As the head of Oppie Plaas Boerdery, Dean Barnard, recipient of the Agri Western Cape Santam Young Farmer of the Year 2024 award, has faced numerous challenges, including the complexities of plum farming and the high costs of agricultural innovation. He shares his journey on our Farmer Mentor podcast series on Farmer’s Inside Track.
Every planting season, Dean Barnard, a fruit and hops farmer from George in the Western Cape, and his team begin the day with a ritual. They gather in a quiet circle and pray.
“We ask God to put his blessing on every plant. When we throw fertiliser or spray a chemical, I will always ask God to put his blessing on it,” he says.
Barnard has been farming alongside his father for the past 19 years. Their family farm, Oppie Plaas Boerdery, is one of only seven hops farms in Africa and South Africa, exclusively supplying Castle and Castle Lite. Some of their hops are also used in other beers and some even exported.
On their farm, faith and smart farming practices are key to their success. In addition to hops, the farm is home to large-framed plum trees. In 2023 they achieved a remarkable yield of nearly 100 tonnes per hectare.
He started farming alongside his father, Deon Barnard, 19 years ago but it wasn’t until 2019 that his father offered him the opportunity to buy into the farm.
“We started farming together, fifty-fifty. We try to do everything to the best of our ability and work with nature.
“Me and my dad have a very good working relationship. From a young age, he always taught us to work with nature and not against it. That is one of the biggest things I took with me when I took over.”
Transitioning into a leadership role on the farm was no easy feat for Barnard. In the beginning, it was hard for him to take over.
“You start wondering, are we going to make it or not? I also have responsibilities. All the loans have to be paid back, and maintenance needs to be done.”
Yet, through these challenges, he found strength in the support of his family.
Labour efficiency
On the plum side, Barnard has faced both financial and practical challenges. “If you look at the costs of planting a new block of plums, you’re looking at around R400 000 per hectare. Trees can cost up to R120 000 per hectare, depending on how wide your rows are.
“Construction can be up to R140 000, and irrigation R85 000. To prepare your soil can cost about R30 000.”
His innovative approach to farm management also extended to labour efficiency. About three years ago, he realised that it was costing him a lot of money for the workers to simply carry a ladder from one tree to the other.
“The amount of time spent moving ladders, pruning, and harvesting plums added up to about eight days a year. So, I invested in hedgers and started hedging the trees.
“What used to take four or five weeks with ten to twelve people, we now do with just three workers in ten days. This allowed me to reallocate those workers to other tasks on the farm,” Barnard explains.
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Faith in farming
Barnard also faced a severe drought shortly after taking over, and the first plum trees they planted eight years ago turned out to be of poor quality.
“The first five to six years were tough, with financial and quality issues. We had to remove two and a half hectares of those plums and plant new ones. But last year, after eight years, I finally got my first harvest.
“But two years ago, my father’s brother came to us and said he would pray for us. The next morning, he told us that God had instructed him to keep those plums. I’m glad we did.”
Amid these challenges, he found solace in his faith. They have a lot of baboons on the farm, and his dad read in the Bible about how God would protect their yield and harvests.
“Till this day, there have not been baboons in that field. They go to everything except for those plum fields.”
Listening to farmers
Reflecting on his experiences, he openly admits to mistakes he made along the way, especially with their plum production.
“The biggest mistake we made was planting the plums without conducting any trial blocks first. We should have tested a few blocks to see if they would thrive in our area, but we planted the trees without any trials beforehand.”
Being the only plum farmers in their region, Barnard realised the importance of practical knowledge over theoretical advice.
“We should have listened more to the farmers than the technical guys. This is because you always hear a true story from a farmer.”
The initial batch of trees they planted turned out to be sickly and in their desperation, they borrowed money to replace them. Unfortunately, the second batch wasn’t much better. “We planted them when we should have waited one year.”
To keep the farm running efficiently, Barnard implemented a rigorous financial management system. He maintains a three-year cash flow plan and checks his genuine costs against estimates every two months.
“This is how we look at what is going on and how we overspend. Every day we put in our hours per hops or plums, and I am able to tell you how many people we are using per day per year on the hops or plums.”
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