A farm built on 'what else?'
For Gracell Goeieman, the future of farming is not necessarily about choosing between cattle, conservation, tourism or business. It is about finding a way to make them work together.
At Mooipan, Goeieman is building on her family’s farming foundation with a deliberately diversified operation that includes cattle, sheep, goats, game, poultry, pigs, ostriches, biomass and tourism.
“I see a modern farm as a business ecosystem rather than simply a place where livestock or crops are produced,” Goeieman says.
This philosophy has pushed her to look beyond the traditional farm model and ask a different question: what else can the land produce?
Goeieman says the answer has been an expanding agricultural operation in which different activities offer different opportunities, from livestock production and conservation to charcoal, value addition and agritourism.
Building on a family foundation
Goeieman’s farming journey is closely tied to her family. Her father provided the foundation on which she began building her own agricultural vision, while her studies in Animal Science at the University of Namibia gave her a scientific understanding of livestock and production.
“My father gave me the foundation, my education gave me the science, and the land gives me the opportunity,” she says.
But Goeieman does not view that foundation as something to simply preserve. “I see it as my responsibility to build on what was started and to create something that can continue,” she says.
For her, this means introducing new activities rather than relying solely on traditional livestock farming. “Mooipan now carries Brahman, Simbra, Simmentaler and crossbred cattle, alongside sheep and goats. The farm also has game, including eland, kudu, hartebeest, springbok and giraffe, as well as poultry, pigs and ostriches,” Goeieman says.
For Goeieman, each operation forms part of a bigger picture. “It developed gradually. As I looked at the different resources we had, I started thinking about how we could use them in different ways,” she says.
Problems become solutions
Perhaps the clearest example of her approach is the farm’s biomass operation.
Goeieman believes bush encroachment is a longstanding challenge for farmers, particularly where thickening bush reduces the land available for grazing. But rather than viewing the bush only as something to clear and discard, she began looking at whether it could become an economic resource.
“Bush encroachment is a challenge, but it can also be a resource if managed properly,” she says.
She says suitable woody material can be used for charcoal and firewood, creating an additional economic activity while addressing a problem that affects agricultural productivity.
For Goeieman, the principle goes beyond charcoal. “Don’t just remove the problem. Find a way to create value from solving it,” she says.
She believes that mindset is at the heart of her broader approach to farming: identifying challenges and resources on the farm and looking for ways to turn them into opportunities.
Keeping value on the farm
Goeieman also believes farmers need to think beyond producing raw agricultural products.
A farmer may produce livestock or another commodity, she says, but much of the value can be created later through processing, packaging, branding and marketing. “Farmers should not always be the ones who produce the raw product and then watch someone else capture most of the value further down the chain,” she says.
For Goeieman, value addition offers farmers an opportunity to participate in more stages of the agricultural value chain.
Instead of asking only how much can be produced, the question becomes what can be done with that product before it leaves the farm.
“Processing, packaging, branding and direct marketing can help farmers capture more value from what they produce,” she says.
It is another reason why she sees the farm as a collection of interconnected businesses rather than a single production unit.
The same philosophy has extended into tourism.
Through Graceville Hills & Tours, Goeieman is developing an agritourism component aimed at turning the farm into an experience for visitors.
She believes there is value in bringing people closer to the land and helping consumers understand where their food comes from.
“A farm can become more than a production site. It can become a destination where people reconnect with food, land, animals and rural life,” she says.
For urban consumers in particular, Goeieman says such experiences can offer an opportunity to see the realities of agriculture first-hand.
Conservation meets agriculture
Mooipan’s game and conservation activities form another part of Goeieman’s vision. She does not see commercial agriculture and conservation as mutually exclusive. Instead, she believes both can form part of a responsible approach to managing the land.
Her experience hand-rearing ostriches has also shaped how she thinks about farming. “It taught me patience, observation and stewardship,” she says.
Those lessons have influenced her understanding of agriculture as something that requires more than production targets. “It requires attention to the animals, the land and the long-term consequences of decisions made today,” she says.
Running multiple agricultural activities, however, comes with its own challenges. Diversification can spread financial and production risk, but it also means managing several operations, markets and sets of responsibilities at once.
Goeieman acknowledges that expansion must therefore be approached carefully. “You have to be willing to take calculated risks, but those risks must be informed by knowledge, planning and an understanding of the market,” she says.
The objective, she says, is not to diversify for the sake of having more activities. “It is to build a business where those activities make sense and contribute to the sustainability of the farm,” she says.
A legacy measured in opportunities
Goeieman’s plans for Mooipan remain ambitious.
She wants to grow the livestock herd, introduce new breeds and improve breeding and management practices. The poultry, ostrich and conservation operations are also expected to expand, while she wants to grow the biomass processing and value-addition side of the business.
Graceville Hills & Tours is another area she intends to strengthen.
Ultimately, Goeieman says her ambitions are bigger than the farm’s balance sheet. “I want to create food, jobs, businesses, knowledge and opportunities,” she says.
That is the legacy she wants Mooipan to represent.
The farm she inherited is therefore not being treated as a finished product. Instead, Goeieman sees herself as the next person responsible for adding to its story.
“I am trying to add another chapter to the legacy that was handed to me,” she says.
She believes her chapter is increasingly being written not only in cattle and livestock, but also in charcoal, conservation, tourism, value addition and new ways of thinking about what agricultural land can produce.
For Goeieman, the question is no longer what can Mooipan farm. It is what can Mooipan become?
