By Marisa Beeton

The decision to use the semen of a well-known bull after 20 years proved to be rewarding for Huntersvlei Sussex.

The son of a bull that had not had an offspring at auction for 24 years achieved the highest price at Huntersvlei Sussex’s 53rd auction.

Nico Bouwer of Witkwas Sussex did not miss the opportunity to acquire this scarce bloodline and paid R130 000 for Huntersvlei Zenith (JRE 21-37) at the auction held on August 2 outside Viljoenskroon in the Free State. Zenith is the son of the well-known Sussex bull, Huntersvlei Ziegler.

Huntersvlei Sussex is the oldest herd of this breed in South Africa, and Ziegler has made significant contributions to the stud industry and the rest of the country.

“Huntersvlei Ziegler was one of the 10 most influential bulls of all time in the breed,” said Enrico Cronjé, manager of Huntersvlei for the Rhys Evans Group. “He was born in 1988 and his last calves were born in the late 1990s. The last time his offspring were available at an auction was in 1999.”

Cronjé used the semen of the bull, which died in 2003, for artificial insemination. “We still had some of his semen, and I decided to see how that old semen would perform with modern cows. I wanted to see what it would do to the gene pool, and I was not disappointed.”

For Bouwer, it was an opportunity to acquire the old bloodline of Huntersvlei. “I used it in earlier years and it worked very well for me,” said Bouwer, who farms at Leeuwpan in the Delareyville district in North West.

“The bull looks good and he has excellent figures, but I was interested in the bloodline. I want to use him in my stud. Someone joked and said, ‘if you go back to old bloodlines, you know you are going back to the basics’.”

Bloodline is one thing, but Huntersvlei Zenith is an excellent bull in his own right. He is phenotypically correct and has good length and capacity.

“Zenith has excellent figures, showing he is light in terms of birth weight but heavy in terms of weaning weight. He has good physical characteristics complemented by his figures. Together with the rare bloodline, he makes an excellent bull for any herd,” said Cronjé.

Huntersvlei’s other bulls also performed well at the auction and achieved an average price of R75 227. “We are very satisfied with this average. It is higher than last year. There were a few new buyers, but also many of our established buyers who supported us.”