Game plus cane proves to be a winning formula

Tania Sandberg visited Neil Hampson, a KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) cane farmer who successfully diversified into game, and found out how he cut costs and worked together with neighbouring farmers to create a viable venture.

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Giraffes are the last thing you would expect to see in the middle of the cane-growing region in southern KZN. But merely half an hour's drive from the South Coast, cane farmer Hampson has expanded the sugar cane business on his farm to include the GwaHumbe Game Reserve.

As a hunter with an intense love for the bush, Hampson’s dream has been to own a game farm. He now believes that game and cane are a winning combination, as the one complements the other in numerous ways.

As we take a trip on the 4x4 track on the farm, the success of the unusual combination speaks for itself. Hampson points out the cane cutters, who are digging a trench, and explains that the workers will soon move over to the reserve to remove weeds.

Chromolaena and wattle create a problem on the game side, but in December, when the cane-cutting season is over, the cutters move over to work their magic on the wattle.

"If it's cut too soon, it will come back, but if we wait until it's about 1m high and we just hack it, it dies," Hampson explains.