It Ain’t Easy and Two New Investments to Worry About.
When writing a blog, it is not always possible to please everyone with what you recall from memory; sometimes they differ from others' views or perspectives and can even be influenced by emotion, historical or the present. Recall is a very personal thing, restricted by one's own views and recollections of events and feelings at the time. Sometimes facts can be verified by others, even with the use of AI nowadays, but on other occasions, some will always differ in others' eyes. This is a given, as we all view the world from our own personal perspectives. Once again today, Monday, I read Doug McClymount’s latest recollections of his life, people, and events. So interesting; I never question the accuracy, as that is not as important as the gist and understanding of how he led his life and how he interacted with other people, friend or foe. Often, his perspective on people differs from mine because we look at them from different viewpoints and have had different relationships, be it friendship or business.
As I say in my disclaimer, the views and recollections I write about are my own. I do not wish to cause offence, although in some cases offences may be taken. I have learnt that offence can be caused in many ways; in fact, I have been called offensive by many, but it is normally in a humorous manner. So, just to reiterate, I apologise if I have inadvertently offended anyone, but I will continue to recall things as I see them now.
Funnily enough, in my personal life, the most offence was often taken in the cattle show ring. One of the actions that used to cause this was when, as a judge, I would remove a number of animals from a large class, reducing it to only those I thought were good enough to earn a place. Those who were most offended were not interested in the fact that the animal had obvious faults which made their elimination easier. In the fat ring, it could even be the scale (incorrect weight) that would eliminate them, but offence could still be taken. I have also found that, in life, I was inclined to reject offers of friendship from people I deemed unsuitable to befriend, who I found obnoxious, or whose views were so divergent and strong that they would lead to acrimonious arguments in future conversations. Rejecting them early saves a huge amount of time spent trying to be falsely nice and reduces the need to grit one's teeth. Nine times out of ten I have found first impressions to be correct, although I do admit that on a handful of occasions a person has proven to me that my first assessment was wrong. In old age I have learnt to become more tolerant, but it ain’t easy.
“It ain’t easy to be nice to people you naturally dislike, rationally or irrationally, especially those with whom you have nothing in common. It's equally hard to tolerate the company of someone you do not trust. Unfortunately, it seems this may not be the case in old age, as you have to become more tolerant, at least outwardly. In other words, you have to learn to bury your natural biases.” - Peter McSporran
Funnily enough, here in Portugal I have made friends with people whose language I have trouble understanding, but yet they have still become loyal and trusted friends. This is evident in their actions and in the warmth of their greetings every time we meet. It sort of reminds me of my friend and ex-farming neighbour, Des Brooke-Jackson, who, late at night, would lean on my bar at Diandra after a crate of beer and utter the odd monosyllable that I barely understood, but was someone I trusted and was honoured to call a good friend. Just for the record, when I would ask him what I considered a serious question about farming or some other subject, at one point his favourite and only retort would be, “Who cares?” This would ensue another half hour of silence before I ventured to ask another question. Towards the end of an evening session, four questions and his two-word answers could take at least two hours.
What also was not easy was starting to farm in Zambia; our ambitions were outstripping our capabilities, especially our limited financial resources, which were mainly provided by the bank and tobacco companies. Even as I said earlier, at that early stage in moving to Zambia, our main sponsor, Universal Leaf Africa, was getting cold feet about our scheme and was much more excited and focused on their own scheme in the Choma-Kalomo areas of South West Zambia. Partly, I fear, as their senior representatives in Africa saw more personal benefit from that scheme than from one protected by an agreement and involving other parties, including a bank. Our saving grace was that Dave Bradshaw was brought in to run their scheme and oversee ours. Dave, having run the tenant farming scheme in Zimbabwe, knew the challenges of farming start-ups and had a much more sympathetic ear than those with little understanding of tobacco production or any farming for that matter. The best way to describe Dave was that he was the farmers' friend, certainly not your normal corporate minion. The first disaster in our own farming enterprise in our second year was that our early irrigated seed beds failed because the seed I had purchased for the early crop turned out to be burley tobacco seed, not Virginia tobacco seed, which I bought in good faith in Zambia. So once again we had to return to Terry Toms at Sunshine Seedlings to provide seedlings. Not ideal, and heat damage always occurred in transport, reducing the young plants viability. No fault of Terry’s; in fact, without his help, it would have been the end of our farming endeavours in that country. Then, not long into the crop's curing, we had a barn fire in one of our forced-air curing systems. When told the news, I just could not believe it, as the heat source has hot water, not even a heat exchanger. I had used forced-air systems, as had my immediate neighbours, John Gordon, Des Bruk-Jackson and Ian Gordon, since I arrived in Darwendale. That was for some twenty-five years without one fire in our multiple forced-air curing systems.
