Farm for Sale in Adelaide Rural

Property Information

Location: 55 km to Fort Beaufort, 49 km to Adelaide and 136 km from Grahamstown and 129 km from Somerset East.

Size: 1076.5836 Hectares in total comprising of 3 portions. 12 Camps, 3 dams for irrigation and a furrow to lead water to the irrigation dams.

Homesteads: The main homestead (+- 650 m²) is a large mid century built farm stead. Six bedrooms, three bathrooms, two lounges, a large dinning room/family room and a kitchen make up the bulk of the house, with an office, sun room and pantry off the kitchen making up the rest. Half of the house is fronted by a wrap around veranda for outdoor living. A swimming pool, braai and lapa area are situated together in the front of the house just off the veranda which will add so much more to the outdoor entertaining potential. There is a single detached garage in the confines of the homestead.

It must be noted that the house has been unoccupied for some time and so will need some maintenance in the near future.

Outbuildings:

The outbuildings consist of two sheds, the largest being 470 sq m the smaller one 220 sq m, a hand milking dairy of 200 sq m and a 40 sq m shed used for storing feed. There are also three vertical store silos. The largest shed doubles as a shearing shed and implement shed, where the smaller one is used of storing farm materials. There are a few corrugated iron sheets that have been blown off the roofs of some of the sheds and silos by the wind which will need to be replaced, but this is minimal. All the sheds are otherwise in fair condition.

There is also a cattle and sheep loading ramp in good condition, the plunge dips for the both will need a little attention before use.

There are also a set of cattle and sheep kraals set close to the homestead for easy management of livestock throughout the year.

4 staff houses of which only 1 is occupied in varying condition, all of which are wired for electricity.

Services:

One 3 Phase Eskom Point, but this has been disconnected and will need to be reconnected by Eskom. No landline in use and cell service only available on the high ground around the farm 46 km of fair dirt road to Adelaide

Vegetation and Estimated Carrying Capacity:

The farm runs in a north south direction from the top of the Winterberg mountains down to the Koonap river in the valley bottom. In the high ground the vegetation is open sour veld and can be described as Amatole Mist belt Grassland. This area covers approximately 600 Ha of the farm.

This includes the mountain slopes in the high ground. Here the valley sides are steep, but livestock do well in the high carrying grasslands. Animals are able to find shelter from cold and heat in the valley bottoms which are lined in Afro - montane forests typical of the area.

The carrying capacity for this area is 3,5 Ha per LSU and is dominated by Rooigras (Themeda triandra) and Common Thatching Grass (Hyparenea hirta). This is excellent summer veld for both sheep and cattle.

The lower mountain slopes - +- 250 Ha – are sweeter grazing with Rooigras (Themeda triandra) maintaining a dominance here, with the Haarpens bushes offering some shelter during winter. The grassveld is broken by clumps of woody species with Haarpens prominent on the flat grasslands and Sweet thorn Acacia karoo on the warmer lower valleys.

Valley Floor – This lower lying area is 226 Ha in total size. This is where the thicker areas with Velchellia karoo, Sweet thorn, and Olea Capensis, Wild Olive, are found in larger numbers along the slopes and river ways. This is the sweetest but driest part of the property with an average rain fall of +- 450 mm per year. However, there are 32 Ha of lands on the property. 13.4 Ha are currently under flood irrigation, a further 9 Ha of fallow lands are available, with a further 9.5 Ha which needs re-establishment. The property has a total of 20 Ha of water rights allocated for irrigation on its water license. In the past all lands were irrigated via canals and flood irrigation and there is enough elevation between the dams and the lands for a gravity fed system.  

Veld condition is excellent at the higher altitudes, but the lower section has got some areas whivh have become encroached. Currently there are about 180 LSU on the property and the official stocking rate with the lands included is 260 LSU.