Favouring quality over quantity on a small piece oF land

The Patience family started farming on 95ha of rented land in Saron in the Western Cape in the 1960s, beginning with just 10 sheep and a handful of cattle. Today, Therecia Patience and her son, Gary, are on the same land, and are systematically improving the genetics of their Dohne Merino sheep. They spoke to Jeandré van der Walt about their successful operation.

- Jeandre van der Walt

“Over five decades ago, my late father-in-law, Japie Patience, started farming 10 Ile de France sheep on a 95ha piece of rented commonage land in Saron, near Porterville. He also had a few calves that he bought from dairy farmers in the area,” recalls Therecia Patience.

She took over the farm in 1989. “At that stage, I was a housewife, while my husband worked as a teacher. I was the only one who had time to attend to the farm.”

Her son Gary, an agricultural engineer, officially joined her in 2017. However, he had been involved in the family’s farming operation from a young age and regularly assisted his mother in some of the farming decisions.

“Although I wanted to farm after finishing high school, my father advised me to study towards a tertiary qualification so that I’d have something to fall back on should farming not work out,” he says. From the start, the family steadily expanded their livestock component. By 2002, however, they had reached the maximum carrying capacity of the farm.

“We couldn’t expand horizontally anymore, so we started to shift our focus from quantity to quality,” explains Therecia.

A SINGLE BREED

At that stage, they owned a variety of sheep breeds, ranging from the Ile de France to the Dorper. Determined to improve production, they realised they had to focus their attention on one breed.

“We looked at which would fit best in our area, as well as which breed’s input costs were the lowest. Based on our findings, we decided on the dual-purpose Dohne Merino breed,” says Therecia.

Today, their sheep component comprises 250 breeding ewes and 16 rams.