The manager for the affected section, George Botha, was very proficient and attentive, so I can only put it down to an open flame somehow being introduced into the air duct or directly into dried tobacco awaiting removal. No accident, I suspected but how could you prove it, and who? A huge loss, although insured, meant we lost the use of an entire section's curing facilities for several weeks while we carried out repairs. Meanwhile, the dam, land-clearing, and curing facilities, partly due to the strengthening Rand against the US$, incurred substantial overruns. I was becoming stressed, but despite this I continued to look at other ventures.
In reading this again, I realised that non-tobacco farmers would not have a clue what I was talking about when I was referring to curing flue cured tobacco. Named flue cured, or Vircinia, as the tobacco was heated by using flues. Flues are generally metal or even brick ducts carrying the smoke and heat from a furnace in the barn's chimney and, in the process, heat the barn. This method, as it is inefficent in fuel usage and high in labour costs, is being replaced with forced air systems, which ia almost fully automated from the time you put coal in the stocker. Traditional barns, as they were called, were prone to fires, if tobacco fell on tthe flues or funrance would burst into flames in a very short period, while barn fires in forced air systems are very rare. I have now included a picture of a traditional flue curing barn and a very rough sketch of a forced air system, which has the heat source outside the barn and the heat introduced into the ban by fans by means of ducts, hence the name forced air.
Maybe that will help you understand the difference and terms.
One day while on the farm, Duncan Owen, who was by then a senior manager at AFGRI, suggested to me that we set up a crop harvesting and spraying company at Mpongwe, which belonged to the Commonwealth Development Company (CDC) and had run into difficulties with the Australian contractors, who did the land preparation and managed the crop through to harvest. Duncan convinced me and my two farming partners, Vernon Nicolle and Graham Rae, to join him in obtaining a contract to harvest the Somawhe Section at Mpongwe and purchase self-propelled sprayers to spray the majority of the crops on the whole CDC estate. To effect this, we set up a sister company to our farming operation, Soilmasters, called Cropmasters.
To run this operation, Chris, Vernon Nicolle's son was invited to join as a shareholder and brought his trucks in for his share. Once again, more borrowing, this time for three large John Deere combines, to harvest 1,250 hectares of summer crop and 1,250 hectares of winter crop, and to spray close to 5,000 hectares with self-propelled sprayers, replacing the need for aircraft hire. The model was easy: set repayments and a set contract; who was to know that within a couple of years CDC would decide to sell the Somawhe section and the new owners, Danes, would not be so easy to work with despite them employing Dave Jenkins, a fishing mate from Zimbabwe, to manage it. More about Cropmasters later, but for the first few years the model worked well and although on the board, all it required of me was to keep chivving up Chris to make his payments to AFGRI on time. Not always easy and embarrassing to me as a director of AFGRI Zambia.
“A rule I have sometimes ignored to my detriment is to try to avoid going into business with a friend or relative. Invariably this will involve third-party non-investors, that is, spouses or close family, having a say indirectly through your chosen partner.” - Peter McSporran
Meanwhile, Empowerment Group Investments Ltd (EGIL) had bought shares in Greenbelt Fertilisers, the brainchild of the Coventry brothers Rob and Kevin along with their partner, Chris Hawk. They were the founding partners of CHC Commodities, the most successful homegrown commodity trading company in Zambia, and saw fertiliser blending for the sugar industry in that country as an opportunity. Once again I found myself as the nominee director representing EGIL, which was both exciting but also, to a certain extent, time-consuming, as Rob’s ambition sometimes ran ahead of our capacity. For my part, I had great admiration for this trio of entrepreneurs who, in Zambia, understood the potential of the agricultural industry and production in the country.
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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