And it rained...

Funny how quickly the weather changes.  In Afrikaans we have a saying 'so onvoorspelbaar soos die weer'.  Well last week it felt like it.  With the drought making every person stressing,  I usually look at the forecast often.  Like daily two or three different forecast websites.  Not one was predicting much happening except a light fall on Thursday.  It changed very quickly into a warning for heavy falls on Wednesday.  Well they were exaggerating.  They measured 26mm up in the encatchment area and 14mm in town.  Good enough.
A representative of the Calitzdorp Water Board told me we had 1 official full irrigation run left in the dam and then there will still be enough water to keep the town going for 8 months.  That is if the usage stay as the averages were the last few months. 
Well as a farmer on just judging from where the water were last night at the dam it seems we will have definately one extra maybe two irrigation runs.  That will take us up to January.  Not bad.  Then we must just hope for rain in the next two / three months. 
Well if you have a look at the growth of the plants it is just always a surprise how much better rain is in comparison to irrigation.  The orchards and vineyards look so much more in vigorous growth phase after the rain on Thursday.  Even the birds seem to sing a lot more. 
The vineyards will get there third spray as do the peaches.  The apricots because of the time of harvest nearing now I stopped the spray program.  Maybe later just run a fruit fly spray.  The weather which leads to a more humid climate will enhance fungi growth and thus more spraying will be needed. 
For the concerned under you.  Withoek will be audited for SA-Gap (South Africa - Good Agricultural Practice) which is an program to audit the whole approach to agricultural practice.  As the concern for the Climate Change movement take on the consumer their fears and demands must more and more be met by the producers of food.  The SA - Gap is an South African Auditing program which is based on EuroGap.  Why two?  The cost.  EuroGap cost a lot of money.  Also the laws of our country makes that we sometimes can't meet the spesific requirements of the EuroGap. For instance they want us to burn the containers of the different spays.  The SA law forbids us to do it. 
Withoek still have to put a lot of things into plays to meet all the necessary requirements but we are on our way. 
This week we will finish the thinning of the peaches and plums.  After that the Plastic in the newly planted vineyards and after that the suckering or the vineyards follow.  Lots to be done and not much time.  Seems like harvest is coming a long?