Geoff Orpen grew up on his father Mike's farm Avoca near Barkly East. He embarked on full-time farming after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. The farm has been in the Orpen family since 25 July 1866. Joseph Orpen, a famous surveyor from England, came to South Africa in 1854. As from 1862, he was responsible for surveying many farms in the Barkly East, New England and Lady Grey areas.
The Orpen family ran a well-known Arab horse stud on Avoca for many years. Mike's grandfather (Geoff's great-grandfather) Claude was responsible for bringing Arab horses to South Africa in 1911. He was also elected as the very first president of the National Wool Growers’ Association of South Africa.
Fifty percent of the Orpen farm was sold in 1933 to pay off a bank overdraft of £20 000 (about R28 million today). In 2013, Geoff bought back Millerd, the section sold off in 1933, and the farm is thus back to its original size.
NATURAL PASTURES
Avoca farm is 5 000ha in size, containing mixed mountainous grass veld of sweet and sour grasses, with the mountainous veld on the south-facing slopes being) and mountain wire grass (), and odd patches of turpentine grass ( spp). The northern slopes contain more palatable grasses, such as red grass (), species such as small creeping foxtail (), and species such as weeping love grass (), and curly leaf grass (). The average rainfall on Avoca is 875mm/year. Problem plants are () on the mountain slopes and crack willow () along the mountain streams. is set back by veldfires, but young shoots soon start from the roots after burning. Crack willow is ring-barked and poisoned but it remains a never-ending struggle to control this fast grower, says Geoff.
