She was a real city girl. Then she met the man of her dreams, got married and moved to the farm. Now, six years and three children later, she is a proud farmer’s wife with her own business.
Megan Roux and her husband, Tiaan, from the farm Rouxland, farms with cattle, maize, soybeans and sugarbeans outside Ogies in Mpumalanga.
Farm Rouxland makes use of Kynoch fertiliser to deliver the best crops to the market.
It is farms like Rouxland Grains and women like Megan with who Kynoch wants to partner. They believe that women must be empowered.
That is why they make their fertiliser as good and available to women in agriculture as possible. In this way women like Megan can chase their dreams without having to be worried about the fertility of their soil.
Some of Megan Roux’s most impressive chickens.
With a cluck-cluck here and a cluck-cluck there
MegRouxst is the name of Megan’s egg company.
Tiaan decided two years ago that they must get chickens for eggs for their house.
“He bought us twenty chickens but never new that twenty chickens lay twenty eggs per day!” Megan laughed.
That is how Megan started selling eggs to the farm workers and the community and quickly fell in love with the feathered friends.
Little by little she saved her money to buy more chickens and today she already has 250 of them!
“My chickens give me about eight trays of eggs a day, which I sell in the area.”
However, this is far from Megan’s peak. She says that she intends on expanding her egg business even further.
“There is a great demand for free range eggs. I sell the most of my eggs in Secunda to the farm workers and I also have big orders from Boksburg.”
Everything in farming begins with the soil. Healthy soil leads to healthy crops and, in this case, healthy chickens.
Kynoch ensures that the farmer’s soil is filled with the necessary nutrients to ultimately produce the best product.
Megan’s free-range chickens are just one example of the environmentally conscious farming techniques that Kynoch strives for.
They believe that farming must be done in a sustainable manner at all times.
Kynoch’s pursuit of healthy farming is built on four pillars: right source, right time, right place and right amount.
By now these chickens are almost part of the family.
Megan says that even the children come into the cage and pick them up. “If you go into the cage, they bend down so you can rub them, just like pets.”
Besides her role as a businesswoman on the farm, Megan realized that she fulfils other roles that are just as important.
“I realized that a woman’s role on the farm is very important. She must be able to support her husband. If your husband had a challenging day, you should be able to be there for him.”
Farming is not child’s play
Because Megan comes from the city, farm life was strange to her at first.
However, she does not back down from a challenge and instead sees it as an opportunity to grow.
“The challenges of being a farmer’s wife are perhaps even more for me than for those who grew up on a farm. For me, it is weird when my husband arrives home at nine o’clock in the evening for a month, but even with all the challenges it is still nice to be a farmer’s wife.”
What makes it worth it for Megan is to see how her children can play in freedom. “They can play outside and I know they are safe.
My children can play between the chickens, they can go and look at cattle and drive tractor with their dad.”
The farm also gave Megan the opportunity to begin her own business.
“I am very thankful to Rouxland. If I did not come to the farm I would never knew how much I would love chickens. Now I can make money myself. I do not have to go work, I can be with my children and farm on my own.”
Women helping women
“In this community we are a group of young farm women that work together. We all drive to school for a half an hour and then back a half an hour. Later that day we also need to go fetch our children and drive the same road.
We are very blessed to have each other, we are a strong group of woman that support each other. If the one cannot fetch her child the other one does it for her. We are there for each other. It is together that we can talk about the joys of womenhood.”
Megan is happy to report that she is surrounded with support on the farm. “In your farm you need a partnership and people that can give you advice and guidance.”
She also says that is the type of relationship they have with Kynoch. “Kynoch helps us to take farming forward.”
Also with her egg farming Megan can testify how local women support each other. They are three women in the area that sell eggs but they help rather than compete with each other.
“If I must give ten trays for someone and I only have eight I can call them and they will help me with pleasure.”
What does Megan think make a successful wife?
“Every woman is unique. She has a quality about her that is a strength, that someone else might not have. That way we can build each other up. Women are successful when they stand together.
You cannot be successful if you break down someone else. Around us are so many inspiring women and I look up to each and every one of them.”
Kynoch celebrates successful women in the agricultural industry. They believe that women in the agricultural industry stories, just like Megan, are inspiring and shows the resilience and determination of women in agriculture. Kynoch strives to support women in leadership positions.
That is why they have farmer’s days and farm visits as part of their campaign. This way they can get solutions and ideas that suits every individual’s needs.
