World Earth Day | Caring for the Land That Cares for the Herd 🐘🌍

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hi, good day everybody. My name is Brandon. I'm the reserve manager for the Jabulani collection.

[00:00:06]We're standing here in our Boma field.

[00:00:09]Um Behind me, you can see the team is coming in. I just asked them to come closer just so you can meet them as well. This is our last planting that we have done. You can see how it stops.

[00:00:22]And then there's a big size difference in the back there. That is obviously some of the flood damage that we had that um as we had in January and only up until recently we were able to access with tractors and implements and that.

[00:00:36]Uh so the last bit of projects that we had is cutting rows inside there. Um we are busy putting in new pipes.

[00:00:47]And um all of that, but uh the question you probably all want to know is what is Boma grass. Boma grass is a highly nutritional grass um from North Africa.

[00:01:00]Um It's also called the um the green life of Africa.

[00:01:05]Um very, very high nutritional value. Um in most African countries it's also called elephant grass.

[00:01:13]Um it really is like ice cream to children, so it is to elephants. So we do supplement feed our elephants and that is why we've got this this big plantation behind me here. I'm sure um first of all let me show you the size of it. Um we do have six uh big blocks uh that stand after about a good 2 300 L each.

[00:01:45]Um So it is a a daily program that the elephants need to get in the evenings. Obviously they come back into the stables.

[00:01:54]Um we can't release them back into the wild.

[00:01:57]Um Although some of them do wander off and uh wander back again.

[00:02:04]But um yeah, so we do supplement feed them.

[00:02:08]On an average intake per elephant on Boma Boma grass you're probably looking at a at a good 25 30 kg per elephant. Um so it is quite substantial, which is why it is an ongoing thing. Um here on the side we've actually got one of the stable hands, Mr. Walter.

[00:02:29]Come closer.

[00:02:34]We do We'd like you all to meet Walter.

[00:02:36]Walter is one of the stable hands.

[00:02:40]Mr. Walter.

[00:02:42]Say hello to the to the viewers there on the camera.

[00:02:47]Hello everyone.

[00:02:49]Um so Walter is in charge of uh keeping the elephant stables clean, um hygienic, and of course feeding them. Um nonstop it is a daily chore, quite a quite a big chore as well.

[00:03:06]Um We'll let you meet the the Boma grass team now.

[00:03:12]Ladies. Hello.

[00:03:14]Introduce yourselves to the the camera.

[00:03:17]Who Hello.

[00:03:18]Who are you? My name is Deborah.

[00:03:20]My name is Brenda.

[00:03:22]My name is Khavelo. And we are the Boma grass ladies.

[00:03:26]So quickly tell us about your your what do you do daily in the Boma grass? Okay, daily we take in all the Boma grass with scuffle.

[00:03:36]We plant. We make sure everything's okay. We water it. That's what I do like every day on a daily basis.

[00:03:43]And um yeah, so they are my left and right hand.

[00:03:50]Um and then in the back there is Mr. KG.

[00:03:53]He's our irrigation specialist. Um so KG has to uh every 2 hours move the the sprinklers that you can see behind us um to make sure that everything gets uh water quite well. Uh Boma grass uh the areas it comes from is is quite quite wet. Um and you can't really oversaturate Boma grass. So the more water we can give it the more and quicker it grows.

[00:04:23]Um Yeah, and then we also do fertilize it with all the the new plantings, which the ladies will work out the ratios and then work into the fertilizer what is all needed.

[00:04:37]All right.

[00:04:38]Thank you everybody and hope that helps you.

[00:04:45]Good afternoon everyone. My name is Juan Ferrera. I'm the sustainability manager for Jabulani and Herd. And where I'm standing is on one of the sites of the hollows that we have made between 2023 uh more accurately, sorry, 2024, 2025.

[00:05:03]And what you will see there towards the back in that slight half moon shape is the overall shape of the hollow. Inside, if you look at where we're standing, all of this fresh indigenous felt grasses that we've got growing here inside the hollow, which is exactly what we wanted. Initially when we started the project after formation of the hollow you would brush back, which is using thorn tree branches that we are surrounded with, packing it quite densely inside of the hollows, lining it with seeds as well as our own homemade elephant dung compost, facilitating this the growth of perennial indigenous grasses. Now what this does is it doesn't only allow for carbon fixation through the roots, but it also allows for the slowing of storm water. So where we are now, if we look around, we can see we are inside the area where all of the hollows have essentially been doing what their purpose was by slowing the speed of the runoff water and allowing grass seeds to germinate and settle in this area.

[00:06:13]This also provides much needed foraging and grazing value to all of the wildlife on the reserve and has been immensely helpful during our floods.

[00:06:24]Uh the reason for this was as the water would hit the soil and start to sort of aggregate and run towards the lower end of the slope, these hollows would act as little buckets, catching the water and if water would overflow out of one hollow, it would then flow into the next. Essentially really slowing down the water, giving it time to pool into the soil, cooling both the soil temperature and allowing for flood mitigation further downstream.

