Information

Midlands Imperial Investments is a commercial forestry enterprise run and owned by Brett Peattie and Brian Magor.   It has about 5000 ha of timberland on 10 farms in the Natal Midlands and Southern Berg areas It’s core function is to produce Industrial pine saw timber which is harvested at a 16 to  18yrs old stage for the group’s sawmills and pallet plant.
Bretts fascination with the Nguni breed began with his acquiring the nucleus of his herd from his friend and mentor, Dr Doug Crowe in 1992  The ND CROWE herd was one of the most respected herds in Natal with a long genetic  history.

The animals were kept on Brett’s home farm Rambleholme on the shores of  Albert Falls dam in the Cramond area . This area is extremely hot and humid and all three tick borne diseases are prevalent here

It took until 2004 before Brett was able to convince Brian to start introducing cattle onto the [now growing ]Timber Farms .After much consideration and research this started with cattle being bought and run on Swythernby in the Kamberg We then acquired Marius Viljoen’s BV herd from him and this came with a great genetic pool comprised of animals mainly from the Kwalata and IDI lines This Kamberg herd has stayed intact except for a few additional cows from Gerrie van der Walt , Andre Nel and John Du Preez
After seeing the benefits ,which were apparent almost immediately, we set about acquiring animals from a wide variety of breeders and and varied bloodlines from all over the country
We strive to breed true to type functional animals which are well adapted and have been selected for the Ngunis inherent qualities.These been hardiness, fertility with good milk and mothering abilities  Our goal is to produce low cost highly efficient Nguni Cattle which can hold their own in the beef industry on a kgs per ha basis

TIMBER AND NGUNIS
We are currently running a thousand head on 7 farms in 15 herds in the Natal Midlands .About 500 of which are registered The areas range from mountain sourveld to kikuyu lands .On a typical farm only 50/60% is planted to pine trees and the balance being bottomlands vlei”s verges and watercourses which are not planted in keeping with our conservation values  It would also have a network of firebreaks which are burnt every year  The cattle graze these areas and help to keep them clean and the fuel load in check .They are also encouraged to graze under the trees ,where in the thinned pruned and older stands , kikuyu and other grasses have established themselves .These areas also tend to stay green most of the year being protected by the trees so no frost occurs underneath them  The benefits being a cleaner neater farm, with a lowered fire risk in the winter months and less operational and labour costs with a secondary income from the cattle .Due to the limited fencing on a forestory estate we have a number of herdsman who look after the herds on a daily basis some herds been kraaled at night and others left out these herdsmen develop a wonderful feel for the cattle giving them names according to their characters or patterns and over time getting to know all of their charges intermitely  Watching herdsman and cattle grazing in the shadows of a mature pine forest has long fueled my passion for these remarkable beasts
Our farms carry all the tick borne challenges namely Redwater Hartwater and gallsickness as well as a number of poisonous plants. As a result they adapt well to all other areas in South Africa We practice very selective dipping and only a knapsack spray is applied to the under side of heavily infested cattle to prevent udder damage. Hardiness is a trait which we continuously select for, with the less robust animals been culled.