Farmers, bankers, conservationists (part 3)

Some of the labour practices on the farm are commendably pragmatic. For example, when a very hot day is forecaste, work begins earlier than normal, and once the assigned tasks are completed the staff go home (this in the late morning!) to avoid the heat.

 A waste management/recycling programme is run with spinoffs for the labour force (a funeral had been paid for from these funds a few days earlier).  

When used, agrochemicals are applied manually for targeted and effective application. Spraying from the air (by airplane or helicopter) can have unintended consequences on beneficial insects like bees and spiders. In addition to sugarcane, Treetops runs a beekeeping operation.  We heard about various other aspects of operations at the farm, and files showing the paperwork behind the operation were made available to us – training, fertilizer, diesel and so on.

Jessica Cockburn (centre) and extension officer Paul Botha introduced SUSFARMS, the Sustainable Sugarcane Farm Management System designed by the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) and funded by the WWF. This simple but thorough user guide takes the farmer through a check list of better management practices (BMPs). A farmer using SUSFARMS will find he has complied with legislation whilst maintaining high social, economic and environmental standards.  We set off in convoy to witness some of the features of this farm operation that had won it the Nedbank Sustainable Farm Award in 2014.  

Roy McGladdery (right) demonstrated how vegetated waterways look after the soil. Trees are also being planted in the waterways to provide shelter from the sun and to encourage birdlife. The 12 checks for waterways in SUSFARMS include: they are not used as roads or paths; they allow the free flow of surface water; they are sited at the lowest point of selected natural depressions, and; they have been planted with a creeping grass suitable to the area. 

After one or two more stops on the farm, I looked around and noticed that the magic and inspiration of it all had cast a glow over everyone. One of the Nedbank staff, doing studies in ethics, spoke jubilantly about how she had found a subject for a thesis – to do with labour relations on this farm. McGladdery doesn’t look the type who smiles gratuitously but by this time he was all smiles, basking in the joy of sharing with us a farming operation which simply makes such common sense!

There was no immediate rush when all was over, even though there were flights to be caught. People gathered in twos and threes, or in larger groups around McGladdery or the team leaders, content to wait for a while longer before the trips home to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria – wherever – began.