Our Farming Products

We supply seed and table potatoes and run Beefmaster-type cows to produce weaners for feedlots.

Ivanhoe Potatoes

Ivanhoe Farming Company has been producing quality seed potatoes for over 60 years and is one of the oldest seed potato growers in the country. Our potatoes are produced at high altitude in the Midlands area of KwaZulu-Natal, which has a cool climate with extremely harsh, dry winters. We supply customers nationwide with seed potatoes, from the Cape to Limpopo, and export to other African countries such as Zimbabwe and Zambia. We also supply our local markets in Durban, Pietermaritzburg and the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands with table potatoes.

Our seed potatoes are produced on three separate farming units: Ivanhoe at Impendle, Meshlynn in the Kamberg area, and Highflight in Fort Nottingham.

Ivanhoe Farming Company has been a previous winner of the Seed Potato Grower of the Year Award and a finalist multiple times.

Why Choose Ivanhoe Potatoes?

Farming Techniques

Part of our success is due to our long rotations, which have enabled us to grow seed potatoes sustainably. The climatic conditions under which our seed potatoes are grown facilitate the reduced threat of viral diseases. Ivanhoe is always looking to incorporate new technologies in a quest to produce top quality seed. Also, we are constantly striving to reduce our dependency on harsh chemicals and are actively involved in trials using microbial and other products to achieve this.

Our lifting and sorting system is unique. We store our seed potatoes in bulk crates in a dark, insulated shed at ambient temperatures after harvest. Sorting and packaging is carried out one month later, which minimizes rotting that could occur post-harvest.

Varieties

These are our main varieties at present:

Valor: Strong grower with a good yield and strong resistance to powdery scab and late blight. A very good choice for emerging farmers.
Mondeo: High yielding with a very good skin finish and excellent resistance to common scab. A top performer in the Potato South Africa trials.
El Mundo: Strong growing potato with high yields and a good skin finish.
Mondial: The most popular variety on the market, with proven high yields and a good resistance to common scab.
Foxy: A promising new variety with very high yields and a good skin finish.

We work closely with two license holders, RSA Potato Seed Exchange and RegenZ, to innovate and distribute new varieties of seed potato and remain at the forefront of developments in the industry.

Potato Availability

Seed potatoes

Available mid-March through to June each year.

Valor and Mondial are open varieties that can be purchased directly from Ivanhoe Farming Company (click here). Valor can also be purchased from RSA Potato Seed Exchange (click here).

Mondeo and El Mundo are grown under license to RegenZ and can be purchased here.

Table Potatoes

Available January through to April each year.

The oversized portion of our crop is sold on the Durban and Pietermaritzburg markets under our brand name.

We also have a wholesale depot in Nottingham Road for the convenience of local Midlands buyers to purchase fresh wholesale potatoes in season. Our depot is located at 103 Old Main Road. Our price and quality surpasses all competitors. Come visit us!

Contact us for more information.

Ivanhoe Beef

Ivanhoe runs a large herd of Beefmaster-type cows, producing weaners for the feedlot market. A small number of heifers are removed for sale at weaning, whilst the bulk of the heifers are retained and grown out to be mated. In-calf heifers surplus to our requirements are also sold.

The beef enterprise integrates well with our seed potato production system, which has a long grass rotation between crops, providing winter food for the cattle. Due to the size of our cow herd, we are able to successfully breed our own bulls. Therefore, no bulls have been purchased since 2007. Top weaners are selected from a large group of calves to be used as young bulls (at 14 months old) on the 2-year-old heifers. They are then used the following year on the cow herd. At this stage, all bulls are sold. This ensures that we have no bulls over 2.5 years old on the farm. To avoid inbreeding, new genetics are introduced by artificial insemination to a select group of females.

Why Choose Ivanhoe Beef?

Our beef herd is entirely grass-fed, with supplementation from licks.  Our cattle run extensively on sourveld in the summer months, and experience harsh, cold winters. Thus, they are very tough.

We implement a short breeding season of 70 days, and bulls are only selected from the cows that calve early in the season. All cows that are not in calf at pregnancy testing or lose calves are culled. This has resulted in a large cow herd, a consistent conception rate of over 90%, and weaning calf weights of approximately 240kg. All culled animals are finished on grass with no concentrates.

Beef Availability

Weaners
April to May each year.

Surplus In-Calf Heifers

April each year.

Fat Grass-Fed Cows

July to December each year.

2.5-Year-Old Bulls

A limited supply is available for sale each year.

Contact us for more information.