I grew up with this passion and the love of being in the industry, just observing in the family that there is a business structure we need to learn so that whenever the parents are no longer around, we can be able to go on with the family business. Awesome. And so you grew up in a farming background or in a family that farms. When did you start your cooperative? And what is it that you're farming? From the family cooperative, we are producing quality bonsmara cattle. We raise them, we breed them, and then we sell to the market. So basically, the business, it's all about selling cows. And we've got an agro-tourism site where the farm is surrounded by the dam, and on weekends, people are coming for entertainment, they come fishing. So yeah, basically those are some of the things that are happening within the farm. Right, Ipiling, I know that bonsmara cattle is quite a popular breed in the South African agricultural context, most importantly so, because it is a breed that is found in South Africa. What are some of the pros and cons of raising bonsmara cattle? Look, bonsmara cattle, it's very easy because it adapts to the situation, to the climate. And right now it's winter, you just need to manage your plants so that you, you know, right now the grass does not produce enough nutrients for the cows. So you need to come up with a supplement plan so that you can be able to feed the cows and supplement them. So bonsmara cattle, it's very lovely to keep because they've got a very good mother ability to their cows and they produce a good milk. And the most important thing they are for meat, they can produce meat. Wow, fantastic. And I think I missed where you're based. Where is your farm currently based? And you did say that you're farming in a cooperative. How many members are involved in your cooperative at the stage? We are farming in breads, cameo drift. We are five in the cooperative. It's a family cooperative. There are three women and two males. So why did you decide to maybe keep the business as a cooperative instead of a private company owned family business? It becomes easy for the government to fund cooperatives. Remember, it's not easy to fund individually. So at least when people are working in groups, the government is able to identify their needs and try to help. So it's very easy in a cooperative because even when you buy the feed, like we are in a livestock production, when you buy the feed, it becomes very easy because you buy in bulk, unlike when you are individual. So everything is done in a common way. All right. And so I know in a private company, right? You obviously have directors with each of their own shareholding capacity. How is that different in a cooperative? So for example, in a cooperative, does every single member own equal share of the business? Can you enter and exit the cooperative whenever you like? How do you also maybe distribute responsibilities in a cooperative? OK. In a cooperative, you need to be very strict. You need to put everything in paper. And each and every person must have the rules. Like any other business, you must have executive committee where one will be responsible for finance. The other one will be responsible for the meetings and whatever. There is a chairperson that will be needed in a cooperative because in a cooperative, you cannot just do as you please. You need to have the constitution that is going to lead you in the vision and the mission of the business. OK. And how easy or difficult is it to be working with family? I'm sure with siblings, you have those fights, but more so when you're in a business and have priorities and responsibilities to manage over and above just the cattle, but the employees as well and funds. How difficult or easy is it to be in a cooperative, especially one that involves family members? Yeah, I think compared to other cooperatives, family cooperatives, it's much better because my dad is a chairperson in our cooperative. He manages everything. And yes, we do fight. Each and every, where there are two people, there are differences. So we do fight, but at the end of the day, we sit down with our vision and see what we can do. But sometimes, it's a challenge because when you go home, you had a fight with your brother at the farm, and now you got to sit down and sort out everything. But remember, at the end of the day, you are running business. So you need to put your responses aside and work together. So you need to discipline. Right. So going back to our topic of this evening, still on speaking on cooperatives, what are the minimum numbers of members that are required to be in a cooperative? And what's the initial investment amount? So for example, for people that are watching and listening tonight and are thinking, I'd like to farm, but I can't go in it alone. And maybe my family's not interested in farming, but I know people that want to farm and let's form a cooperative. What's the minimum amount of members that is involved, that needs to be in a cooperative? And do the members have to give equal share in investment or initial capital when starting the cooperative? How does it just work? Look from a minimum number five above, you can start a cooperative. But remember, in a cooperative, you cannot be all the same. There's one with cash and there's one who's just full of playing. There's this other one who's not serious, he's just there to make money. And remember in farming, you cannot just make a quick cash. It doesn't happen like that. You need to be patient. So in a cooperative, people are different. It depends on how many you brought to the cooperative. Then you can share equally. There are people who just put later. So you'll have to divide and each and every person must get what she or he contributed to the cooperative. So like I said, it's discipline. Right, and how do you manage non-performing members in a cooperative? Because I've heard stories throughout my farming career where people have been in a cooperative. Let's say there's 10 or 15 women in a cooperative and maybe only five or six are really active or actively involved in the business when it comes to physically having to plant or raise the cattle. And then once the funding comes along or the support from a private institution or a government entity, every single member comes in and just acts like they're serious. So how does one manage the members that are non-performing in a cooperative? Look, remember you are in business like I said and each and every person needs to work hard to make the business a success. So