Sustainability at Saxenburg
At Saxenburg, we constantly strive to lessen the impact that our farm and our business have on the environment. Sustainability is the key to unlocking a better tomorrow for future generations and we continuously assess our efforts to have a positive footprint.
“The best way to predict future is to create it.”
– Peter Drucker
Cover Crops
Cover crops naturally suppress weeds, and in return, lower the need for herbicides. They also prevent erosion and improve soil health by creating a favourable environment for the natural soil microbes. In the long run, this will improve our vine health, making them more resilient against drought and disease.
In March 2020, our winemaker, Dirk van Zyl, interviews Dick Richardson of ‘Grazing Naturally” to talk about Regenerative & Sustainable Farming. Grazing Naturally, based in Australia, is born of Dick Richardson’s passion for nature and his insights into the symbiotic relationships within nature that create the impulse to drive change. The Grazing Naturally Program combines listening to the environment and responding appropriately with comprehensive planning, risk mitigation, and grazing animals. Watch the interesting webinar here
Recycling and Reusing
As a team, we continuously assess how we can better our efforts on the farm by recycling and reusing. Our dedicated recycling area is used for glass and paper, and we try and limit our use of paper by welcoming an all-digital approach for information sharing. We also know that water is a vital asset, therefore, we capture it naturally in our Estate dam to irrigate our gardens and vineyards.
Bottelary Hills Renosterveld Conservancy
We partnered with the Bottelary Hills Renosterveld Conservancy (BHRC) to start the process of removing invasive trees that pose a threat to our biodiversity. The alien trees consume precious water, much needed for surrounding flora to flourish. Together with the LandCare, the local community, contributions from the BHRC MTB trial, and the Department of Agriculture, they streamline this project to ensure notable water stream recoveries and regrowing plant species.
The BHRC’s mission is to protect the natural fauna and flora in the area, one of which is the Fynbos and Renosterveld we have on the Estate. Furthermore, we keep large parts of our farm under natural vegetation, in actual fact, less than 60 hectares of our 190-hectare farm is planted to vineyards. These large areas of natural vegetation provide plenty of shelter and food to indigenous fauna like caracal, duiker, guinea fowl, and porcupines – to name but a few.
Replanting & Water Wise
To support our efforts to become more water-wise, our gardening team replaced multiple flower beds with indigenous plants with low water demands. Our water-wise commitment is not limited to the farm and vineyards, in the cellar, we also constantly look at ways to use less water during the entire winemaking process. We have now started using sterilising agents that break down to water and oxygen after use, to minimise the number of chemicals in our wastewater.
