The irrigation and fertilising technol-ogy that Limpopo’s Young Farmer of the Year, Mr Christoff Smit, employs on the five farms he manages in the Groblersdal area is clearly aimed at the well being of the micro organisms

in the soil and also to repair and build the soil profile after years of traditional fertiliser ap-plication.

His yields show that he is on the right track, even a 30-year-old citrus orchard pro-duces more and better quality fruit than it used to. “Two years ago we wanted to replace that orchard, now it is showing a turn-around,” Christoff says.

HN Pieterse Boerdery is a family farming business headed up by Mr Hendri Pieterse and Christoff’s mother, Petra at his side. Christoff manages the production side of the five farms: Krokodildrif, Bloempoort, Druiwe Diepkloof, Ambalagi and Diepkloof while his brother, Mr Gert Smit is in charge of the value chain - from the pack houses to the transport and market-ing of their products abroad.

FOCUS ON HIGH VALUE CROPS

Altogether 600ha are being irrigated from the Loskopdam and Moses river irrigation schemes. This comprises 160ha table grapes that are produced under netting, 350ha citrus as well as sugar corn green beans and com-mercial maize planted on 90ha.

The cream of the citrus basket is the 42ha high-value Nova soft citrus of which 37ha is also produced under shade netting.

Winner triumphs with soil organismsOn the surface he produces table grapes, citrus and cash crops, but AgriLimpopo’s Toyota Young Farmer of the Year, Mr Christoff Smit is actually farming underneath the surface. By taking care of the micro organisms in his soil he is improving his yields year-on-year while his input costs are on the decline. He discusses his success with Landbou-weekblad journalist, Jasper Raats.

Other high-value citrus cultivars produced include 40ha of Cambria, 11ha of Rustenburg-ers and 60ha of Eureka lemons. Christoff has implemented a programme that sees more of these orchards covered in shade netting every year.

He says that while the yields don’t neces-sarily justify the expense of the shade netting, the pack-out percentages definitely do. “We get up to 90% superclass oranges from our Nova orchard that is under netting. Even if we produce 80 tons per ha at the standard pack-out of 70% first class and 30% second and third classes, it cannot compare with the 60 ton per ha superclass Novas,” Christoff says.

All new citrus plantings are high-value cul-tivars. It just makes sense to produce a prod-uct that realises better prices at the same input costs.

Some of the older citrus orchards on the farms are made up of cultivars such as Delta and Palmers of which about 60ha is still plant-ed in circles under pivots.

These orchards pose a major challenge for Christoff. He’d prefer all rows to run from North to South which would see each tree getting equal amounts of sunlight. Some of the trees in the circle only gets sunlight on one side while the other side is in the shade all day. “In time we will replace these orchards and switch over to drip irrigation, but for now their yields are good enough and even showing improvement.”

WONDER WATER

The improvement that Christoff sees in all his

crop production always follows the use of the Puricare system which enriches his water with ozone and hydrogen peroxide.

This process keeps the drippers clean, in-creases the water’s oxygen levels and speeds-up the water’s infiltration tempo.

“I now use almost a third less water than before and my water filters stay clean without any algae built-up.”

The oxygen enriched water creates an aero-bic environment. Nematodes prefers anaerobic conditions. The water does not kill them – it just drives them away. Because the water now infiltrates the soil better, it loosens compac-tion layers and therefore more oxygen pene-trates deeper into the soil which increases root growth.

Christoff says that many people can’t be-lieve how deep his tree’s roots now grow. To schedule his irrigation, he relies on sensors that measures moisture from 10cm to 80cm. These sensors send hourly data to a central system via GPS. Christoff can then monitor the soil moisture of any vineyard from his office.

THE BUGS IN THE SOIL

His interest in soil organisms led him on the track of the Puricare system. “I am constantly busy reading and researching microorganisms – so I came across this system which focuses on the advancement of soil organisms.”

He tries to avoid poisonous pesticides as far as possible and works closely with the ag-ricultural company, Dagutat, which supplies him with biological pest control products.

