Suidplaas stalwarts: What drives Willem and Manners to be our Dohne protectors

When he was just 20 years old, Willem Oerson hopped on his bicycle and cycled on the gravel tracks around the town of Protem in the Overberg to ask for work. He had just left his hometown and his family in Bonnievale because in the late 1980s, work was scarce, and earnings on farms around Bonnievale were low.

“I was offered a job at the first farm I stopped at,” Willem says. It was the farm Klipbankskloof, today the home of Suidplaas Dohnes, owned by Wynand du Toit. Now 33 years later, Willem is the Foreman of the farm – in charge not only of the Suidplaas team, but also overseeing the management of the Dohne sheep.

Most of what he knows today, he learnt on the job. “When I got here, I found it awkward to work with sheep. But the years teach you everything you need to know,” he says. The overall health and wellbeing of the sheep herds are his responsibility – and this keeps him busy throughout the year, ensuring the Dohnes thrive during the cold and wet winters, and the hot and dry summers.

In fact, Willem has always loved farm life, and in his early days in Bonnievale, he spent weekends working with his father. “Farm life is in my blood,” he says. “I love the animals – all animals. I don’t even let my team kill snakes.”

Willem’s father – also his mentor – taught him two important lessons as a young man. “He said to me: My child, if you choose to take a job, and if you choose to get married, then those must become your priority. These are the people in your life who you need to look after and care for. And you need to do both these things all out.”

Willem took this advice a step further: he has also done his utmost to create opportunities for his family. Willem did not finish school because of the constraints created by the apartheid system. Now he has put one daughter through university: she was recently employed as a professional nurse at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital. And he is currently supporting another daughter to complete her law degree at the University of the Western Cape.

He says, “I dream one day of owning my own little piece of land, and a few sheep, so that I can retire and still work with and retain that love for animals.” Until then, Willem remains humble and hardworking. “Wynand always told me that I must never become bigheaded. He said your work will suffer as a result of bighead-ness. So I’ve always guarded against this.”

It’s not easy managing the Dohne Merino rams on Suidplaas Dohnes. “You have to put in the effort to get the rams to be the best they can be. And it’s not an easy process. It simply depends on you how much you put in,” says Manners Afrika.

Manners is the manager of the Suidplaas rams. Aside from the hard work, it’s also a lot of stress – especially during auction preparation. “When the wool classers come to assess the rams before the auctions, you have to be able to answer questions and handle any mistakes they might point out to you.”

But Manners, 39, is proud of what he’s achieved at Suidplaas Dohnes. And so he should be. Under his keen eye and watch, Suidplaas Dohnes has achieved the South African record ram price 5 times, and the world record price on 2 occasions. Suidplaas has also won South African Breeder of the Year 4 times since 2000.