From mining to making cheese: Two Lowveld goat farmers

Sadiola Farm lies 20 km outside Mbombela, nestled in-between rocky outcrops, on the Uitkyk Road towards Malelane. Sadiola is also the name of the gold mine where An Smeesters and Hennie le Roux met 15 years ago – she, from Belgium, was an exploration geologist and he, a South African, the mine manager. Today, their dairy-goat farm is the biggest business of its kind in the Lowveld – an area not particularly known for this trade or for making cheese.

With 120 goats, 24 geese, three dogs, three cats and a parrot on only 26 hectares, the couple are finally fulfilling their dream of putting down roots as small-scale farmers.

Hennie comes from a farming background – all of his uncles were farmers and one of his aunts raised goats – but it was An who introduced him to goat’s cheese. “He didn’t know it, but in Belgium it’s fairly common,” she says while preparing feed for their Toggenburg and Saanen goats. “At the time, Hennie worked for a French company in the Ivory Coast, and his manager used to bring cheese back from France. He wasn’t too keen at first – he would slice off a