AGRICULTURAL NEWS - The past two seasons will go down as the most challenging that many pome fruit producers have ever experienced in the Ceres Valley.
They had to cope with depleted dams, less than half their annual rainfall, and devastating heatwaves.
Despite this, Retief du Toit, who farms on Bokveldskoof in the Koue Bokkeveld and Lorraine in the Warm Bokkeveld, managed to produce his biggest harvests ever.
The long-term production average for each of his farms is around 6 800t/ year, but he produced 7 693t of apples in 2016, and 7 730t during the past season.
Retief, who is a member of the ZZ2 group, acknowledges that he was fortunate enough to have access to as much water as he uses during a normal year, but said it was far more difficult to maintain optimal soil moisture levels because of the dry conditions.
