AfPride Farming Solutions

TEXTBOOK FARMING

There are a lot of unsaid and unwritten laws that people tend to follow. There also written documents with a lot of misleading information. Some of the information we get is actually true, but if not adapted well and applied accordingly to suit your circumstances, it might do more harm than good.
Farming is a practical thing. Meaning, you have to look at the practicality side of things. Some things, ideas of knowledge, no matter how good they sound. They may not be practical.

Let's look at some of the instances where we need to be practical, and drop the textbook farming mentality

1.
The issue of cropping calendar has left a lot of people crying. This is when people follow a general guideline on weather patterns without looking at specific patterns in their area.
Frost attacks vary with each area... Some areas experience frost early, some late. Some areas experience light frost whilst some areas suffer heavy frost and some dont even get the frost spells.
People in wetlands, closer to rivers and dams might experience frost whilts someone in the same region or ward just few kilometers aways doesn't.
The calendar is just a general guideline, but you still have to deeply look at the weather pattern of your area so that you can plan accordingly and create your own calendar that suits you and your area.

2.
Another example is, textbook farming when some literature says "you need 50kg bag of basal fertilizer"
This wont say anything about the actual fertilizer, your soil test results, this wont tell you about your soil water holding capacity, and as a result, leaching tendencies of your soil. This wont tell your about how it might possibly rain in your area and wash away the fertilizer that you applied thus nullifying the whole procces.
Some fertilizer labels will be telling you of foliar applications, but they might not tell you about how you must stop using some type of chemicals that might be necessary for your production.. Some chemicals that you definitely have to use because of your production models, eg copper oxychloride do not do well with fertilizers that contain zinc. In the end spraying both will render both the fertilizer and the chemical ineffective resulting in direct and indirect losses .
But you would have followed instructions, didn't you????? !!! The instructions were correct but not suitable for you.

3.
There is no law that say Shadenets structures must be anchored by tyres.. Imagine the bulkiness of tyres and having to transport them to your farm 300km away.
If accessible and easy to deliver them to the farm.. Then yes use them. But if it is financially tough and logistically impossible, then other ways can be put into place. By just understanding the basic working principle of an anchor, you can realise that you have a lot of options at your disposal. All you have to do is find the option that suits your situation most.

4.
There is no law that says 1ha drip irrigation must be split into 4 blocks.. Why not 6, 8 or 10 if need be.? The scale at which you are producing each crop can tell you to do 10 blocks to avoid planting 2 different crops in one block, planting different crops in one block so will complicate your irrigation and fertigation process as they will have different water and nutrients needs and resulting in direct and indirect losses. So despite benchmarking at someone with 50 by 50 blocks in 1ha, if your production requires you to do 50 by25m blocks. Do so!! Dont just copy and paste.

5.
There is no law that says 1ha is 100m by 100m.. No!!! 1ha is 10 000m². So, if need be it can be 200m by 50m... Its still 1ha. Maybe you are avoiding a certain area that might be problematic to your production, maybe you want to allow accessibility. If your target is 1ha, then get your 10 000m² despite the measurements

Farming is a business that requires you to be INNOVATIVE, VERSATILE AND ALWAYS THINK ON YOUR FEET.
Without those attributes, you will go to every successful farm to benchmark but still find yourself in the same position.
Go out there and benchmark, come back and adapt those ideas and standards to suit you, your pocket, your budget, your production model, your weather patterns, soil type, workforce etc..

To sum it up, you can be more successful by benchmarking AND THEN adapting those standards, systems and ideas to suit YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, ENVIRONMENT, CAPABILITIES, BUDGET, NEEDS, MARKET, ETC.

Copy and paste will result in "i did exactly what you said but it didn't give the same results as yours"

Wish you the best
Until next time
Im out
PRIDE!!!!!
72 650 987

We supply and install neat, strong and durable shadenet structures.

We assist farmers trying to get funding through I.A.S.

Call app 72 650 987