Algarve Trip. Just Some Continued Musings, Mostly About Cattle Ranchers and Their Cattle in Zimbabwe.
Thanks for the many messages wishing for the cats' return. Unfortunately, it still hasn’t. As time passes, we have less hope it will. In the meantime, we have been to the Algarve to check on a small property we have there earmarked for our later lives. As always, our good friends Jane Crossman née Hamp-Adams and her daughter Sofia, hosted us. Like her sister, Sally Sandeman, Jane's husband died in a light aircraft crash, and she reminded me, following last week's blog when I mentioned Paddy Fleming, that it was while attending Paddy’s birthday party at Hippo Camp in the Kafue National Park that Jane’s husband David’s fatal air accident occurred. It is amazing in life how many links join the people we share it with.
The intention is that the apartment will be our alternative rather than ending up in some state institution or private old folks’ home, an eventuality I would dread. As we all know, circumstances may eventually dictate otherwise, however much I'd like to dodge that particular bullet.
“Like many old people, it is not death I fear; rather, immobilisation, incontinence and dementia or Alzheimer's.” - Peter McSporran
Our plan is to move down there in about three or four years’ time when the garden here becomes too much to manage. It will also reduce our monthly costs. A house with a large garden in a rural area has huge benefits for us ex-farmer types, but it is a lot cheaper and less strenuous to live your final years out in a small flat. Less work, less expense and hopefully easier to make friends. Rozanne is younger than me, and being a woman, she will outlive me. I was thinking about my neighbouring peers from my farming days; all the males, bar one, have preceded their wives to whatever comes after death; in fact, many of the wives are still alive. We love our Portuguese neighbours, but they do not play bridge.
“Large houses are wonderful to attract friends and family for a visit and gardens give much joy through their blooms and the many insects, including bumble bees and butterflies along with the birds that feed on these and the fruit. However, as you age they become expensive burdens rather than sensible homes.” - Peter McSporran
Part of the attraction of renovating the apartment now is that we can apparently recover some of the costs through tax relief over the next three years. This is one of several new incentives Portugal has introduced in an effort to increase the availability of rental properties.
A very smart idea, in my view. I sometimes wonder why the UK government doesn’t come up with some equally innovative ideas. The Portuguese seem rather better at thinking outside the box when it comes to encouraging people to invest in property.
In the UK, however, the current government seems to have an attitude that owning land or running a business is almost a sin. Just this week, a government minister said a business owner was not a worker. That makes you wonder what they define as a worker. I ponder on what a self-employed, hard-working plumber or farmer feels about being described as a non-worker. For f@xk sake!! Landlords and employers are increasingly burdened with taxes, regulations, inspections and all manner of other requirements, invariably at the owner’s expense. There seems to be little consideration given to the time and effort involved in trying to comply with these often ridiculous rules. It hardly encourages investment or employment.
“God forbid if you worked hard and saved assiduously in the UK during your working life. What used to be considered sensible now seems to be a punishable offence, with the state trying to access what you have to fund those that never made the effort.” - Peter McSporran
Before I get into the next part of this blog, some strangers to Zimbabwe have asked me about the local cattle breeds, so I have decided to include photographs of the two most common ones: the Mashona and the Tuli.
Just before we headed off to the Algarve, Willie Robinson, who now lives in Australia but used to ranch in Matabeleland, called me. Willie and I have a habit of discussing all sorts of subjects during these calls, from land compensation to catching up on old and now past mutual acquaintances. His satirical take on compensation and other matters relating to Zimbabwe seems to get under many people's skin. I take them as they are, his views right or wrong. You don't always have to agree, even on serious subjects to remain friends. Vernon Nicolle and I certainly don't always agree, but we've remained friends.
We shared a mutual friend in the late Joe Whaley. I think just about everyone in Zimbabwe knew Joe Whaley! Willie and Joe were great friends, and Joe often visited Willie when he dropped his children off at Falcon College. Willie is planning to visit us next March, something to look forward to, as is the Rugby World Cup. I did not think I would see the last World Cup, and here I am looking forward to the next one. It is a year away; I don't look much beyond that, but the flat renovations may contradict that thought.
Willie ranched at Esigodini and recently sent me photographs of the original farmhouse, built in 1916, with his grandfather Leo living in a hut prior to this since 1903. Can you believe it? 1903! Willie himself lived in the same house, though his father renovated it in 1948. These are the sort of things that really get to me. Families had been established on some of these properties for well over a hundred years, yet were eventually uprooted and thrown off the land as though they had no right to be there in the first place. Shit, an illegal immigrant is granted leave to stay in the UK until his status is verified, while we had to get off our farms overnight. Even having citizenship by birth did not protect you because you were white, or if you were black and belonged to or supported another political party other than the ruling one. Those old farmhouses hold a tremendous amount of history, and we should not casually forget it.
