By Gavin Isted
Diederik van Pletzen and family’s annual production auction, which was held on 4 February on their farm Vaalbank in the Jamestown district, resulted in good average prices.
Diederik and his sons, Janco and DJ, were among the very first in the area to use BLUP values, as well as the Decision Support Services (DSS) support system in their stud to select their sheep. It is also tradition for Janco to auction a lot that he has selected himself.
Ras van Pletzen from Jamestown and Bruce and Leroy Philips from Molteno respectively bought two rams for the highest price of R23 000. The average price of the rams was R10 500.
Diederik believes their rams will make a difference in the buyers’ flocks. “Kranskop Merino was established in 1988 with the main objective of breeding rams that would improve the entire flock economically, and that is still the main reason why we breed rams.”
The auction was presented by BKB. The auctioneer was Vincent Pike.
