Three established Free State farms go up for grabs

● Three farm portions situated on the Riet River with a combined extent of just over 3 700ha and listings of water with 600ha irrigation under pivot will come under the hammer at an auction presented by Van’s Auctioneers on Wednesday.

The auction will include the 21 complete centre pivots (both Agrico and Valley) and a variety of farm implements. These farms are well-located, about 25km from Jacobsdal and halfway between Jacobsdal and Koffiefontein, right in the heart of the Kalkfontein Dam Water Scheme.

The majority of the water for irrigation comes from the canal, which is well equipped and maintained and runs through all three farms.

The farm Ebenhaeser, with a size of 1 027ha, has approximately 917ha of natural grazing and about 109ha of irrigation lands. It has water rights for 52ha, of which 12.9ha is from the canal, 19ha from the Riet River and the rest from boreholes.

Irrigation is done through five complete centre pivots and the crops under irrigation are soya beans and wheat. This farm has a farm house, workers’ houses, sheds, garages and five camps with game-proofed fences, one of which is ideal for buffalo breeding. The farm is supplied with Eskom electricity.

Roodedam has a river-front location on the Riet River and has 230ha of natural grazing and a massive 310ha of irrigation lands. Water is supplied via the canal and the Kalkfontein Dam Water Scheme.

The farm is entitled to 199ha and the soya beans and wheat are irrigated through nine complete centre pivots. Roodedam has the same good improvements as Ebenhaeser and also has an office, a workshop and stables. De Kiel Oost (known as Die Kiel) comprises an impressive extent of almost 2 200ha, of which nearly 2 000ha is natural grazing and the remaining almost 200ha is under irrigation.

The crops on the irrigable land consist of soya beans and wheat and irrigation is done with seven complete centre pivots. The water rights are for 71.5ha in total and this farm also boasts a pecan nut plantation of 33ha. The pecan nut trees are three years old and are irrigated with drip irrigation. The farm has a buffer dam.

The good improvements on Die Kiel include two houses, workers’ houses, sheds, garages and 10 cattle-proofed camps. Electricity is supplied by Eskom.

If the sale is successful, possession and occupation of these farms will be given to the purchaser on the date that the offer is accepted by the sellers, which will be during the second half of June. This means the purchaser has the opportunity to plant and make use of the 60% water quota that has been allocated until May 31 2019.

The farm implements will be offered piecemeal after the farms have been sold under the hammer. They include a Claas harvester, John Deere and Ford tractors, various trailers, ploughs, rakes and other good farm implements.

Van’s Auctioneers can be contacted on 086 111 8267 or their website or Facebook page can be viewed.