Elgin local wins Western Cape Young Farmer of the Year

Richard Hutton-Squire, an apple and pear farmer, has been named Agri Western Cape Santam Young Farmer of the Year 2026. He spoke to Jenny Underhill at the head office of Hutton-Squire Farms in Elgin.

Richard Hutton-Squire turned 40 last year. The cut-off age for the award. He knew this was his last chance to enter. “The opportunity was there, and I think it’s important to contribute and challenge yourself. I thought we’d had some really great results on our farm, so maybe I was in with a shot.”

The first step of the competition involved completing an extensive entry form. This was an opportunity for him to reflect objectively on his influence on the farm’s business operations. “I filled in what I thought were the answers, and then I reread the questions and had to start again. They didn’t ask what we’ve done and what we’ve achieved. Instead, they asked, ‘What is your policy on this or that?’”

After the first round, he was invited to Santam’s offices in Bellville to give a presentation, but a forecast storm prompted the organisers to shift the gathering online. Hutton-Squire’s slot was on a Monday morning, in the midst of a leaking roof and a power outage. “The most difficult thing about this competition is that you can’t see the goal posts. All you can do is put your best foot forward,” said Hutton-Squire. The final round was a visit to his farm by the judges. In the days after the award was announced, I received so many messages of support. The outpouring of positivity has been amazing.”

Formative experiences

Hutton-Squire grew up on the family farm, attended junior school in Somerset West, and matriculated from Diocesan College in Cape Town in 2003. He spent the following year at the University of Cape Town studying engineering. “At the time, I was doing a lot of sailing – competitive dinghy sailing and big keelboat sailing – so I thought I would go into naval architecture. But there was so much bookwork. I couldn’t really see where I was going.”

At the end of 2004, he started working with his father on the farm. He found he enjoyed driving a truck every day and helping with farm management. He spent part of 2005 working at Adrian Scripps Ltd. – one of the UK’s largest apple producers – as a cold store technician and forklift operator.

From 2006 to 2009, Hutton-Squire studied at Elsenburg, specialising in pomology and agronomy. Hutton-Squire’s father had just bought Solberge, a neighbouring farm that had been under liquidation for five years. “Everything needed building, replanting and redevelopment. I was lucky enough to be able to spend two or three days a week at Elsenburg and the remaining time on the farm, gaining practical experience.”

After another year working on the farm, Hutton-Squire wanted to study further. However, when he enquired at the University of Stellenbosch, they couldn’t offer him anything and said he would need to start a first-year BSc.

As an alternative, Hutton-Squire was referred to the Ohio International Intern Program (TOP). He was placed as an intern at the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission in Wenatchee, Washington State, USA, where he performed field data capture for 9 months. He worked on fruit phenology in apples and pears, and on different research trials.

“You’re on a different farm every day, observing – not doing – farm work. We had the time to watch a bud become a flower and then a fruit, and absorb the way things are done on big, cutting-edge farms. It made me sort of hungry and driven to build a world-class farm when I got back to South Africa.”

Third-generation farmer

Hutton-Squire’s grandfather bought the original 44-hectare farm, Deepdale, in 1948, and his father, Johnny Hutton-Squire, was born there the following year. The farm has expanded over the years and currently comprises 270 hectares of apples and pears.

It is divided into four units that are managed separately; three units – including the farms Deepdale, Solberge and Springdale – are accessed off Valley Road in Elgin, and the fourth contains two farms in Villiersdorp. Hutton-Squire Farms is now the second biggest supplier to Kromco and has doubled its output of apples and pears over the past ten years.

Richard Hutton-Squire became managing director in 2022. He is also the current farm manager at Solberge. “It’s taken us 20 years of consistent hard work to transform Solberge into one of the top farms in the Elgin Valley – confirmed by orchard profitability studies in 2023 and 2024. I would like to try and replicate this on the other two units in Elgin.”

Management philosophy

He is adamant that you have to get the basics right to farm successfully. “We are nothing without our workers. Everybody needs to be at work every day. We set out clear instructions of what is expected, and we are consistently trying to achieve that standard on a daily basis.”  Attention to detail is non-negotiable for him. Especially when spraying.  “We follow our tried-and-tested basic spray program every year. We’re following the correct schedule, and we have enough spray machines that are properly maintained and calibrated. Once you’ve got the basics right, you’re 80 to 90% of the way there, and you don’t have to go and do something that’s expensive and fancy to achieve success,” he explains. “We keep making tiny improvements to win the 1% each year.” I like to think of it as incremental innovation. Instead of doing one big innovative project that may or may not work, if you try to improve every single one of your systems a little bit, it adds up to a big picture of success.”

Apart from a focus on precision production and quality, Hutton-Squire is particular about savvy financial management, technical excellence and sustainable agriculture. “If we don’t know how to do something, we ask somebody, and we make sure we get the correct technical expertise to assist.”

He is also committed to building an empowered and capable workforce. In 2019, the senior management on the farm completed a training course presented by industrial psychologists. Hutton-Squire got so much out of it that he decided that they should run a similar course for the group of supervisors on the farm. This course was so successful that he has committed to running six-month-long leadership and personal development training courses every year for different groups of workers. Language is critical in agriculture, and he speaks English and Afrikaans and is workplace proficient in isiXhosa. “It’s important to me that I can go into the orchard and engage with any of the teams and communicate my support for what they’re doing in their own language.”

Looking to the future

He wants to stay hands-on in farming because he believes his core skills and competencies can have the biggest impact there. He would also like to build an employee-focused brand that embodies dignity and respect. “We plan to stick with apples and pears. We can expand our orchards by planting all available land, which should take us to well over 300 hectares. We will ensure our business remains sustainable by reinvesting and being environmentally conscious. We’ll consider investing in other farms – should they become available – and continue to support and invest in our employees.”

Hutten-Squire has just finished his training with the Hortgro Young Industry Leaders Programme. He found the programme offered a fantastic opportunity to meet others in the industry. It was also valuable to visit the various industry bodies, be exposed to what happens behind the scenes, and get to know Hortgro’s structures. Farming keeps him pretty busy, but any spare time is spent building memories with his family. His wife, Daniela, is the business manager for Hutton-Squire Farms, and they have a three-year-old son. They enjoy going fishing on the farm dams, and Elgin is a great place to mountain bike. Hutton-Squire still loves to go sailing whenever he can.

His father has been a fantastic mentor. He has always “farmed for the sheer opportunity of farming” and has given him “the vision to build something from scratch, employ more people, and get the job done”.

Caption: Richard Hutton-Squire, Western Cape Young Farmer of the Year! (Picture: Jandre Kleynhans)