Farmworker's Son Becomes Brangus Stud Breeder

Nkosemntu Nika, who farms in the Winterberg near Tarkastad in the Eastern Cape, is the first black Eastern Cape farmer to become a Brangus stud breeder. Mike Burgess spoke to him about his journey from farmworker’s son to the sale of his first ZK Brangus stud bull for R50 000 at the 2018 East Cape Brangus Sale.

- Mike Burgess

“Meat Wagon (ZK 15 41) was the first stud bull I sold to introduce myself to the market,” says Nkosemntu Nika (62) of the 1 980ha farm, Fairfield.

The farm is less than 10km away from the King family farm, Highland Home, where Nika’s father, Mtinteli, worked as a stockman for the late Jim and Noreen King. And it was at Highland Home where Nika spent his early childhood before leaving for schooling in Tarkastad and then Lady Frere.

“During holidays I’d be back with my father amongst the cattle,” he says. “I got interested in livestock that way.”

Today, his association with the Kings continues in the form of Jim and Noreen’s son and grandson, Barry and Llewellyn, owners of the Bottelgat Black Brangus Stud. They provide Brangus genetics and advice to Nika, who farms 220 black and red Brangus breeding cows, of which 80 are registered stud cows.

FROM THE FARM TO THE CITY, AND BACK

Nika’s journey to stud breeder was by no means straightforward. He spent more than 35 years in the corporate world before returning to his own Winterberg livestock farm in 2012.

The foundation of his career in the city was laid by an excellent education at a farm school in the Winterberg, which eventually resulted in a chartered accounting qualification in 1987. The school’s strong focus on mathematics changed the trajectory of Nika’s life. By the time he arrived at a Tarkastad township school in Grade 5 and then later at the Freemantle Boys’ High School near Lady Frere in the former Transkei, he was able to blossom, and it wasn’t surprising that he earned a matric with university exemption. Disappointingly, there were no funds to attend university, so Nika’s father approached the Kings, who arranged funding for a BCom at the University of Fort Hare in the former Ciskei.