“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.”
This is so true of our Dippenaar attitude. Despite all negativity around the fruit world, we keep on improving our methods and systems, continue to replace old infrastructure and replanting with newer and better varieties.
In total we have replanted 50 ha of vineyards.
On the Bellevue Farm and Grand View Farms we have upgraded our main pump stations to allow us to irrigate much bigger areas with the previously installed SOLAR plants. Our irrigation cycles have been shortened from 22 hours during peak consumption to 14 hours. This will greatly decrease our electricity consumption from the grid as we will pump almost 80% with Solar energy. This practice will also enable us to be less dependent on the grid during times of national loadshedding.
On Bellevue we have also constructed a new shed for implements and a new chemical store that meet the newest regulations.
On Bellevue we have also started to build the first phase of worker housing on the farm with the aim to relocate most of our workers to the farms. On the farm they will have access to clean water, services, solar energy and no loadshedding like in the towns.
