As I write this I am at the end of my second week in South Africa. During my second week here, I have been travelling around meeting some farmers. We’ve been discussing their thoughts on precision farming and why they have adopted it. Coincidentally, I was also present during the installation of the first ParaDyme™ system sold into Africa.
 Hanno Truter of CLM with Dries Englebrecht and Jaco Hamman of Dries Presies Dries Minaar is the owner of the CAT MT865C that this has been fitted to. He farms 2000ha (5000ac) near Bothaville, in the Freestate. The entire area is planted with maize (corn in the US) each year, moisture permitting and averages 5t/ha (approximately 80bu/ac). He runs a staff of 18 and mainline machinery includes:
CAT MT 856C
3 x CAT 45’s
JD 4730 sprayer
Harvesting is contracted so he does not own a combine
Corn here is on wide row spacing of 1.5m (60”). The reason for wide rows like this comes down to available moisture during the growing season. Water is one of the most limiting factors, however it is not because of lack of rainfall (500-600mm/20-24” annually), but because they do not always get rain at the right time. It comes in big deluges here, which were especially bad this year, and caused some crops to suffer as a consequence.
 Example of maize planted on 1.5m (60") spacing. This is Mr. Minaar’s first purchase relating to precision farming and the primary objectives are to plant accurate rows and to run 24 hours per day during the peak season.
 Mr. Minaar takes his tractor for the first drive with ParaDyme. When asked why he chose Ag Leader, the answer was simple: “Dries Presies. He provides an excellent service and is very knowledgeable.”
We now move about 80km (50 miles) east to Kroonstad and meet with our next farmer. Ashley Whitfield currently farms 4500ha (just over 11,000 ac), of which 1750ha is cropped. The remainder is down to grass for his herd of pedigree Bonsmaras cattle. Out of the cropped area, 60% is planted to maize, 30% is planted to sunflowers and the remaining 10% is rested and planted with cowpeas, which is a legume and therefore a nitrogen fixing plant. The crop is actually then harvested and used as cattle fodder. Sunflowers average yield is 2t/ha, maize average yield is 4.7t/ha (75bu/ac).
 Mr. Ashley Whitfield He runs mostly JD equipment which includes:
8520
6930’s
6610
6420’s
9660 combine
2117 CCS Planter
4 10-row conventional planters
2 home-built, variable-rate applicators
Mr. Whitfield first started using precision farming equipment eight years ago when he purchased a PFadvantage™ for yield monitoring. After collecting a few years of data he used the same display to variably apply lime. Since then, he has now moved to an InSight™ display for variably applying nitrogen and phosphorous and for yield mapping. He still uses a yield monitor and has also introduced auto steering to his farm. He plans on adding more equipment to his precision farming armoury which would include VRA seeding, VRA liquid N and liquid blended fertiliser. But his precision ideas do not stop at hardware alone as his agronomic practises also look at ways of fine tuning the crop. He has recently moved to “narrow” row maize which is planted at 75cm (30”) spacing instead of the standard 1.5m (60”). Population will remain the same but in a good year he will get a 9-14% yield increase over the standard practise. In a dry year he will break even.
 Narrow maize, planted at 75cm (30")  Sunflowers on the Whitfield farm. When asked about his reasons for adopting precision farming, the answer was simple: “If you don’t do it properly, don’t do it all”. He believes precision farming is the key to success in an industry where making the most efficient use of inputs is the only way to ensure long term sustainability.
So, my trip to South Africa has come to an end and as always it has been an enjoyable experience. I will leave you with one of my favourite images of South Africa – the fabulous sunsets:
 South African sunset.
Tags: ag, Ag Leader, Ag Leader Technology, application, CLM Precision Agriculture, global precision ag, international ag, precision agriculture, precision farming, south africa, VRT
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