there are people who will be not attending the meetings. Look, everything is in black and white. You need to put everything in black and white like the constitution. In your constitution, you need to discuss such things that what is it that you're gonna do to people, those who are not attiring to their roles. I mean, you've got the right to remove one who's not working in a cooperative and see what you can do because you cannot function with someone who's not serious. Remember some people will be coming very actively to be part of the cooperative but as time goes on, you realize that these people they've changed. If they thought that that farming just come easy but then they discover along the journey that farming is not easy. Then the next and that person does no longer active. You need to go back to the constitution and look at your rules and regulations and see how you can deal with that person. Just follow each and every step of how you're gonna remove that person from the cooperative. Wow, if you're joining us this evening on the farming podcast, we're joined by Epilem Guaidi who is the founder of Matsubara Farming Enterprises. She's a livestock farmer based in the Northwest particularly farming Bonsmada cattle. And our topic this evening is all about farming in a cooperative. And so far she's just shared some wisdom based on how a cooperative is formed. The minimum numbers of members that need to be part of a cooperative. And she's just shared also her background as to how and why her family came about to starting a cooperative and also highlighted certain roles and responsibilities that is required from certain members in a cooperative to achieve. If you have any questions for Epilem this evening please feel free to comment and we'll answer them to the base of our ability. But sticking on the cooperative topic this evening Epilem, I just wanna find out as well. So in a cooperative, do you share the profits equally? Because it's again, there might be members in the cooperative who say, I'm passionate about farming. I wanna be active. Therefore, I'm active from a production level. I'm active from a marketing level going out and seeking clients. But there might be members in a cooperative that are not so active, that feel that maybe their roles and responsibilities are based from an administrative level. Now what happens when the business is performing well and generating all this revenue? How do you then split the revenues? Or is it based on the amount of roles and responsibility that you have? Or is it based on purely how active you are in the cooperative? It depends on your mission and the vision for the business. Remember in our family cooperative, initially we have agreed that we're gonna work hard so that each and every one of us must get the farm. We can be able to buy a farm for each and every one of us. So now that is our vision. So even if we could be working very hard, we know that at the end we need to buy at least five farms so each and every one of us can be able to work on his or her own. But yes, each and every month there is a certain amount that we contribute to each and every one of us just to gain confidence, you see? Yeah, yeah. You mentioned something quite important earlier on in our conversation, you feeling that you as a family, you decided to be in a cooperative because it's better to get assistance, especially from government, where you have to do price negotiations and buying, what kind of assistance are you getting from your local department of agriculture in the Northwest? Look, in farming we learn every day, so we keep on learning our mistakes. Initially on the cooperative, some of us were working for the government, some of us were doing much. So as time goes on then we learn that all people who are working for the government, they don't get funded. Now like I myself, I was a teacher, so I had to resign so that we can at least get to the funding. So we are still working on that as we are learning each and every day. But the government is doing so well, especially the Northwest government, they are assisting when it comes to the break of the diseases or something they do share. Like now we are going through the pandemic of COVID, we did get the COVID relief. So yeah, basically the government is working, especially the ARC, they are so helpful because they are the one who just bought as our market. So the ARC team, it's so precious to our business. So the government is working. Yeah, please maybe dive deeper into that, because we always hear farmers just saying the government is not supporting, we're trying in so many ways and initiatives, but we're not receiving any support from government. But you are highlighting something very positive here that especially where farmers always complain to say we don't have access to market, we can't find market or we can't keep market for long. So let's just highlight on that, that you said that the ARC has assisted you and facilitated that market. So where were you before ARC came in and where are you now that ARC has facilitated or helped you with market? Before the ARC came in assistance, we were struggling, going to the auction, the market, it was so tough. It was so tough, but after the ARC came in assistance, they managed to secure the market because we are supplying wet with our free range cows. So yeah, we are in the program of Willys Farmers. That's fantastic. So is Willys buying your beef directly from the farm and how have you had to transition as a cooperative to meet a retailer's demands? It's quite impressive because we are really happy, we know we've got the market, we are no longer struggling like others. What we have to do is to just to make sure that we meet the deadline. So yeah. So if I understand correctly, you're raising the bones matter cattle and supplying directly to Willys' avatars, is that correct? All right. And what type of, did that as a cooperative supplying into Willys, did it have to involve any form of structural changes within the cooperatives? In the cooperative, maybe each member's responsibilities being increased because I know retail can be quite demanding with very, very high standards. Yeah. It was a wake up call to the cooperative that we really need to stretch in waking up, making sure that we meet our deadlines. So being, we didn't want to disappoint Willys with our products. We have to make sure that we produce quality meat, our cows, they are taken care of well. And yeah, in terms of any other challenges, my father is still the chairperson of the