Although small parts of Cradock district
are still anxiously watching the rain clouds, most farmers in the district are
rejoicing over their full dams and green pastures. Showers have been falling in town and the
district regularly for the past three weeks.
Willie Jordaan of the Merino farm in the
Swaershoek area of the district, however, suffered a lot of damage when a cloud
burst over his farm on Wednesday, January 19 and 97mm of rain was measured within an hour. Three of Jordaan’s farm dams broke and 45 of
his merino ewes were washed away.
Jordaan explained that the Little Fish
river burst it’s banks and water overflowed
onto his lands as well as portions of
the veld, covering the lands with a
layer of silt. Fences were also washed
away, while bridges and roads were left damaged.
A week before the storm Jordaan measured
40mm of rain and two days later a
further 47mm.
Andrè Marais of Roodewal farm, a few
kilometers downstream from Jordaan’s Merino, only measured 3mm of rain on that
particular afternoon but the Maraissloot running through his farm came down
with such might that Marais lost 14 cattle. Bridges, fences and other infrastructure was left damaged.
At a meeting of the Cradock Farmers’
Association on Thursday, January 20, everyone was rejoicing about the
disappearance of the swarms of locusts that were very active in the district since the first
rain in December.
