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Fresh from the farm – UFS Experimental Farm delivers research with social impact

10 June 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs

Christopher Rothmann is standing in one of the containers that will form part of the science park for entrepreneurs.

Adding to the value chain, extending the teaching and learning process, and supporting the development of the surrounding communities – this is the result of seven years of hard work for the Paradys Experimental Farm of the University of the Free State (UFS). Whether it is yoghurt and cheese from the dairy factory, wool products from the wool production and wool processing hub, or an ice-cold beer from the fermentation institute, the farm will soon share the fruits of its labour with the Bloemfontein community.

Situated outside Bloemfontein on the road to Reddersburg, the farm is an agricultural training centre in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences for UFS students who, among others, take modules in agriculture, working with cattle, sheep, crop cultivation, and milk production. Moreover, the farm also offers training opportunities to members of the community, ranging from short courses in animal health and animal breeding to workshops in wool classing, sheep handling, and sheep management.

“We want to take students through the entire production chain. It is a valuable part of our teaching and can make our work on the farm more profitable. The aim is to extend the use of a specific product. Instead of only selling milk, we add value to the product and sell it, for instance, as cheese or yoghurt. Or in the case of grain, rather than only selling it to wholesalers to make bread, it can be fermented into beer and waste can be used as animal feed,” says Prof Frikkie Neser, Head of the Department of Animal Sciences. He is the convenor of this initiative, along with the Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Prof Danie Vermeulen.

Currently, eight departments in four of the faculties at the UFS are involved in the work on the experimental farm.

Natural products in the dairy processing unit

Dr Analie Hattingh, Manager of the dairy processing unit and Lecturer in the Department of Animal Science, is responsible for the entire production process in the dairy processing unit, from concept development up to sales. Since the installation of the unit started in May 2021, two lines of cheese have been produced – a delicious semi-hard, full-cream all-rounder, and a more exotic cheese with different flavours, containing ingredients such as cumin, chili, garlic, peppercorns, and mango. The Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development (CENSARD) will later cultivate and harvest some of these herbs in the tunnels on the experimental farm. The department will also be involved in product development.

More recently, Dr Hattingh also started to investigate the development of a yoghurt line with different flavours – the more traditional mixed fruit and strawberry, as well as more exciting flavours such as pear caramel.

“All our products are natural,” she says.

This initiative adds to the already established centralised infrastructure hub on the experimental farm, which supports wool production and processing. Under the auspices of CENSARD, members from the community are taught, among others, entrepreneurial skills in different aspects of wool processing, such as knitting, making felt products, spinning, and weaving.

The group of women in the wool processing unit is producing, among others, felt pencil cases, laptop bags, hand/
bookbags, tray cloths, and soft toys. Photo: Leonie Bolleurs.

Creating products from dairy and wool is not only contributing to job creation; it also empowers communities to create a sustainable livelihood for themselves.

Award-winning beer

Award-winning beer makers Dr Errol Cason, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Animal Science, and Dr Christopher Rothmann, postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Animal Sciences, are looking forward to opening a fermentation institute on the Paradys Experimental Farm.

With their background as microbiologists, the two founders of Liquid Culture (in 2018) produced commercial batches of yeast used mainly by breweries for the fermentation of beer. They are supplying Bloemfontein as well as several breweries nationwide with their quality yeast.

At the fermentation institute on the farm, these home brewers and owners of Kraft Brewing Co hope to not only continue brewing bear, but to also teach others about the fermentation process. Installation of the vessels, which were previously part of the South African Brewery’s World of Learning, is almost complete.

Dr Errol Cason, Dr Christopher Rothmann, and Barry Crous at what will soon be a fermentation institute on
the Paradys Experimental Farm. Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Entrepreneur science park

Prof Neser says they are also in the process of constructing an entrepreneur (science) park for students in the sciences. Upon completion, the park will boast nine containers with the necessary infrastructure for students to work on innovation projects – promoting an entrepreneurial culture at the UFS.

The farm will also provide a service to the agriculture industry by testing feed intake and growth rate in cattle, evaluating these animals’ efficiency in converting feed to body mass. Prof Neser says the UFS is the only university conducting these tests on cattle. Similar trials will also be conducted on sheep, in collaboration with BKB, ALPHA, and RFID.

