 Do you have a team that assist you with these calculations? Do you have an advisory board? Or do you seek the help of other professionals, maybe other farmers in the sector? I have a mentor by the name of Christopher Milamo. He's been there, he's been there in the game. He owns a farm, a state farm as well. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the Private Property Farming Podcast. My name is Marlene Walker, your host. Once again every Tuesdays and Thursdays right here on the Private Property Channel. Thank you so much for watching us here on YouTube and feel free to subscribe to our channel and obviously comment with every single guest that we have onto the show. Get to ask some questions and maybe learn a little bit more about the industry. I mean this podcast is here for you at the end of the day to just give you a bit of insight into the agriculture industry. We have access to some farmers who are making great strides in the industry and today's another exciting episode because we have a young farmer on the show. He's been here before and this time round we're just going to touch base with his business and what he's been doing since he was last time on the show and get to understand a lot of challenges that he's been faced with post COVID and as you know we've had very, very heavy rains in the third and fourth quarter of last year and maybe the first quarter as well of this year and just to understand how did he bounce back from any challenges that he might have been affected by climate change and what can we learn from his strategies on the farm. So if you have any questions for our guest today please feel free to comment, ask questions and we'd be happy to respond to you accordingly. So today our guest is Tavo de Tachue. He's the Founder and Executive Chairman of Nasi Dita Farming, Wildlife and Projects. Tavo thank you for coming on to the show once again. How are you doing? Now we are Salton Valley and thank you to all of you for having me here this evening. Fantastic. Just a reminder you are based in the Northwest and you are a livestock farmer, is that correct? Yes, yes, I'm a livestock farmer. Fantastic. So you know a lot of farmers are complained in late November, December and early January this year of the heavy rains. Were you affected by any chance by heavy rains and how did you manage to get your business growing during those times? I remember last year when we had heavy rains we experienced what are you called food to rot in a kettle and had a bit of heart sickness which is caused by your ticks because normally when we experience heavy rainfalls there tend to be a lot of ticks in livestock. So that's one of the challenges that I had. How I encountered it with regards to the food to rot in my small stock, I had to move them from another cow to a much drier cow because when the cows are wet the cows tend to become too wet and that leads to what you call food to rot and you can treat it by any antibiotic. No matter my farm I use reverine, L.A. and I also use termizing and I use both grease what you call the grease which controls ticks in livestock instead of using your water-based dubs because when it rains heavily it just washes off and you lose a lot of money in the operation. Tell me, this is going to be a general question but how do farmers bounce back with these unexpected expenses and more so maybe you could answer that question bringing your strategy as well. Normally when, especially because I'm farming now in 40 kilos from Botswana border it's called the Kalari area so you need to make sure that in terms of your finances you have to keep less of your productive animals because when I moved through the farm the guy was supplying wool with 300 oxen so I tried to use more or less the same strategy that I was using you always told me that you need to prepare for the next drought that is why I always have money on the side just to make sure that I don't fall behind I don't lose a lot of livestock because when I moved through the farm I had to sell my productive animals because I had nothing to sell by then and I had to pay a lot of expenses in terms of the innovations I had to construct cows and everything so you have to have that extra money on the side that money that you just keep an extra bank account savings account that you don't touch so I think that money is saving a lot understood and like you said you've had the food disease you've had to migrate your cattle to another farm so maybe list these few expenses just in case any other farmers are listening and are struggling with this you're fortunate to have another area that you can access for your cattle but what are some of the expenses that one could look at do they have to pay for extra feed increased antibiotics like you mentioned the farm that you moved your cattle to do you have to play rent and how is the rent per hectare the land size or per cattle that is on that land just maybe break down a few costs that a farmer could be experiencing should they be hit with such heavy rains like you had experienced in the previous months when I moved to a farm it's a state farm which is 30 years from the development of co-development and land reform but when I moved there I paid the rent on an annual basis so I'm going to pay once a year and it's quite expensive because I pay about 1% of the farms there and that farm is about 9.4 million so I need to pay 1% of that and increases by 6% every year so when I moved to that farm remember I moved from a smaller farm to a bigger farm so I had to make sure that I get more employees especially when I increased my numbers because at least I could expand my cattle numbers to 200 so I had to get extra employees I paid much more from the smaller farm from that part I moved from Conferred to Ottawa farm which is 2150 it's another department of co-development I think someone is calling him yeah are you getting a call is that why it's stopping just hang on yeah are you able to put your phone on do not disturb oh yeah is that fine now then go back to the 2500 farm paying it off 1% etc the farm in Ottawa manages 2450 hectares it's another 30 years from department of co-development and land reform with an option to buy after 5 years so with this range you pay it on an annual basis it's 1% of the farm to be able so the farm is 9.4 million which means it will be paying 94000 for this year and increases