On 29 January 2005, the members of Forum Toastmasters Club held a social at the family dairy farm of one of the members, Sgt-at-Arms Frederick Malleson. The farm is called Hazeldean Farm and the stud name of the cows is Milkyway Ayrshires.

Leon Botha, Gareth Gregory, Bosman Olivier, Tony van der Watt, Herbert Höpfner and Stanley Hlabangwane

More than 30 people attended the social, including members’ wives and children.

The social started with a guided tour of the farm: The milking parlour is a modern system with electronic cow identification and milk metering, in which 800 Ayrshire cows are milked 3 times a day.

The feeding set-up for the cows has big feed bunkers for lucerne, cotton seed, meal and brewers grain. The visitors saw how the feed ingredients are put into a large mixer wagon by a front end loader, before being fed to each different group.

640 out of the 800 milking cows are housed in a free stall barn. This means that the cows are under roof, but can move around freely. The remaining cows and heifers are kept in outside camps.

Milkyway Ayrshires is the largest Ayrshire herd in South Africa. Various awards have been won over the years, including the Gold Cup in 1995 at the Rand Show for the best Dairy Animal on show, and The Dairy Farmer of the Year for 2004.

The farm supplies the factory on the farm, which produces milk, yoghurt, amazi, drinking yoghurts, juices and a range of ‘dairy’ soya products. The major clients are Woolworths and an outlet to the public in Mamelodi.

With the tour complete, everyone gathered at Frederick’s flat to enjoy drinks, with lots of chatting and a stir-fry dinner. As the party was winding to a close, Gareth Gregory entertained the club on his bagpipes, with Frederick chipping in with his guitar and a few songs.

A great time was had by all and hopefully it will not be too long before Forum Toastmasters Club members and their families meet for another social.