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The garden at De Erf is fertile and green .
IN THE SPOTLIGHT •••
Bekker Taute with their older sister Kara , who is also in the picture . Uys says he doesn ’ t feel a day older than in the days when he played hooker for the under 20 ’ s of the Free State University .
FARMING OPERATIONS Uys remembers how he and Bob aggressively bought land right from the beginning . From small beginnings at Kleinbegin Uys also has land in Theunissen , Odendaalsrus and Kroonstad which he uses for grazing and land in the Odendaalsrus district for crop farming .
He also has a strong cattle component . However , he also had to scale down during the drought . “ I sold approximately 20 % of my cattle during the drought .” But he kept 800 breeding cows .
He usually plants white maize on 90 % of his land and sunflower on 10 %. During the past year he only planted 20 % of his land and 70 % of his land remained fallow .
THREE POOR YEARS OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS Four years ago , in 2013 , they had a very poor crop . The next year , in 2014 , the crop was better , but prices were very low . 2015 was a poor year , followed by an even worse year in 2016 . For this reason Uys is looking forward to the 2017 season .
2017 SEASON The average rainfall in the area is in the region of between 500 mm and
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Senwes producer Uys van Heerden and his loyal German shepherd , Ben .
SENWES Scenario • DEC 2016 / JAN 2017 13