[00:06:56]Now at the moment we haven't made any new hollows, but we have been monitoring the phase one, two, and three, which is hollows to my left hand side, where I'm standing now, and then hollows to my right hand side um is where we've done the whole land project. And so far, so good. Because where we are standing now, it used to be quite barren, quite crusty, with very little vegetation, and a lot of erosion gullies, small gullies that would have made much larger gullies over time. So if we take a bit of a walk, we can see all of the grass, how it has settled. To the left hand side you can see the remnants of the branches, how some of the grasses are coming up in between. Um to this side as well, nice and dense. The inside of this hollow you can see until recently has been filled with water. And the hope is that the grasses will also spread and stabilize this area. And over time the angle of the hollow becomes a lot less prominent and eventually it levels with the landscape, which hopefully by then you would have a well-established vegetation community. And just from this side I'd like to focus your attention on just the abundance of these beautiful indigenous felt grasses that now bind the soil, allow for grazing value, and just delivering of ecosystem services.

[00:08:23]Overall that is a brief update on the land project and the pro progress that we have made so far.

[00:08:30]No big earthworks, nothing too invasive, and although a few months ago this might have looked quite barren, it has settled in very nicely. Thank you.

[00:08:41]Okay, this is the water hole where the elephants usually pass through.

[00:08:45]And you can see how the levels um went down.

[00:08:51]So even if we had lots of rain, um the levels went down because we had to make a plan.

[00:08:59]And what we've seen and here you can see slightly more was that there came a blue green o- algae or green blue algae.

[00:09:13]So I've got Brandon, who's our reserve manager, that will explain to you more about what he did over here. Um yeah, so we got the the test results back. Um unfortunately most dams throughout Southern Africa has got um cyanobacteria in them. Um so it's like a cancer cell, so you just need something to to trigger it.

[00:09:37]Um then you get a spike in the toxicity.

[00:09:41]Um it only really affects hindgut fermenters, so animals with with one stomach chamber, mostly your elephants and rhinos.

[00:09:49]Um so you have to bring the temperature down as quick as you can of the water, ensuring flow. So what we did is watch the the wind direction, make sure that the the wind pushed everything in the desired spot.

[00:10:04]And then uh broke the dam wall and drained the water.

[00:10:08]Um so, now currently we are filling up So, sorry.

[00:10:13]>> from the borehole. Sorry, I just want to interrupt Brendon very rudely here. So, this is the um the dam wall that I broke with the um machinery and all the water uh went down there.

[00:10:31]So, as Brendon said, you need to get the temperature down.

[00:10:36]The water that flows down there uh will not affect um the grass or anything um because it's um how can I explain it? Um yeah, with the with the flow it's oxi- oxygen oxi- oxygenated. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's um with algae it obviously suppresses all the oxygen. Um so, as soon as it's out and it flows, uh brings the temperature down.

[00:11:01]Um and then you don't get toxin clumping as well. Um just want to show you this is where the name blue-green algae comes from. It appears green um but as soon as you let it dry out, you can actually see the the blue coming out.

[00:11:17]Um Yeah. So, it's luckily Brendon realized that, saw that, and um brought to our attention. Um then he also uh tested the water.

[00:11:31]And that was the result.

[00:11:35]Um and he started working on that.

[00:11:40]Yeah. So, thank you, Brendon.

[00:11:43]>> [laughter] >> And just look at that sun sunset. So, unfortunately that's one thing that Brendon also just mentioned um for your rhinos and elephants, um it can be dangerous. And therefore we um avoided uh the um coming this way.

[00:12:02]And the elephants, of course, didn't understand why they're not allowed to come past here now anymore.

[00:12:08]So, we had to really divert them in another direction and come from a different angle. And at the moment um Brendon's also pumping fresh water from the river.

[00:12:22]And um that will also bring in more um ox- Yeah, uh oxygenated water.

[00:12:30]>> yeah.

[00:12:31]So, that that will help. So, the one thing also with Mafuta in here, you know, and all the uh the dung that falls in, that's actually also one of the triggers. And then with this temperature and rain that we had, um it stayed humid.

[00:12:47]Um so, it's kind of a a whole process that um happened one after the other. Um that resulted in uh the blue-green algae. It's got a a fancy name that Brendon said, but I can't remember.

[00:13:04]>> [laughter] >> Cyanobacteria.

[00:13:06]Cy- cy- So, what's a good as bacteria? Uh Afrikaans is cyano- cyano- bacteria?

[00:13:12]>> Cyano- bacteria. Uh cyano- bacteria.

[00:13:15]Cyano- bacteria. Cyano.

[00:13:18]So, say Is it cyano- bacteria? Okay. Thanks, everyone. Keep well. Bye.