Page 16 - OurStories-2022_Preview

16 | OUR STORY: AFFORD

BY KIARA STACEY

ONVENING around the table for breakfast
before getting stuck into their sticky note
C of scheduled chores and responsibilities is
almost a daily ritual for the Afford family, who have
been farming for many generations.
Even at 80-years old, Bob Afford still pitches in
with everyday tasks.
Living on the same property as their family’s
dairy at Woods Point, near Murray Bridge, Bob
is hands-on with feeding the milking herd and
assists on machinery during sowing - but none of
this is new to Bob.
He was born into a farming family with his
parents Fred and Neta Afford running a mixed-
farming enterprise in the Mid North at Wandearah.
But within a few years, they went looking for a
change.
“We wanted to go into dairying as my sister
married a chap down here who had a dairy and
for the last two years up there, we had droughts,”
he said.
“One side of the farm had no feed and the
cows kept us going, so we thought we’d go into
dairying.”
Fred and Neta bought 20 hectares of swamp
land at Jervois in 1960 and started the dairy with
Bob and his brother Charles actively involved.
Bob’s wife Gloria (nee Gale) also moved to the
region with her family - also farmers - with her
moving to Jervois from the Eyre Peninsula while
she was still in primary school.
The two met through the local Rural Youth Club
when Gloria was just 17.
They got married in 1963 and within a few years
had their two sons - Greg and Steven.
While Bob and Charles had been running the
family farm as a partnership, in 1975 they went
their separate ways.
Charles spent some time on Kangaroo Island,
before buying a dairy at nearby Monteith and
running that for the next three decades.
In 1978, Bob and Gloria inherited 405ha from
Gloria’s parents Alf and Dot Gale, while later in
1982 they sold the Jervois swamp land and farm
to upsize to the 28ha property at Woods Point
where they have been ever since.
“We have expanded our operations by buying
neighbouring properties as they have become
available,” Steven said.
“It just means the cows have further to go and
the herd is not as dense and damaging the land.”
This includes 105ha of neighbouring blocks
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, made up of
swamp and higher lands, as well as another
405ha across the road at Brinkley in 2002, which
doubled their cropping capacity.
The most recent land expansion was purchasing
an adjoining 30ha of swamp and 10ha of high
FAMILY UNIT: Steven, Michelle, Courtney, Gloria,
land in 2019 to increase feed production for the
Bob and Tegan Afford all have roles in making day milking herd, plus give additional land to rear
to day life on the farm easier.
young stock.

VR4767466

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