Beauty and the Beasts.
Sandstone Estates has a very close working relationship with the South African National Defence Force who patrol the border between South Africa and Lesotho. Sandstone Estates has nearly 20-kms of border which represents the one boundary of the farm along the Caledon River. Our own security operatives, working closely with the South African National Defence Force, do their best to maintain security along this area.
Building fertility.
One of our primary source of commitments is to improve the fertility of our farm. We do this by creating reserves of biological material (humus) which we can constantly place in areas where there is obviously a fertility issue.
Our Summer crops
Sandstone committed to a larger area this year for summer crops. We also decided to plant maize for the first time in 10-years.
Last year, despite difficult conditions, we did well with our soya beans and have once again added soya beans to the rotation. Sunflowers is the other summer crop we have just planted.
The crops germinated well and thus far growth is normal. More rain would however be appreciated.
Soyas as at 26th November 2012
Comment from a loyal supporter.
One of our loyal supporters who keeps up-to-date with our activities via our web site, Bernard Dodd, a retired farmer, sent us the following comments after reading about our new Equaliser planter. Bernard wrote:
A short while ago I mentioned Sandstone's new machine for sowing seed and commented on the difference to my days on the farm.
Increase in livestock activities
After a number of years of being rather wary of keeping livestock along the Lesotho border we have, now that the Army have established a camp on the farm, decided to increase our livestock activities. These are concentrated around sheep and cattle. As far as the cattle are concerned we have our herd of long horned Afrikaners which we breed for working purposes, i.e. hauling wagons etc. We then have a conventional beef herd which comprises mostly Red Sussex/Bonsmara type cattle.
As far as our sheep are concerned we use German Merinos and have recently purchased three robust rams whose pictures appear in the gallery below.
Grazing in one of the many valleys on the farm, i.e. on land not suitable for arable farming.
Summer planting.
Our new Equalizer 18-row planter making mincemeat of this year’s summer planting programme.
John Deere's new 6830 tractor has arrived from Europe.
Sandstone Estates has a policy of importing most of its expensive farm machinery direct. The landed price of tractors imported from overseas is up to 30% lower than the equivalent price from a local dealer.
In addition, the features on the imported tractors are significantly enhanced. We are able to source tractors with hydraulic braking facilities, automatic rear trailer hitch, and air brakes as needed to pull heavy trailers. Many of these options are not available in South Africa.
There is no Import Duty on imported agricultural machinery.
New Planter set to work
As recently advised a new 18-row Equalizer Planter, model 2016/3FTA2, has been delivered from the Cape and is now in full operation planting maize.
This planter can do nearly 100 hectares a day and will significantly improve our productivity in this area.
A competent appraisal of the status of Commercial Agriculture in SA today.
We believe our web site visitors will find the following link worth a read:
Sandstone takes delivery of new Planter.
With the planting area increasing on the farm and the fact that we only have one planter we had to look at either buying more small planters and tractors or possibly buying one big planter to match one of our larger tractors. The most cost-effective option was to purchase a planter for our Case MX 285 tractor. With 95% of our lands flat and with no contours we were also limited to a size that the tractor can pull.
