Around 10 years ago, Eugene van der Walt was out on a weekend away with friends. It was during this outing that one of his farmer friends, Charl Uys, invited him to visit their cattle farm.
“When I arrived on the farm late that afternoon, I saw these beautiful Bonsmara bulls in the kraal. I asked him, ‘How did you get to this? And [I said,] ‘This is so beautiful.’
The next morning, he collected probably a herd of 300 of them, and I thought, ‘This is something that I would want to do for the rest of my life.’”
Van der Walt’s infatuation with the cattle became a full-blown passion, and within four years, he had purchased his own animals.
Journey into cattle farming
By trade, Van der Walt has a supply chain management qualification. His day job includes inventory control, reverse logistics and many other things in that line. When he decided to start farming, he did as much research as he could.
“I was reading up about cattle farming and what I should and shouldn’t do. But the problem is [that I need to] have land or grazing for this cattle.
“Because I was working at the time, [I asked myself] ‘How am I going to manage this?’ and ‘who’s going to look after this for me?’ and ‘who’s going to help me?’ I don’t come from a farming background at all.”
To get a foot into the farming door, Van der Walt attended multiple auctions and spoke to prominent people in the Bonsmara industry.
“I got to know and help them, and then one day the opportunity arose from a guy in the Free State who had some heifers for sale, which at that time weren’t too expensive.”
Like with most people in the farming industry, Van der Walt’s journey was not all smooth sailing. He entered into a partnership with someone who ended up overcharging him for the animal feed. The partnership ended, but it pushed him into doing even more research around animal nutrition.
“I started investigating by asking other people. ‘How much lick do you give your cattle, and what do you do? What is your inoculation programme? How do you do things?’ And people started making me clever and teaching me what to do and how to do things. So, I learned in a very, very difficult way, and I’ve lost a lot of money. But through all those trials and tribulations, I was still able to pay school fees. Back then, I only had 20 animals. Today … I’ve got over 150 cattle.”
The Voermol difference
Van der Walt has been using Voermol products for his animals for the last four years. He was first introduced to the Voermol products by Paul Mare, a Bonsmara farmer in Viljoenskroon.
“One day I went to him [because] I wanted to learn how to dehorn my baby calves. And so, there was an assistant farmer who helped him, and I actually had to go with this elderly man to go and dehorn these babies.
“And on the back of the bakkie there was this load of premix 450 and there was some other stuff as well and I asked him, ‘Why do you give the cattle these things?’ And he said to me ‘Eugene, if I don’t give my cattle these things, I can stop farming.’”
Mare told him that the products provided much-needed nutrients for his animals, and urged him to give the products a try.
Van der Walt was sceptical at first because he needed to fund the feed out of his salary, but Mare advised him to try buying the feed in smaller chunks and feed it to his animals over a year-long period. “He said, ‘You’re going to come back and tell me this was the best, and true as God, that was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Van der Walt uses Voermol Rumevite 12P with salt as a winter lick. Rumervite 12P is a mineral lick concentrate added to the troughs of animals feeding on green pastures.
The lick is meant to aid production and can be fed continuously to dairy cows, although it is suitable for any type of ruminant animal. The product is high in minerals like manganese, iron and zinc.
He also swears by the popular Voermol Premix 450, a cost-effective maintenance lick for cattle that is ready to mix and stimulates intake and digestion of dry roughage.
Premix 450 gives animals their required protein, minerals and vitamins, thus ensuring that the micro-organisms in the cattle are stimulated.
“I will never ever, ever deviate from [those products]. My cattle, up until now, are on very mixed, sour and sweet grazing. I went there [recently] and there are cows that you will never even say went through the winter. Never, ever have I had my cattle in such good condition.”
For Van der Walt, it is not only the improved condition of his animals that keeps him using Voermol, but also the increase in his animal production.
“It pushed up calf percentage quite drastically. I can see that my cattle are stronger – way [stronger than] before. Back then, if you had to [touch their coats], your hand would be full hair and I couldn’t understand why it was happening. I started to feed them a lick, and I’m telling you, I will never ever look back. Never.”
ALSO READ: This farmer learned a tough lesson in cattle nutrition
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