THE FERTILITY FACTOR IN MOHAIR SUCCESS

Eastern Cape mohair producer Paul Webber has twice won the prestigious Daidoh Trophy Competition for the highest average price for a summer kid clip. Mike Burgess visited him recently on his farm to better understand his mohair production system.

- Mike Burgess

Paul Webber can look back on a memorable 2019 mohair season. He not only achieved the highest price of R621/kg for a bale of 24-micron good-style kid mohair in April, but ended up being awarded the Daidoh Trophy for the highest average price for a summer kid clip. Having won the same trophy in 2014 and being runner-up in 2015, it is safe to say that Webber is producing some of the most sought-after mohair in South Africa.

FAMILY FARM

Webber runs a mixed livestock operation on his 3 980ha Connaught property near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape: 700 fertile Angora ewes share resources with 350 Dorper/Meatmaster ewes and 50 Bonsmara-type cows.

He is the seventh generation of his family to live in the Grahamstown region. His late father, Neil, who contracted polio as a child, farmed an 800ha farm, while his uncle, Brian, farmed Connaught from the mid-1960s.

Webber attended Winterberg Agricultural High School in Fort Beaufort, where he matriculated in 1985 before completing two years of military service. He then returned to Grahamstown and assisted his father for a couple of years before accepting a managerial position on a Western Cape fruit farm.

In 1995, Brian invited him to join him on Connaught, where Angoras had become a central pillar of the farming operation. The two agreed to a 50/50 partnership and farmed successfully together until Brian’s death in 2018.

Webber has continued on Connaught and says that his uncle’s legacy lives on not only through the Angoras, but also in terms of what he taught him in relation to financial management and animal husbandry.

“He was careful with his money and had a saying that one should never spend more than one earns. He also insisted on not putting stress on animals, and believed that calm animals were more productive.”