It is, however, impossible to do away with agricultural chemicals entirely, especially with grapes where one has to spray for certain pests and diseases as a precautionary measure. “With grapes you can’t afford to wait for a problem and then treat it.”

He relies on electrostatic spray systems on his grapes and citrus saying it improves the coverage a lot. “Because we maintain such low MRL levels our products can be sold at any su-permarket in Europe. Although we don’t, it can be sold as organic produce.”

Christoff uses no glyphosphate because he believes it is bad for the micro organisms

While it may be difficult to manage orchards planted in circles under pivots, this Navel orchard produces 107 ton per ha.

QUICK FACTS

Tell us about your family?I am married to Mariana - we have known each other since my school days. My son, Christoff Jr, is two-and-a-half years old.

Who is your mentor in agriculture?My father (stephfather), Hendri Pieterse. He still imparts his knowledge on a daily basis. My mother, Petra, taught me how to farm table grapes.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned with regards to agriculture?To never give up. To get back up and to carry on. When hail damages the nets you use, you wait for the storm to pass and immediately start fixing the damage.

What is the biggest mistake you’ve made?To keep adding additional fertiliser to try and secure a better harvest. I think this is a major mistake made by farmers.

Which technology can you not farm without?My Puricare Water Treatment Systems which enriches my water with ozone and hydrogen peroxide. I don’t want to farm without it.

What hobbies do you have?Bowhunting, fishing and gaining knowledge about fertilisers and irrigation systems.

What do you read?Landbouweekblad, Veeplaas and articles on the internet.

Which sports team do you support:The Stormers en the WP

Mr. Christoff Smit, Agri Limpopo’s Toyota Young Farmer for 2015 with his wife Mariana and their son, Christoff jnr.

ABOVE: A block of Red Globe grapes are being prepared for the harvest.

INSET: Earthworms are a sign that the soil is recovering, says Christoff adding that one will lately find earthworms in all his orchards. This block of Midnight Beauty grapes was planted earlier

this year.

The Puricare System consist out of ozone lamps in holders where the ozone is then induced together with hydrogen peroxide into the water which leads to the formation of oxygen enriched water molecules.

in his soil. To feed his micro organisms an reduce fertiliser leaching, he applies humic and fulvic acids.

He frequently tests the fun-gi and bacteria compilations in his soil and uses Omnia’s Fungimax and Organoboost to achieve desired levels - more bacteria for annual crops and more fungi for permanent crops.

Every year Omnia con-ducts an Omni-bio analysis for him which shows the state of his soil. “I want to see what I am building and improving,” Says Christoff.

Lately he has been apply-ing less nitrogen. This year, for example, he has halved the nitrogen on his green beans and still achieved a yield of 13 tons per ha without any disease or insect problems. “If there are too many nitrogen nitrates, bugs tend to attack your plants more aggressively,” Christoff says.

For many years farmers have believed they simply have to add nitrogen to achieve better yields, but in the process we alter the one to ten carbon/nitrogen ratio that micro organisms prefer. They then use the humus in the soil to convert nitrogen and so depletes the soil,” he explains.

He is set on not applying anything that is not necessary and constantly conducts leaf and sap analysis to determine exactly what el-ements his plants need.

“I apply what the plant needs, anything more is waste and not necessary.”

His yields are the testimony to his success. On average he harvests 13 tons per ha of green beans, 20,7 tons per ha of sugar corn and an average of 16 tons per ha yellow maize.

On his high income citrus orchards he har-vests 65 tons per ha of Novas, 50 tons per ha from young Cambria trees and 60 tons per ha of Rustenburgers. Some of the older orchards do

The Puricare System consist out of ozone lamps in holders where the ozone is then induced together with hydrogen peroxide into the water which leads to the formation of oxygen enriched water molecules.

Christoff saves on chemicals by using an electro static system on his spray cars.

Christoff’s pride are these Bonsmara bulls bred in his Sebatja Bonsmaras stud.

even better with Navels that yield as much as 107 tons per ha. He however prefers the quality and price premium he receives for the high value citrus.

From its 160ha of table grapes HN Piet-erse Boerdery will produce about 600 000 cartons for the export market this year.

