About

During the course of the past century the Puttergill family has gone from growing tomatoes and green beans to Holstein stud … and in the past decade, Jersey, Hereford and Angus stud too!

PUTTERGILL FARMING – THE HISTORY…

In 1932, grandfather, Douglas Puttergill, bought the main farm holding “Bluegums”, which is 387ha, situated in Thornhill, Eastern Cape (30 minutes’ drive west of Port Elizabeth). Two adjoining farms were later purchased, making the total farm area 600ha.

Initially tomatoes and green beans were grown for the fresh market.
In 1954 dairy was introduced as a secondary business, with a few Jerseys and Frieslands milked by hand.
In 1958, Douglas’s youngest son Clive Puttergill (Brett and Grant’s dad) joined his father in the business. The herd by then, had built up to 70 cows, and the system was upgraded to a bucket milking system. More cows were purchased (Dutch Friesland type – much shorter and squarer than the Holstein cows milked at Bluegums today).
The top cows in those days produced around 25 litres per day, compared with the top cows’ average of 65 litres per day today!

In 1970, Clive took over the business, and in 1983 the Puttergills started in earnest with AI bulls which at that stage were all South African bred.  In 1984, a new 16-point herringbone parlour was commissioned, where initially, 120 cows were milked.

In 1988, American Holstein semen was introduced into the herd (Aghaloma Thornwood Valiant). The production picked up remarkably – by 7,000-7,500 litres per lactation. American sires Tesk, Winken, Nathan and Calypso were also introduced, and had a big impact on the herd, producing much bigger framed cows with strength and dairyness. These features are still prominent in the herd today, and are the basis of the Puttergills’ farming philosophy.

In 1993, Brett joined his father Clive full-time.

In 1994 vegetable production was stopped to concentrate on milking cows which had become the main business.

In 1999, younger brother Grant joined Brett & Clive.

TODAY…

CS Puttergill & Sons partnership trades as Puttergill Farming. Brett and Grant run the farm, and Clive is “retired”.

Puttergill Farming stud breeding programs now include both dairy and beef (introduced in 2012).

The DAIRY stud-herd comprises predominantly Holsteins and a handful of Jerseys.  
450 cows are milked in a 40-point herringbone milking parlour which was commissioned in April 2016.

The BEEF stud-herd comprises Herefords and a few Black Angus, with a breeding compliment of 150 females.