Anyway, Willie pointed out that I had omitted a couple of cattle breeders in my recent piece on cattle breeding in Zimbabwe. He was quite right, and I thought it only fair to include them in my recollections. The first were Edward and Evelyn Rushmore of Spring Range, whom I knew very briefly when I first arrived in Rhodesia. They were prominent Hereford breeders, and at the time of my arrival, virtually every Hereford herd seemed to have a Spring Range bull or Spring Range blood somewhere in its pedigree. Evelyn was the daughter of an early Southern Rhodesia prime minister, 1933, George Mitchell, and sadly was murdered by ZIPRA terrorists when they attacked their homestead in 1977.
Edward subsequently passed away, and their daughter Barbara and her husband Peter Hubert took over the farm and continued the Spring Range Hereford name until they lost their farms during the invasions of our properties.
Another family we had discussed, but which I had also failed to mention in my blog, were the Rogers of Heany Junction, also Hereford breeders. Phil has obviously since left the farm, but he was a very vocal member of the Hereford Society. In the early 1980s, my father-in-law and Phil tried to introduce a new constitution for the Herefords to be included in the Zimbabwean Herd Book, rather than the South African Herd Book, where they had been registered until Independence in 1980. Phil was particularly outspoken and strong-minded about how he thought things should be organised. My father-in-law, Derek Belinsky, often told me how difficult it was to complete the exercise because of differences of opinion, or maybe intransigence would be a better description. Nevertheless, they eventually got there.
Phil’s brother Chris moved to Zambia, where we bumped into him on several occasions. Chris was a much more easygoing and amiable chap than his brother. He became involved in animal health in Zambia, and I believe he is still there today. He is also a very knowledgeable cattleman
The other pedigree cattle operation in Matabeleland I should have mentioned was Paul Goodwin’s Boomerang Stud. Boomerang was particularly well known for its Tuli and Afrikaner cattle, Paul being a stalwart of both breeds. I should have remembered that, as the Harveys and the Goodwins names were synonymous with the Tuli breed during my time in the country. Another well known Afrikaner breeder was Willemse, who unfortunately following a move up to our area outside Mount Hampden was murdered. A particularly sad end.
There is one other farmer I should mention, although he wasn’t a pedigree cattle breeder as such: Robert Beatty. Robert was a cattle rancher in our district in Mashonaland. Traditionally the ranching areas of Zimbabwe were the Lowveld, the Midlands and of course Matabeleland. These were regarded as Zimbabwe’s cattle ranching areas, while Mashonaland was predominantly cropping country, although virtually every farmer ran some cattle. Following UDI in 1965, Robert Beatty began buying up tobacco farms in our area which in the late 60s were very cheap. Many tobacco farmers, anticipating the consequences of sanctions and believing there was little future for them in the country, were selling for virtually nothing. You could buy an 800 hectare farm for the equivalent of US$30,000. Robert bought up a large number of them, many consolidated by being contiguous. Most of the farms he acquired were north of what was then the Banket-Salisbury Road, in our Nyabira area and further north, up to Concession. Many did not like his extensive cattle management methods but he was a success, so much so the good living from it contributed partly to his early death.
Talking of death, I also heard the same week Tony Leckie passed, Lance Perry also died. He was a confident rancher in the hills of the Great Dyke, hence many called him a ‘Hillbilly’ as further to living in isolation in the hills he was an eccentric character. Yes it could be said he was a bit different. They say in the old days he even organised sporting events such as cock fights. Perhaps this is just another of the myths that were built around his character.
Since I have been talking about commercial cattle producers, I should make it clear that I am not necessarily referring to pedigree breeders, although some of the names I mention were involved in pedigree cattle as well. They were, however, better known for their commercial ranching operations. The first name that comes to mind is George Moorcroft, from Shangani, Matabeleland. His family were the first importers of Hereford cattle into Southern Africa. When I first arrived in the country, he was reputed to be the best cattleman in Rhodesia. I had the pleasure of meeting him on a number of occasions and discussing cattle farming with him. He was certainly a man whose opinions were worth listening to.
