Brahman breeder crafts progeny for future performance

Miles Dicke operates his Miles2Go Brahman Stud from Idlewild farm in the Kei Mouth area of the Eastern Cape. He spoke to Sabrina Dean about how he is using technology to improve the breed.

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Miles Dicke is a third-generation cattleman, having grown up in the family farming business in the Limpopo bushveld. He now runs his stud component, as well as a commercial cow and calf segment and an ox backgrounding system, in Kei Mouth in the Eastern Cape. There is ample rainfall and a temperate frost-free climate that facilitates two breeding seasons per year.

He first left the farm in Limpopo to study agriculture at the University of the Free State in the mid 90s, and after completing his B Agric degree in 1997, he took a 'gap year' with a difference.

The trend in those days, he remembers, was for youngsters to go to places like London, England, where they would work in security or some type of services industry. Dicke instead took his gap year on cattle ranches in Texas in the US.

"My father had organised a type of internship for me. This was a time before cell phones, so I arrived there with no idea who I was meeting or where I was going." He began working at a Brahman ranch and settled in well. He ended up staying in the US for two years, during which time he gained experience on three different ranches.

This phase was an important part of cementing the breed he had grown up with as the breed of choice for his future endeavours.

"I had grown up with Brahmans, so I knew them. It was already an easy sell, so to speak... but it [my time in Texas] really made me realise how unique the cattle are and how Brahmans, or Zebu types, define the beef industry in the world."

He says Zebu-type cattle are the most prolific in the world, with some of the core traits that set them apart including adaptability, disease resistance and heat tolerance.

"That is what has made them what they are," says Dicke.

TRADING THE BUSHVELD FOR THE COAST