Let's Continue with the Theme: We Live in a Crazy World. The Zambian Farm in 2004 and Sesheke Hardwood is Born.

Moist-looking sunrise over our hills this week, but unfortunately no rain. - Picture: Susan jamees

For some reason, the sequence of events in 2003 and 2004 seems very confusing. I don't think we realised at the time how events in Zimbabwe in the 2000s affected us. I know my mind was consumed with trying to find something to ensure some security in my old age, along with the difficult task of facilitating farmers' move to Zambia. Further, it didn't help that I destroyed the laptop I was using at the time by running it over in 2005. All my pictures, business plans, and reports up to that date in Zambia were destroyed, although we still had hard copies of the reports and business plans, which we returned to each client or destroyed when we left Zambia. Strangely, before laptops and, for that matter, all the tools in it, including the internet, it seemed easier to remember the history of my life and the sequence of events that fell in. Have our minds become lazy with the advent of their use? Surely it cannot all be due to old age. 

“I really get peed off when I forget something and one of my friends or family puts it down to my age. I know I look old, and I am half the man I was in weight, but I like to think my mind is still OK. Perhaps that is a vanity?” - Peter McSporran

Maybe it is not just the world that is crazy; maybe I'm a little that way myself. 

Following on about the crazy world, I was shocked over the weekend that Trump, we presume, in his search for mid-term votes, came to an agreement with Putin on diesel fuel sales. That is, a lifting of sanctions on diesel products. I just read a biography of Putin, and he is certainly not a man to be trusted, let alone to do business with. In nearly every political action or agreement, he is always, behind the scenes, doing the opposite, rarely intending to do what he says. Perhaps I am naive, but I support Ukraine and its current leader, Zelensky, despite some saying he is very corrupt. For me, I am under the impression Zelensky and the Ukrainians are fighting for our freedom and require all the support, physical, financial, and moral, as we can. After all, he has already proven that the Russian army's power was purely a myth. But the real crazy bit is Russia has little, at least nowhere near enough, diesel available to drop the world price. Ukraine is not the cause of the fuel crisis; Trump is, for good or bad, with his disagreement with Iran. In further confusion, he seems to have forgotten or did not tell Ukraine of his declared ceasefire, which was broken by Russia within a few hours of it being declared. So if you can make any sense of these events, you’re a much wiser man than I. 

Was it the spots or the horns that attracted the buyer to pay the South African President so much for this heifer?

“If you are a cattle rancher, probably the craziest thing you would have read this week was that someone paid $390,000 equivalent for an Ankole heifer.” - Peter McSporran

But not to be left out of the madness, Andy Burnham, the British prime minister, says that Russia interfered with the BREXIT referendum because, I presume, he wants to rejoin the EU, only for this statement to be contradicted the very next day by his Foreign Secretary, who said Russia had failed in doing this. Who was telling the truth? I think his Foreign Secretary. 

The only thing probably nearest the truth I read or heard on the news was that the Malawian National Voice reported that the celebrated rotund businessman who recently died in Zimbabwe was the facilitator fixer in the huge illegal arms sales to the Sudan. That at least makes some sense; as for the rest, I would have been better employed watching Tom and Jerry than the news.

“Politicians have always lied, but they always tried to disguise it. Now they do not seem to care and just openly lie, knowing full well, it will be challenged.” - Peter McSporran

Our tobacco crop on Ndambo. Looked good in the field but poor yields due to too much rain

At least Doug McClymount posted again, offering insight into an old, more sensible world. This week he talked about his time as Tobacco Grower of the Year, which my neighbour and late friend, Ian Gordon, won one year. Doug suggests that most candidates for the honour cleaned up their farm, painted their sheds and machinery, updated their records, and collated all the required information in the two weeks before the judges visited, having been pre-warned of their schedule. He said in his time as a judge the only exception to this was Doug Parham, but as he resigned as a judge on leaving the Tobacco Research Board before the year Ian won, he would have found Ian’s farm to be immaculate all year round, with excellent records kept by his trusted clerk and storekeeper who would eventually be found out to have been stealing from him for years. Despite that, he did keep good records, but now indications are they were not necessarily truthful; but if Ian did not know that, how would the judges discover it in their one-day visit? I must say, however, Ian’s tobacco growing and excellent farm husbandry made him a very worthy winner.

The dam filled on the Chongwe. At the time, and maybe even now the largest private dam in Zambia.

Back in Zambia in early 2004, our dam on the Chongwe filled, but unfortunately the excessive wet season affected most of the scheme's tobacco yields and quality. For the layman, too much rain lowers yield substantially by leaching nutrients from the sandy soils it prefers and, in doing so, encouraging the crop to ripen and senesce early due to nutrient loss and wet feet, which it loathes. Tobacco farmers grow a crop which is compatible with their curing facilities, barns. In Darwendale, most years we would plan to harvest two leaves per plant a week and, at the peak, three at most, while in Zambia three a week was more likely and, at times, four. Tobacco is very unforgiving when it comes to harvest and curing, and if not harvested at its optimum ripeness within a few days, the leaf is lost or if not drastically loses weight and quality. This was another hard lesson we learned, although those growers in the South West Choma area were finding growing conditions more akin to Zimbabwe. At that time, Doug McClymount was our agronomist of choice at Agricultural Advisors International (AAI), and unfortunately Graham Rae decided to claim he was partly to blame for our lower yields, so we parted ways, although I retained faith in Doug’s skill as a tobacco consultant. Unfortunately, Graham was the General Manager of our farming operation, and he held sway. Funnily enough, Chris Thorne, my partner at AAI, also supported Graham, and eventually Rob Garvin replaced Doug. By then, though, Doug had built up a good clientele on his own. Graham will not like me saying this, but I was to find Graham, rightly or wrongly, liked to blame others when things did not go well on the farms and it would not be long before there was a large number of managers who became X-Rae’s, the nickname they were given when they lost their jobs over some difference of opinion or misunderstanding with Graham. Further, Graham had a tremendous drive and an abrasive attitude, the latter an attribute not to everyone’s taste, so yes, we would enter a period of frequent management change. 

Waiting to board the ferry across the Zambezi at Sesheke

The final investment I made in early 2004 was Sesheke Hardwood, a timber harvesting company to be based on the west bank of the Zambezi north of Katimo Mulimo but within Sesheke district. It was a beautiful place that belied the difficulties of operating so far from where we lived, relying on people’s resources and on-the-ground intuition. The main driver, and the one with the expertise in harvesting and marketing, was Colin Kelly, a timber man from Mutare. Unfortunately, Colin had no wish to reside in Zambia, let alone Sesheke, so I often found myself chasing up management issues with the man we employed in the forest; a real gentleman, Bill Williams. He was a competent sawmiller but had no wish to manage. Bill was our second sawmill manager; the first, whose name I sadly forget, just did not work out. He was from Zimbabwe, and his relationship with the Zambian staff and his decision-making were found wanting. We were lucky to find Bill, but because we were undercapitalised and received delayed payments for timber sent to South Africa, the project struggled almost from the start.

I had also convinced some of my Zambia friends to invest in this project, which I would later regret, as what I thought would be an easy business proved, when it came to marketing, an extremely difficult one, especially when exports went unpaid. I should have known better, as in my experience with South African buyers, no matter the commodity, the main skill is getting paid. We were also very undercapitalised, so when timber went unpaid, paying the staff in Sesheke who were felling and sawing it could be a challenge. More about this in future blogs, except to mention I spent much more unpaid time in Sesheke than I would have wished.

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.