by 6% every year so I need to make sure I have money now actually to pay up the rent yeah how do you come up with calculating all these costs and identifying all these risks do you have a team that assist you with these calculations do you have an advisory board or do you seek the help of other professionals maybe other farmers in the sector I have a mentor he has been in the game he owned a farm and he was lucky enough to purchase another farm under a loan from Apsa so this guy will assist me to always be ready for this annual increase 6% every year and that's where I get most of the advice from and also from Obagi Mbanda he is one of the chair of accountants from Apsa so he is actually the one who is about to assist me now to purchase that farm we actually have to pay it to buy the farm after 5 years but like I said it's a plan that we are trying to set up okay so you are looking at buying this brand new farm and then what's going to happen to your current existing farm you mean the farm in Ottawa or the smaller farm that I had before yes I believe it's the smaller farm that you had before where your cattle were staying at before you migrated them onto a new farm because of the heavy rain falls this year we had the production state and I had a future with one of the players who we were selling with at Habsburg from 5 years I made about 25K so my plan now is to expand my small stock my goats on that small farm that's where I will be doing the goat operation and the sheep operation and that small farm will pay up the rent of Ottawa farm and then what I make from my cattle will now buy Ottawa farm from the 200 cattle that I had what I make from the 200 after we need I will pay all the expenses of the farm and also pay Habsburg yeah and tell me are you planning to diversify your cattle farm acquisition so right now you're a first and foremost cattle farmer but are you looking to diversify into maybe going into field crops like maize, sorghum, sugar beans, lucerne just to also justify the costs of running your cattle business yeah I'm looking at diversifying to Osage farming as being one of the people who was you know because I met a young gent in Brits who was doing Osage so I spoke to him and told him I would like to do a join bench with him because I saw that Osages tend to be quite hardy especially because I'm based in the Kalari area I can't plant you know I cannot plant unless I do under irrigation and you know doing under irrigation also will increase the electricity bills because I'm under a three-faced S-crumble which becomes quite expensive so I pay a lot of money for S-crumble so that is why I tend to I'm looking at investing in Osage because they are quite easy to grow it's not like your private chickens those are like babies they die and everything with Osage because they are quite hardy quite adaptable to any area I will be investing in Osage I think later this year and yeah in terms of my expenses you know I have expenses I pay on the farm obviously will be your feeds, moist fishing in summer and in winter I need to buy my protein leeks I need to buy my phosphate leeks in summer also my employees I need to pay salaries for both my community and my temporary employees especially when you do your what you call animal processing I need to get extra guys to assist on the farm also when I do fencing I need to get extra guys and also I need to pay you know for for vaccines you know your vaccines because I moved to a bigger farm I had to buy in bulk I don't normally buy two boxes of three boxes now I normally buy a big bundle I don't buy in 500 miles now I buy in one liters so that is why this is actually what has been happening on the farm you know trying to to expand the operation you have to buy in bulk and obviously need to be prepared so normally what I do what I do I normally buy my phosphate leeks your summer leeks in winter because they tend to be cheaper by then and my winter leeks are by then in summer because they will be cheaper also yeah so you've adopted a good model you know to mitigate against risks high prices and I like the fact that you know you speak to your bank you've got a mentor as well which I think is some things that people tend to forget when they come into the industry they tend to do a lot of things alone they own farms you know some of them you know don't really interact and participate much in the sector but it's great to have people to leverage again especially from an advisory point of view when it comes to challenges that you experience and also growth because growth also does bring new challenges and I like the fact that you definitely got your head in terms of the right mind space to you know negotiate on prices know when to buy etc you're a young person in the industry and you know there's this whole movement of young people having to adopt technology move at the times etc are you using any forms of technology in your farm and if so what are they what I actually use is you know I check the weather forecast and I take pictures you know this I tend to play around with apps there's apps available on on Google Apps I mean on Google Play where I download these apps just for you know for record keeping purposes you know but also it's interesting in doing microchipping of cattle as well installing CCTV cameras because I was at Nampu this week and I met up with Desperon Fidelity who will be coming to install these CCTV cameras on the farm that's one of the few technologies that I'll be using on the farm and maybe later maybe later I'll be flying through you know just to check up the work as I'm really working on the farm you know just from my phone absolutely that's another opportunity tell me do you experience high livestock theft in your farm especially or in your area for my area there's actually no livestock because I'm surrounded by you know you buy my wife farmers you know they already have these cameras and everything so we also have group chats if we if the suspicion the bark is passing by that are very suspicious you know we approach these people and ask them what is the reason but so far we have never had livestock theft but when I was still at the constable farm my employees were the ones who stole from me so there's actually there's people inside the job it's not really from far to from my livestock yeah and that's unfortunate it's not a nice thing to have people