HE DIDN’T WANT TO FARM

When he matriculated from Ben Viljoen High School in Groblersdal in 2001, Christoff made it clear that he was not interested in the farming operation. He planned to go work in the city in a computer-related industry and therefore studied BCom Economy and Infor-matics at the University of Potchefstroom.

When he reluctantly accompanied his father to a Bonsmara auction in Bela-Bela, however, he was mesmerized by the red cat-

tle. “I don’t know what it was, but that day the

cattle in the auction pens looked so beautiful, I told my father that was what I wanted to do with my life.”

Hendri was skeptical, but gave Christoff six ha to try his hand at cattle farming. He read

everything he could find on the Bonsmara and learned everything he could. He abandoned his city dreams and drove from Potchefstroom to Groblersdal every weekend to build cattle camps for his planned stud.

After a while he saved up enough for four cows and started building a herd.

His plan was to become a full-time stud breeder once he has completed his studies, but he soon realised his cattle operation does not generate enough income for him to make a living.

FROM FARM HAND TO MANAGER

His mother who was managing the grape pro-duction at that stage started involving him more and more in her activities. He, however, had to start at the bottom and work side-by-side with all the other labourers on the farm. “I was allo-cated a row of grapes and had to prune it, just like the rest of the workers.”

It was only later that Christoff became manager of the farming operation’s grape divi-sion and much later of the other crops. It was all part of a process and he had to work his way up from the grapes, which form the back-

bone of the enterprise.In 1995 Hendri and Petra started farm-

ing with three ha of grapes after Christoff’s grandfather, Mr Greg Schoonbee, a year earlier, started producing table grapes under shade netting on the neighbouring farm.

Christoff used what his mother taught him about manipulation and handling of grapes as basis and expanded on that by experimenting with new ideas.

He has, for example, now changed the entire pruning method on a block of Crimson grapes. One of the rules of the farm was that one is not allowed to remove vines in certain places, even if they don’t bare any fruit.

“A lot of those vines are infertile and the vines that spring from them will be infertile too,” Christoff says. That’s why he decided that any vine not carrying grapes must come off so that only the fertile vines remain. Through this he hopes to double the fertility of this block of grapes in a single year.

The enterprise produces 13 different table grape cultivars that ripen at different stages of the season. Most of these are pitless and in-cludes red, white and black grapes.

“We strive to have red and white cultivars that ripen at the same time when our main ex-port markets in the Far East, Europe and the UK are saturated. We then pack red and white grapes in the same punnet. It is highly popular and creates a market for our products in a diffi-cult time of the year.”

The farming enterprise handles its own ex-ports. Here Gert is in charge, he also handles the exports for a group of eight top table grape producers in the area while he runs the fleet of 12 trucks that transports the grapes to the port of Cape Town and the citrus to Durban.

“It is a privilege to work with my brother who handles the marketing and logistics and to have a father who encourages my new ideas and views. With people like them it is easy to solely focus on production and make prog-ress,” Christoff says.

BONSMARAS ARE HIS PASSION

Christoff says for him it is the meticulous perfor-mance testing and record keeping of the Bon-smara Breed Society, and the clear breed phi-losophy and direction of Prof. Jan Bonsma that makes the breed so attractive.

“I am a perfectionist. I like precision and the Bonsmara fit in very well with my views and personality,” he explains.

From the first four cows he bought as a student, he now boasts a herd of 150 cows that are rotationally serviced by his three herd sires.

His stud, Sebadja Bonsmaras, was registered in 2007 and is part of the Nu-Alcade Bonsmara Group which does its marketing and holds all its auctions as a collective.

“I believe that after the current drought cycle many farmers that have reduced their herds to get through, will be looking for cattle and then cattle prices will firm up again.”

He believes that game prices will stabilise and many farmers will then return to cattle.

HN Pieterse Boerdery also dab-bles in game on the 3000ha moun-tain farm, Diepkloof. They have a Nyala breeding project and Kudu, Impala and Blue Wildebeest are run extensively.

“In future we plan to harvest game for meat production.

This article was originally published in Landbouweekblad, 23 October 2015