Other Fortress Activities

Weather patterns, international and national agricultural market movements, as well as new technical developments in agriculture are repeatedly challenging them to be flexible and adjust where feasible their approximate annual production of:

• Maize (irrigation and dry land) 1.100 tons plus 8.000 tons silage
• Wheat (irrigation and dry land) 500 tons
• Soya (dry land) 250 tons
• Sunflower (irrigation) 150 tons
• Hay from fertilised Eragrostis Curvula (Ermelo) 4.000 bales (1,3m diameter).

Fortress Veld Improvement Scheme

The grazing areas at Fortress have been subdivided into 84 camps, of which the largest is 30ha. Of the former maize fields, 331ha have already been planted to smuts finger, borseltjie grass, iwag grass, as well as the indigenous red grass (rooigras) increasing the farm's carrying capacity by up to four times. Fortress has developed simple equipment to improve their old lands. Contact us for further details.

The photo illustrates the Smuts Finger Grass, late in summer (Note the clearly visible rows of Smuts Finger Grass)		This photo shows their Rooigras (Themeda Triandra) successfully planted alongside Smuts Finger Grass (Digitaria Eriantha)

Their veld management programme succeeded in March 2003 when old lands were freed of weeds, a seed bed prepared and Rooigras (Themeda Triandra) hand sawn. Rooigras being the usually dominant preferred indigenous species in their area.

Fortress Compost

In 2004 Fortress started to produce compost with feedlot manure, crop remains, straw or any roughage.

The compost is produced in wind rows where natural bacteria and fungus break down organic matter, in an aerobic atmosphere, to humus. Temperature and moisture are monitored very precisely to create the optimum environment for bacteria and fungus. The process is more or less completed in 80 days. Temperatures of 70° C are reached for 14 days causing weed seeds to become sterile. Moisture content is kept between 30 and 45%. Compost turning is done by a tractor driven compost turning machine in triangular rows of 1.5m wide and a height of 1.2m

3.000 tons of compost are produced annually. Between 4 and 6 tons are spread per hectare on lands and worked in. A saving in fertilizer cost of about 50% is gained with this process.

The photo shows manure/compost wind rows as well as the tractor driven Fortress Compost Turning Machine.

No Till / Minimum Tillage

In 2007 this project was started as is customary step by step. Gary Zimmer (USA) said to the Fortress Team: “You cannot just start no till, you have to earn it”. Crop residues are now left to naturally break down and thus improving soil structure supported by applying compost and adequate lime as per the ALBRECHT system.