within your organization you know taking away from the business but tell us Table for any livestock farmers that are listening watching this podcast and with your experience what are some of the advices that you could give somebody when starting out livestock farming so maybe list and explain some of the crucial things one could consider looking into when it comes to livestock farming yes what I normally tell people is I always tell people like go big or go home you know I mean it's quite extensive people they think you know farming is it's a playground it's a serious business you know farming will humble you so I always tell people that more especially when you start rather go for quality than quantity because I've seen my fellow black farmers I don't know if it's dangerous or if it's people that are trying to test what is when you buy buy your good size buy a good brand and when you start I mean there's farmers black farmers who farm with over 200 cattle of no quality and there's another farmer farming with your best pedigree animals maybe 50 but he does more than the other farmer so that's where quality comes in and also I don't like telling people to just start small rather take fighters of saving up that money and then starting then starting with first year with little money because when you do that you'll be running a hobby but you can be buying five goats and say you want to start, rather go for 20 at least you'll see the profits but if you start with five animals then it's going to take you very long yeah it's going to take you very long to grow and then with your experience I mean you've mentioned certain things that you've seen with certain farmers who maybe aren't so aggressive or just don't want to grow big or grow home as you put it when they start out farming but in hindsight of that what are some of the things that you've seen in the industry from farmers that farmers have taken for granted especially when it comes to livestock farming maybe those that have come to you for advice that you have mentored where are farmers cutting corners at this stage and maybe list those things so that we know tomorrow when we go into livestock farming we know that is not to be taken for granted and you have to do it right the first time so maybe just what are some of the important aspects of livestock farming that some farmers tend to overlook and maybe not take the advice of an experienced livestock farmer like yourself I mean like I said you have to get a mentor there's one thing for sure you need to do your trading always tell people that farming is like a car you need to get your driver's license before getting on the road so obviously you'll do your learners, you'll do your license and then you can start driving so with farming as well you need to get your qualifications so just general things available at ARC or wherever that's what people take for granted I think farming is just I don't know I don't know how to put it but I've seen a lot of people now and they're quite strident it's those people that they have approached me and they felt that I don't need this guy I don't need a mentorship, this guy is maybe criticizing me or whatever but you know these concerted criticism I need to tell people if you're playing always tell people that you need to wake up when you're sleeping you wake up at 4 you wake up at 4 that 4 o'clock then you start your job much earlier than if you start at 8 o'clock then we can be at 8 o'clock I think trading and getting the right mentors will take you far absolutely thank you so much Tavo for your time we really appreciate your advice especially around livestock farming and I wish you all the best with the acquisition of your new farm let us know how it goes as well and hopefully we can have you on the podcast maybe in 12 months from now and you can explain to us how have you experienced life on the farm especially on the new farm are you growing, how many cattle have you grown with by then don't be a stranger on the podcast for being a friend of the podcast and just coming back and also just giving us some words of wisdom and how we can also mitigate against certain risks that we experience in the farming sector thank you Tavo thank you very much it's a pleasure that was Tavo from Nasi Dita farming wildlife and projects he's faced all the way in the northwest and he was able to give us some gems around how he was able to keep his business afloat keep his livestock firstly safe and alive and protected against a disease that was you know affecting his operations purely because of heavy rainfalls and this is climate change at the end of the day farmers are severely exposed to climate change and if you're a farmer and are entrepreneur in this space you really have to be on top of on top of things from an operational perspective seek advice from very experienced professionals to help you grow your business to help you mitigate against the risks and challenges that pose a threat to your business this is climate change at its best you can never be comfortable in a farm you always have to have resources firstly available to ensure that you are able to purchase new things that require you to grow and protect your business more so work with other farmers in the Narendra area if you need to move your livestock from one camp to another camp do so all at the end for saving your business I mean there are people that rely on your business to stay afloat because you employ them at the end of the day and these are some of the the ways in which Thabo has kept his business afloat in the past couple of months and congratulations to him for looking to go into buying a new farm and I hope he does succeed in that because we need young farmers to grow at the end of the day so thank you so much for watching at home keep those comments and questions coming through subscribe to our YouTube channel Private Property and then you can follow the farming podcast playlist and constantly like like like because the more engagement we get is the more feedback we get from the more engagement we get from you is the more feedback that we start to pick up and see you know what type of content you like to hear from the farming podcast so yeah thank you so much for watching and supporting the farming podcast and we'll see you next time on a new episode interviewing another farmer or maybe industry professional take care