Crops Potatoes
CULTIVARS
Genade Boerdery is part of a
potato-growing consortium
administered by the agribusiness
GWK; members of the consortium
have to adhere to strict production
criteria. During Farmer’s Weekly’s
visit, Johann Botes, potato
marketer at GWK, was also
on hand to explain technical
aspects of potato production.
Bruwer currently plants three
cultivars: Taisiya, Up-To-Date
and Lanorma. He and Botes are
particularly enthusiastic about
Lanorma, an excellent ‘all-rounder’
suitable for cooking or mashed
potato, with processors such as
McCain also favouring it for chips.
“Lanorma isn’t really a
processing potato as it doesn’t
have high dry matter content,
but it makes great chips, so the
processors like to use it. It crisps
very quickly on the outside,
which means it doesn’t absorb
so much oil,” explains Botes.
For Bruwer, the benefits of
the cultivar include greater
resistance to disease, as well as
high yields of as much as 80t/ha.
“It’s also a very white
potato with a pleasing white
skin finish,” he says.
The Taisiya variety has
cream to yellow flesh and a
more yellow skin finish.
“It has a lovely skin finish
after washing, so many retail
shops like it as a pre-pack potato.G
erhard Bruwer plants
his potatoes only in
virgin soil, and his
intention is never to plant
any piece of land to potatoes
more than once in his life.
“If you look out across
this bush, where it extends
beyond those koppies, that is
all virgin land that will be
cleared for planting over the
next 30 years,” he says.
One of the major reasons for
this approach is that as a seed
potato producer, he needs to
guard against the risk of disease.GENADE BOERDERY
Bruwer farms with his father,
Vickie, and his two brothers,
Hannes and Vickie Jnr, in
the Pixley ka Seme District
Municipality in Northern Cape.
The business is spread across
three farms, with Gerhard
based near Douglas, Hannes
near Hopetown and Vickie
Jnr near Schmidtsdrift. Vickie
oversees the entire operation.
The Bruwers, who are
primarily irrigation farmers,
produce yellow maize, popcorn,
waxy maize (used to make
maize flour), wheat, barley,
groundnuts, cotton, lucerne,
onions, potatoes and pecans.
There is also a cattle component
of commercial Bonsmaras,
which is run symbiotically with
the cropping component.
Genade Boerdery employs
11 managers and about
120 permanent staff, as well
as providing seasonal contract
work to about 200 people over
the three months during which
the potatoes are harvested.The potato enterprise comprises
only 5% of the Bruwers’ cropping
activities, but contributes
approximately 15% of turnover.
However, the crop has by far
the highest input costs.
“These include market
commissions, transport to
market, labour and so on, so
you’re looking at R200 000/ ha,”
explains Bruwer.
Other costs include water and
electricity, seed, chemicals and
fertiliser, and mechanisation.Bruwer says the high input
cost is one reason he plants
more than just potatoes.
“Potatoes and pecans are my
most profitable crops. Potatoes
are high risk, but high reward.
That’s why I diversify; it’s good
for my rotational system, but also
to protect me if there’s trouble.”
Turning to the benefits of
rotation, he says that any crop
can do well on a land previously
planted to potatoes, as potatoes
do not utilise fertiliser effectively.
A farmer therefore needs to
apply a large quantity to ensure
the plants absorb enough, which
means that much fertiliser
remains unused in the soil.
“For the next three years after
the potato crop, the soil remains
well fertilised,” he says.Potato production is a high-risk, high-reward industry. Farming
seed potatoes is even more so. Sabrina Dean visited Gerhard
Bruwer of Genade Boerdery in the Northern Cape to find out
more about this component of the family farming operation.
‘ W E S PR AY
MAINLY FOR LIcE
tO KEEP vIR uSES
At BAY, AND FOR
RuSt cAuSED
BY F uNgI’
Once-in-a-lifetime
potato planning
40 farmer’sweekly 2 August 2019Fast Facts
- Gerhard Bruwer plants three
potato cultivars: Lanorma,
taisiya and Up-to-Date. - the potatoes comprise 5% of
his total cropping activities. - His spray programme includes
fungicides, insecticides, herbicides
and leaf nutrition products.