09 May 2019

Farming at the Sandveld Ranches in the Central District is a worthwhile, but not easy undertaking.

Due to a sand laden terrain, not many transport owners are keen to travel to the area and this forces farmers to resort to using small trucks to transport cattle to the main road before loading into bigger trucks to BMC.

In an interview, Mr Goabamong Sethaba of Xeatsha cattle ranch said the area was also predator infested.

Wild dogs and lions terrorise livestock while on one hand, farmers often ward off elephants that repeatedly destroyed ranch fences.

Xeatshaa cattle ranch is located in Kaka area within the Sandveld Ranches, western part of Serowe.

Through the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), Mr Sethaba was able to start his farming enterprise after being allocated a 6x6 piece of land in 2007. 

He said he sold his animals to BMC but once in a while supplied individuals and butcheries.

Mr Sethaba said he regularly had to maintain fences destroyed by elephants.

This added to other costs such as supplements and medicine.

“When I started farming, I specialised in breeding charolais but I have added simmental and intend to focus on pure simmental in future,” he said.

He also kept small stock for subsistence, horses and donkeys that served as transport for farm workers. 

Transport costs, when taking cattle to the BMC, were some of the challenges he was faced with and this he blamed on lack of proper road infrastructure.

“Because of the rough terrain, small truck owners charge us up to P400 per beast, hence incur huge transport costs that eat into our profits,” he stated.

As if that was not enough, he said BMC took long to pay them.

“Lack of roads and telecommunication infrastructure at Sandveld poses a danger to people’s lives, if my farmworkers are not well I have to transport them to the nearest health post at Khwee, some 300km away,” he said.

Mr Sethaba said because of poor communication infrastructure, they often lost animals because one had to travel long distance to seek the help of veterinary doctors who could otherwise be accessed by phone.

Ranches, he reckoned, needed amenities to attract youth to venture into farming which he said was a worthy investment with significance to the country. 

Mr Sethaba said he had resorted to solar technology to power the borehole and for lighting.

Solar technology he said though expensive to install, was cost effective and easy to maintain. ENDS