The Chalmar Beef farm and abattoir operation includes over 300 dedicated and passionate people,
it has a farm feedlot capacity of 20 000 cattle and a further 19 000 cattle on pasture.
The farm also produces maize silage on 1 000ha of high potential soil.
Our farm is still owned by the Wethmar family who are involved in the daily operations.
OUR CATTLE
Pasture Reared
Chalmar Beef has the capacity to house 19 000 cattle on pasture. All young calves under 200kg’s go onto pasture and are pasture reared for 3 to 5 months before entering the feedlot.
Grain Finished
The supply of cattle to feedlots is very seasonal in South Africa. This leads to shortages of beef during certain times of the year. By rearing young cattle on pasture we ensure a consistent supply of cattle to the feedlot and ultimately beef on your plate throughout the year.
OUR LAMB
All lamb produced by Chalmar is from lambs fed in our new dedicated lamb feedlot facilities. We do not buy in any market ready lambs and therefore maintain control over the entire feedlot and abattoir production phase to give our consumer peace of mind.
FULL VERTICAL INTEGRATION
In our opinion, having complete control over the whole production chain, ensures our ability to produce consistent quality.
Crop Production
We plant over 1 000ha of maize, soybeans and sorghum. Manure from the feedlot forms the backbone of our fertilisation programme on our pastures and crop soils. Regular soil analysis is done to customise our fertilisation programme.
Feedlot
The right amount of proteins, vitamins, minerals, fibre and energy form part of our feeding program to ensure a healthy and strong immune system and to maximise the animal’s growth potential. We do not use any beta-agonists(including Zilpaterol).
Abattoir
Our animals are walked over to the abattoir, which is far less stressful than transportation by truck. Stress elimination for our animals is one of our main aims, which is essential to ensure a quality product. All of our animals are fully integrated into our production system. Chalmar cattle and lamb are specific meat breeds. No market ready animals are processed to ensure full traceability.
SUSTAINABLE FARMING
We recycle the waste water from the abattoir. The waste water is processed through a purification system. The water is then used for crop irrigation.
We monitor our borehole water quality bi-annually to ensure that there is no ground water contamination. Environmental impact studies are conducted prior to any new developments.
Regular soil analysis ensures a customised fertilisation programme for our soil. Manure from the feedlot forms the backbone of the programme adding essential nutrients and organic matter to the soil.
Chalmar Beef supports organisations in the community involved with the care of the less fortunate people, special needs people as well as local primary schools.
Chalmar obtained our composting license after strict approvals and environmental impact studies were completed successfully. The system is audited independently every 2 years and internally every 6 months.
We have 1253 solar panels which generate solar power. This is part of our green project. We have a heat recovery system and heat pump which pre-heats our production water to save energy.
We recycle our used boxes and paper.
WORKING AT CHALMAR BEEF
Being a fully integrated company, we employ people from all walks of life and levels of skill. People have the opportunity to express their talents in diverse fields ranging from accounting to stockman ship to various highly skilled trades. Chalmar Beef has a philosophy of promoting people from within the ranks which necessitates the early identification of potential in people and providing them with the opportunity to excel through skills development & training.