SA farmer on the moooove

PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - With a passion for farming and good work ethic, a young Plettenberg Bay assistant farm manager has secured an opportunity of a lifetime.

Wandile Cumalo, who has been working for the Cairnbrogie Dairy Farm, left this week for New Zealand's green pastures where he will gain valuable dairy farm experience as part of an internship programme.

The 30-year-old's success story started late in 2012. "A gentleman from Knysna, Alfred Cumalo, started phoning me every week. He was asking for a student experiential training position for his son Wandile who was studying at Tshwane University of Technology in animal studies. I didn't have anything available and accommodation was a big problem. He continued to phone and eventually drove from Knysna to see me and I asked for Wandile's CV," Cairnbrogie's Andrew Hill said.

After meeting with the young avid farmer, Hill and his team saw something special in him and, with the management team, decided to give Cumalo a shot.

He arrived on the farm in March 2013 for what was to be a period of six months' experiential training, but his "work ethic, honesty and care for our animals" shone to such an extent that the team decided to offer him a permanent position as an assistant manager at Cairnbrogie.

Hill explained that Cairnbrogie was one of the founding farms of Amadlelo Agri in the Eastern Cape. This is an initiative to empower and train previously disadvantaged individuals in dairy farming with the aim of opening commercial community dairies. Amadlelo Agri is one of the current success stories of land reform and black-empowered agriculture.

"As I was part of Amadlelo an opportunity came up through the initiative to send intern students to New Zealand to live and work on a dairy farm and to gain valuable experience from some of the best dairy farmers in the world.

Wandile was interviewed in early 2018 as a vacancy had arisen, but unfortunately he could not get a visa in time to take up the position. This year we got going early and Wandile left on his year-long adventure to the land of the long white cloud this week," said Hill.

He is set to return to his job in Plett in June 2020 and bring a wealth of experience from New Zealand, and he is expected to climb the management ladder of Cairnbrogie.

"It is such a great story of perseverance and ambition which is wonderful to see in farming in general."

Cumalo said he is over the moon about the opportunity. While he does not come from a family of farmers, he always knew he had a passion for agriculture. "I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a farmer," Cumalo said. He said he believed the internship would take him out of his comfort zone and push him towards success.

While he has enjoyed the support from his own family, he said he was incredibly thankful for the "family" he made at Cairnbrogie.

Wandile Cumalo and Andrew Hill at Cairnbrogie Farm in Plettenberg Bay. Photo: Supplied