cooperative. He's the one who just sit around and manage everything. Last two questions, I'm feeling, are you currently mentoring any farmers who want to be in a cooperative? Or have you mentored any farmers who wanted to be in a cooperative and now are successfully running their own? Yes, actually from the office of the premier, there is a program that I'm running, I'm one of the mentors and we have adopted about 80 young farmers in the Northwest province, where we are mentoring them, taking them each and every step, showing them the practical work, and we are introducing them to the new facilities of farming, coming with the trainings and everything. So being in a cooperative, the government always encourage people to work together. The only way to complete the full value chain in the agriculture is to work together. So whether in the cooperative we fight, somebody doesn't pay, somebody runs away with their money, but at the end of the day, we meet each other and we must settle our differences, yes. Yeah, and it's so interesting that you're mentioning that you're mentoring young individuals, whereas the general conversation in Agri is that there are not a lot of young individuals who are participating in the sector. What is your viewpoint on that? You're a young person, and especially that you grew up in a family-run farm and you quit your day job to join the family cooperative. And most importantly, now you're giving back to young farmers. I mean, just maybe give us an overview of the participation of young people in the sector, especially those that you're mentoring. You know, I'm so excited to say as you go through the social medias, you'll see that there are a lot of young people who are active in the industry. And those people, sometimes they will be taking just pictures with the gold, but we need to identify those people that these people need trainings. They need to do the right thing. We need to take them in board and show them direction. But look, guys, with a little bit of experience that we have in the industry, this is what we have to do. Like currently, I'm visiting this month as a plowback to the community. I'm visiting the high schools where they are doing agriculture. By doing that, I want to adopt those learners and help them to apply so that they don't have to make the same mistakes that we did. We're gonna help them in applying for agricultural colleges, help them to choose their right careers, where we know if we have a certain group that will be doing the health, other that will be studying the soil, there's a lot of science in agriculture. And we need those young people. We need to share the direction with them. So if we get them fresh from high school, we can help them with the direction and they can go to the colleges with the knowledge that this is what I'll be doing. So I'm so happy that not only in the Northwest province, everywhere in South Africa, there are a lot of young farmers who are flooding into the agriculture sector. It shows that people are vibrant. We are realizing our worth to interact with nature. That is awesome, Ipiling. And I can just see and feel the passion coming from you, especially when you're talking about young individuals and being a young farmer yourself. But just to close off the conversation this evening and thank you so much for availing your time as a busy farmer. What are some of the last or final words of wisdom that you could give to our audience this evening that is maybe contemplating of being in a cooperative but just doesn't know how to go about it? Well, you need to be patient. You need to be humble. In farming, money doesn't come easy. You need to create the network. Networking is very important. In farming, we need one another. Therefore, it's very good that we create the networks and share experiences and then work. Because at the end of the day, we want to create a positive full value chain where we won't be only having people only on the animal. Look, we need people as well in the game industry and there are less people in the game industry. So we are looking forward to growing up to the game level where we'll be having the livestock producers, young vets and so basically what I'm saying is that we need each other. Let's just work together. Wow, thank you so much for your time Ibeleng this afternoon and I'm sure we'll be watching you in our socials from the private property team and thank you so much as well for just sharing some words and wisdoms and also bringing the spotlight into much better farming enterprises in terms of how you guys are structured, how you're working and highlighting the benefits of working with government as well and just sharing your story because not a lot of farmers are able to share the story and sometimes feel hesitant about giving some insights into their farming backgrounds. But thank you so much for this time this evening and I wish you all the success with supplying and meeting your client's demand and just growing the family farm most importantly. Yeah, so thank you. Thank you so much Ibeleng. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for watching everybody at home. We were joined by Ibeleng Kuwadi who's a CEO and founder of Matabella Farming Enterprise. She is a livestock farmer, farming born smarter cattle in the Northwest province. And I think our conversation tonight was basically looking at farming in a cooperative and in her instance she was farming or she is currently farming in a family run cooperative with her father and her siblings and each and everybody in the cooperative has their own responsibilities. So if you're thinking about joining a cooperative please watch this conversation that we had with Ibeleng this evening. Maybe you could get some gems from what she had to say and I like the fact that you mentioned that a lot of youth are in the sector and also as she is growing in a farming journey she's always giving back and imparting knowledge on others and constantly working with her active department of agriculture in her region and province. As you heard she's currently mentoring 80 young farmers in the sector. So yeah, it's always so fascinating to talk about farming and agriculture and most importantly sharing the spotlight women in farming or young people in farming. And yeah, if you enjoyed this conversation give it a like, give it a share and I will catch you Nick on Thursday with another guest but thank you so much for joining the Private Property Farming Podcast and continuously supporting the podcast. Have a good evening, take care.