New Modder farmers find passion in their work

The internet describes a farmer as someone who is engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials.

The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock.

Two youthful farmers, Ridhwaan Mohamed (22) and Muhammed Asmal (23), thoroughly enjoy what they do as they run their farm, Asmal Boerdery, in New Modder.

“We choose farming because it is a passion of ours that developed at a very young age due to our love for nature and animals,” said Ridhwaan.

“Farming brings you faith which in turn brings you passion, and that is how we met. The fact that we shared the same passion brought us together to run this farm.

“As a farmer, many challenges arise throughout the year followed by new challenges as the years go on.

“Currently, we are facing environmental issues such as global warming and the lack of rain has exasperated the drought.

“In addition we also face criminal challenges such as stock theft and funding because farming requires a lot of upfront capital investment,” explained Ridhwaan.

The Asmal Boerdery focuses mainly on their cattle farming, but also grow their own feed for the cattle.

“We grow meilies (corn) and use it to mill our own feed into maize for the cattle to ensure they have the best quality food, but our primary focus is cattle farming.

“We are certified Wagyu breeders and our Wagyu beef breeding programme consists of us breeding and feeding our own cattle.

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“We also have a small private abattoir (slaughter house), where we slaughter and supply quality A grade lamb as well as Wagyu and normal beef,” he said.

Asmal Boerdery has been around for eight years.

“The plot belongs to Muhammad’s dad and he let us use the land to start our farm. That’s how we came about, and being around as a farmer for eight years teaches you a lot.”

The fondest memory these two farmers share is when they bought their first Wagyu bull in 2012.

“Being as young as we are, not many people and other farmers take us seriously. We aren’t given the same respect, so purchasing our first Wagyu bull was definitely one for the books,” he explained.

Ridhwaan also explained that if you decide to become a farmer or are on your way to becoming one, make sure you do it properly from the start.

“Don’t ever compromise on quality and your passion has to be evident.

“Our passion drives us to get up at 2am if a cow is giving birth to assist in pulling the calf out. You will know if you have the passion for farming when you don’t mind the odd hours of having to run around to provide the best for your farm and animals.

“Start properly, we learnt the hard way and ended up losing a lot of money in the process. Just start properly, don’t rush and I promise it’ll be an amazing experience,” he concluded.

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