Another well-known cattleman was Stan Schur, also from Fort Rixon, Matabeleland, an innovative rancher and a character of note in his own right. I got to know his son Harry quite well during my time at Oilseeds. Harry became convinced that castor beans were the answer to our fuel problems and established a business dedicated to their production. It was an interesting idea, particularly as castor could be grown by smallholders, but I don’t think the venture ever really got off the ground.
The Heyns family from the Cashel Valley also built up a substantial cattle empire. During the war, they took over farms belonging to people who abandoned them due to continuous terror attacks and cattle rustling. By the end of the war, they were reportedly the only farmers left in the Cashel Valley, which lies in the Eastern Highlands along the Mozambique border. It was a particularly troubled area during those years. John, also a strong character, took over from his father but unfortunately died in a fatal shooting accident. His wife, Suzie, is the present president of the Commercial Farmers Union. Her parents, Rob and June Elson, were the senior cattle stewards at the Harare Show for many years. Of course, there were the big ranchers in the south. Devuli Ranch was, at one stage, reputed to be the largest cattle ranch in the world at 750,000 acres, but I note there are much larger properties in Australia and South America. Several other highly regarded cattlemen operated in that part of the country. The Cawoods immediately come to mind, who ranched south of Devuli in Mwenezi. I will not mention the many corporate ranches, all run by renowned cattlemen, other than another friend of mine, David Tregold, who looked after the Oppenheimer ranching empire in Zimbabwe.
Finally, I would be amiss not to mention my first boss in Rhodesia. Although I was brought up with pedigree cattle, black ones, Hamish Smith, who was a master stockman, taught me a huge amount. Hamish was a pedigree Hereford stud and a commercial cross-Hereford herd breeder, both on Umzururu in Nyabira and on Portleteit Estate in Sinioa, as it was known then. He was also a renowned Ayrshire breeder and judge, and at the time of my arrival, Friesians, which would, over the years, transition into Holsteins.
Hamish was an International Judge, as was his son, Alistair, whom I had the privilege of watching judge Herefords at the Highland Show in Scotland, the premier agricultural show in the UK, with the demise of the Royal Show.
I mentioned the male's name, but as is common in farming, the wife is not just a homekeeper and childminder, but very much a partner in this business. I should say administration is hated by most farmers, and without his wife at his side, many a farmer would have no idea of his payments and receipts or, importantly, whether he was up to date with his statutory returns.
"I would dare to say if it were not for the womenfolk on the farm, many a pedigree cattle breeder would find his cattle did not comply with the requirements for registration." - Peter McSporran
Let us also not forget about the very successful lady ranchers, and three from the district of Wedza, yes, one district, come to mind immediately. First, Jenny Whaley, Joe’s stepmum, who bred and avidly showed pedigree Hereford cattle after her husband George died at the National Bull Sale in Harare. Also from Wedza: Natalie Seagar and Beth Bedford, both continuing to farm after their husbands were killed prematurely, one in a Police Reserve training incident in the 1960s, the other murdered by poachers.
I have not mentioned Borans, late arrivals on the scene through an importation of embryos from Kenya by Forrester Estates and Limosin, which gained favour by many by the 90s. Not my favourite as the first time they were shown at Harare Show, where I was stewarding their classes, one of Peter Horsman’s heifers flattened me, not just flattened me but drove me through the rails first. Despite that, I was known to give a Limousin the highest acclaim, that being a bull from the Livaditakis. They were also a major challenge for top honours in the fatstock classes with me putting them above the Charolais and other breeds on occasion.
Zimbabwe was therefore very well endowed with outstanding cattlemen. It was, after all, traditionally cattle country, that is what Rhodes wanted it for to feed the South African miners, and the beef industry was once one of the country’s great agricultural success stories. At one stage, we were exporting some 70,000 tonnes of beef to Europe, a remarkable achievement for a country of our size.
Sadly, following Independence, the industry gradually fell apart. The problems included a breakdown in law enforcement, inadequate control of foot-and-mouth disease and, particularly, the failure to enforce restrictions on the movement of cattle from red zones — areas affected by foot-and-mouth disease or wildlife — into the green zones, foot-and-mouth-disease-free.
Once those controls began to break down, the consequences were inevitable. The export industry suffered enormously and, as commercial farming contracted, much of the remaining cattle production became geared towards supplying the domestic market rather than the lucrative export trade.
It was a sad decline for what had once been a very successful cattle industry.
Disclaimer: Copyright ©️ Peter McSporran. This blog reflects my personal views and recollections, expressed in good faith. It does not represent any company or organisation, and references to others are not intended to cause offence or invade privacy.
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