Grass has been planted in the open areas, and trees and tables with benches are planned to create a welcoming space for school groups to visit during the week in order to learn about the wool and dairy value chain. Members of the community will also be invited to display and sell their products on Saturdays, along with the goods produced on the farm. The scene is set, and soon all projects will benefit not only UFS staff and students, but also the community.

Dr Analie Hattingh is constantly looking at developing
new products for the dairy processing unit. Here she
is testing feta cheese.

News Archive

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC

2005-08-03

The UFS Central SRC

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC of the University of the Free State, Mr Tello Motloung on Wednesday 3 August 2003

The Chairperson of the UFS Council, Judge Faan Hancke,
The Vice-chancellor and Rector of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie
The Vice-Rector Student Affairs of the UFS, Dr Ezekiel Moraka
The Presidents of the main campus SRC and the Vista campus SRC
Colleagues in the Central SRC, campus SRCs, students and fellow South Africans

Please receive my heartfelt revolutionary greetings

Vice-chancellor and rector what I bring here with me assisted by facts, is just the work of my imagination. Like a love letter addressed to a sweetheart miles away, even though you do not know how she feels, what she wants to hear, and do not even know what she looks like.

I value speech as just an honest intimation, that’s why I got into a habit of establishing a dialogue with people, looking at each other’s face, and persuading one another of what we are saying.

Vice-chancellor, today marks an important milestone in the history of the existence of the UFS. Today reflects the confidence and trust that students of the UFS have placed in us. They are confident that the Central SRC has both the will and the capacity to take our university forward as we confront the challenge of transformation.

Students are confident that they are correct to trust the Central SRC as the principal agent of change in our university that is genuinely committed to the objective of building a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic university. We need to frankly ask ourselves, as CSRC members, whether are we up to all these challenges?

All Central SRC members have to understand this fully, internalize it, and ensure that everything we do, does not betray the confidence and trust of students, or disappoint their expectations. I say this knowing that all Central SRC members have committed themselves to serve the students of the UFS, black and white, and no one among us (CSRC) needs any special lectures about this central commitment.

The UFS should be an omnibus, welcoming everybody on board. But we should be a bus with a clear direction. We will certainly lose our way if we, as an institution, don’t have a clear road map spelling out where we are heading to.

There should be clear guidelines on the role of students in the transformation process. Students should also be viewed as role players in transformation along with the University management, and not just opposing forces. There is no right time, other than this one, to move away from the politics of opposition to politics of transformation.

However, we need the support of management to do so. The University should value the role and contribution of student leaders, hear our legitimate claims and consider them as part of political and policy decision making.

Vice-chancellor and Rector, it remains our task to ensure that the UFS is transformed into an institution that is seen to be playing a vigilant role in developing students academically, intellectually, socially, culturally, politically and otherwise. The process of transformation is not ending tonight, it is just beginning tonight.

Judge Hancke, Prof Fourie, Dr Moraka, fellow students and fellow South Africans, I lead students at this university with a sense of pride and duty, and I know very well that I lead men and women, students who are all determined that we reach our destination safely and on time.

A navy divided within its ranks will be destroyed and vanquished by the enemy, but the navy united in purpose and action, loyalty and commitment will not sink but sail on to victory.

It is befitting to mention that every drop of my blood is telling me that the UFS is my home. I firstly became a student here, I became the SRC treasurer in my first year here, I became the deputy president here, and I became the first president of the Central SRC of the UFS.

Therefore you should never doubt my commitment towards the transformation of this university. To paraphrase what was said by students at another institution, “If there is no UFS in heaven, then I am not going.”

Let me conclude by thanking my ancestors for teaching me that even if I wined and dined with kings and queens, I am not a king myself, so I should not turn my back on people who made me what I am today.

Most importantly, I would like to thank the Almighty God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving me time and power to lead this university.

It will be theoretically irresponsible if I ended my speech without indicating that “Only a Kovsie knows the feeling”.

I thank you.

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