By Johan Norval
The Santa Gertrudis sales group Top-Up’s second production auction on 6 February in the Bothaville district was a huge success despite the current poor production conditions and the tight buyers’ market for cattle.
The most expensive bull, IGB 220082, from Jan Botma’s Sombrero stud in this district was sold for R110 000 to Betsie Grobler, a commercial breeder from the farm Unie at Vierfontein. Botma’s IGB 220064 was the second most expensive bull at the auction at R100 000.
Jaco van Biljon of Elljardus Santas of Vierfontein says the aim of the auction, namely to establish Santas in the area, was successful, especially considering that commercial breeders are starting to prefer the breed in their herds.
“Our SP animals sold well and the Top-Up auction focuses on marketing female animals. Another reason why the auction is so popular is that it is held in the facilities of Boere Boss on the farm of Hendrina Britz along the R30 route.
Apart from Botma and Van Biljon, the Top-Up group consists of Desmond and Timmy Robertson (Santarific Santas), Herman Kleynhans (Kleynhans Velde), Deon van Biljon (Baberpan, Vierfontein) and JP Botma of Bothaville.
The average price of the 11 bulls was R65 455, which is almost the same as last year. Two commercial bulls were sold for R55 000 each. The average price of stud cows with a calf was R45 000 and that of the 18 commercial cows with a calf was R25 556. Pregnant stud heifers were sold at an average of R37 000, 39 pregnant commercial heifers at R17 295 and non-pregnant commercial heifers at R13 000. The price of commercial cows (3-in-1) was on average R20 500 and of pregnant commercial cows it was R19 429.
Vleissentraal Bloemfontein hosted the auction and Allan Sinclair was the auctioneer.
