By Johan Norval
King Letsie III of Lesotho attended Heuningkrans Merino’s 49th production auction in the Smithfield district on Thursday 27 February and also received the first ram on the rostrum as a gift.
The farmers of this mountain kingdom supported the auction well. In addition to their ram purchases at the auction, they also bought an additional 28 veld rams.
This auction on the farm Heuningkrans followed the same trend as similar small stock auctions in recent times, in that the rams achieved relatively high average prices. The females were also more expensive than usual.
The average price of the 69 rams at Eddie and Eduard Prinsloo’s February auction was R10 478,26. This is almost R1 000 higher than the auction held at the same time in 2024.
The Du Toit brothers of Grootfontein near Herold paid R28 000 and R20 000 for the two most expensive rams. The Môreson farm at Albertinia, Willie Venter of Slypfontein near Victoria-Wes and L.S. Mereko of Rouxville bought three other rams at R19 000 each.
The ewes achieved an average of R1 512,22, pregnant ewes R1 338,46 and ewe lambs R1 585,71. The average price of the heifers was R1 380 and that of the 33 Bovelder heifers with their first calves R15 000. The turnover was R1 858 070.
BKB Cradock presented the auction, with Vincent Pike as the auctioneer.
