International Perspective: New Faces and Places

It seems only yesterday that I wrote my last blog on the Cereals event, but according to my calendar it has been over 2 months. Time flies when you are having fun! Shortly after the Cereals show, I attended the Boregby field days in Sweden to visit our distributor Datalogisk. This is a very similar show to Cereals in that it hosts both agronomic plots as well as live machinery demonstrations. But this exhibition also encompasses grassland equipment and exhibitors which was quite interesting, as I don’t often see this type of equipment on my normal travels.

My latest trip took me to South Africa. I always enjoy visiting this country, despite the 10hr flight to get there! We have currently named a new distributor in this area: Nel Precision Farming (NPF). Mac is the owner of this new company and comes with a wealth of experience and knowledge of Ag Leader products. On this trip, I finally was able to visit Cape Town.

I’ve always wanted to come down here as it is so different to the Freestate where I normally visit. It really is a beautiful area and the farming is more like what I am used to (wheat, barley and canola). We were able to visit some companies down there, NPF’s sub dealer Crosscape Precision and also a farmer who farms in the Western Cape area and has been using Ag Leader products for 2-3 years now.  Abrie de Wet farms 3500ha (~8645ac), of which 1700ha (~4200ac) is arable.

He grows mostly wheat and canola alongside running a sheep enterprise of about 3000 Merino sheep. Due to the geography of the area, the weather can make or break a crop on a yearly basis. For example, last year’s wheat yield was 1-2t/ha (~16-32b/ac) and this year it is forecast to be 3.5t/ha (~57b/ac). At the moment, he is using Ag Leader's section control system on his Hardi sprayer and is very happy with it.

He told me the system was paid for within the first year in product savings due to reducing overlaps, which were common on their farm due to the contours and terraces. He currently only has manual guidance but is looking to move towards steering. The support he receives from Crosscape Precision is one of the main reasons he has chosen Ag Leader, as well as the products reliability and ease of use.

As it happened, we were not far from a very well known landmark so had to take a small diversion to go see:

All in all it was a great trip there and I look forward to returning in the near future.