FARMERS’ DIARIES

SUNFLOWERS

Abram Motswai, Legonyane, Brits, North West

We are planting sunflower on virgin lands that were de-bushed a few weeks ago. This is communal land, so we’re erecting an electric fence to stop cattle from getting in. Livestock breaking into planted lands on communal ground is a big problem and sometimes a regular fence isn’t enough to keep animals out. So we’ve decided to put up additional electric lines, which we will keep live for the duration of the production season.

Our planting window lasts until the end of January, but we aim to be finished by the end of the first week in January. We’ve had some good rain and land preparation has already started. Because we have just de-bushed, we had to deep-rip to remove roots and loosen the soil. After that we disc and make the