Rum brings rewards for KZN cane producer

Heart, soul and spirit: all of these can be found in spades on Seafield Farm, a family-run sugar cane concern in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Owner Brad O’Neill spoke to Susan Marais about how innovation in the form of rum distillation is helping his business rise above the sugar cane crisis, while regenerative farming methods are keeping the farm’s already fertile, high-quality soil in peak condition.

- Susan Marais

FAST FACTS

Regenerative farming methods have made the soil on Seafield Farm resilient, and the land is able to recover fairly quickly from both drought and flooding.

After eradicating the sugar cane stool, Brad O’Neill plants green manure crops, as they put plenty of organic matter back into the soil, ready for the next cane planting.

Only a small percentage of the farm’s sugar cane is used in the production of rum; most of it is sent to a sugar mill.

As the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Better yet, when you inherit a sugar cane farm, make rum! And that’s exactly what second-generation farmer Brad O’Neill and his wife Marisa are doing at the Sugar Baron Craft Distillery on their family’s farm, Seafield, on the outskirts of Richmond in KwaZulu-Natal.

O’Neill’s father, Roger, bought the farm in 1993, and at that stage the exceptionally fertile land was being used for a mixed farming operation, where Jersey cattle, pigs, sugar cane and timber had been farmed for the previous 49 years. Over time, he converted it into a 100% sugar cane business.

The farm is between 930m and 950m above sea level and covers 293ha, of which 210ha are under sugar cane. The remaining 83ha are taken up by the valley floor, and 40ha of those are utilised as a game reserve, where the family keeps wildebeest, blesbok and zebra.

“We don’t earn an income from the game, but it’s nice to have these animals around,” says O’Neill.

FERTILE LAND