Game farming makes a bankable enterprise

Wildlife beats conventional stock hands down with their non-selective feeding habits, according to a well-known sheep breeder.

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Wildlife beats conventional stock hands down with their non-selective feeding habits, according to a well-known sheep breeder.

What started as a dream to restore his patch of nature to its former glory, turned out to be a profitable enterprise for sheep breeder Koos van Eeden.

Gemsbok, eland and kudu are now roaming the mountains on his Namaqualand farm and beating their domesticated counterparts to the bank – and, hopefully into oblivion if he has his way.

As a youngster, Van Eeden, now in his 60s, of Klipfontein Farm near Bitterfontein in the Western Cape, saw gemsbok and springbok horns lying about the veld when on his regular wanderings.

He imagined how the veld must have once looked. The fantasies were fuelled by the stories his mother told about springbok herds of 700 strong, which he, as a child, saw running past. These animals knew instinctively that new grazing would follow the lightning flashes and rain.

Those were the days before a network of fences and roads were built to keep what was “yours in and nature out”, says Van Eeden. And the vegetation suffered accordingly.