By Charl van Rooyen
The magnificent buffalo bull Magic stole the spotlight at the biennial game auction of Piet du Toit Wildbedryf held on Saturday 15 February on Du Toit’s farm Hoogenbomen, at Lindleyspoort near Rustenburg.
The bull was sold for the highest price at the auction where hundreds of game were put up for sale. The very good prices achieved prove that there is life again in the game industry, especially for exceptional breeding animals. Good prices were also paid for hunting game. The turnover at the auction, which was held by Wildswinkel, was R82 million.
Waltco Group Game Breeders sold the buffalo bull. The bull, bred from the bull Thabazimbi and the cow Red 02, is 8 years and 10 months old. His horns were measured as 56 inches on 11 December 2024. This is 108 6/8 inches from tip to tip. His SCI score is 154 inches. The buyers were Du Toit, Bona-Bona from Wolmaransstad and Ben Botha from Thabazimbi.
The opening bid was R8,3 million and then the auctioneer, Brandon Leer, accepted offers in increments of R500 000 at a time.
The price continued to accelerate and when he hit the bid at R21 million, and later sold for R22 million, confetti shot out of tubes on either side of the rostrum with a deafening bang and descended on the people in the front rows.
Buffalo heifer achieves SA record
A one-year-old heifer from Piet du Toit Wildebedryf, Grenada, achieved a South African age record price of R850 000. She is a daughter of the bull Jupiter and the cow Capri. The buyer was the Zambezi Group of Game Breeders.
Clara, an East African cow with horns measuring 37 1/8 inches, was sold for R2,1 million by Piet du Toit Wildbedryf to Neil Rex of Mpumalanga. She is a daughter of the bull Jupiter (53 1/8 inches) and the cow Bassa (52 6/8 inches) and a descendant of the superb bull Horison. Another Bassa daughter, Capri (40 2/8 inches), was sold by Du Toit for R3,95 million. Jupiter was sold at auction for R8 million.
Other good prices for buffalo included:
R3,2 million for the bull Ngeny (53 7/8 inches) by Alden Buffalo to Tembani Wildlife; R1 075 000 for a bull, Kelly (38 4/8 inches) sold by Du Toit to Kwandwe Private Game Reserve; R820 000 for a cow, Ilne (36 4/8 inches), by Bona Bona Game Breeders to Du Toit.
Four white rhinos also went under the hammer. The highest price was R1 050 000 for a breeding/hunting bull with a horn of 30 4/8 inches. The other three rhinos were cows. Two were sold for R450 000 each and one for R300 000. The details of the sellers and buyers are being withheld due to the risk of rhino poaching.
Other game species
Other good prices achieved include the following:
Wildebeest. R1,9 million for a blue wildebeest bull, Chobe (34 4/8 inches), from Meletse; R690 000 for a golden wildebeest, Biggy (33 inches), by Wokini Games Breeders; R480 000 for a king wildebeest, Romeo (29 9/16 inches), from Swa-Zulu.
Eland. R425 000 for a Livingstone eland bull, Adami (17 stripes and 28 6/8 inches), from Du Toit.
Waterbuck. R420 000 for a waterbuck bull, Ducati (35 6/8 inches), from Du Toit.
Sable antelope. R775 000 for a Zambian sable antelope bull, Federer (55 inches), by Tembani Wildlife.
Gemsbok. R800 000 for a Zambian gemsbok bull, Red 49 (55 2/8 inches), by Sable View Safaris; R540 000 for a golden gemsbok bull, TT (45 inches), by Du Toit.
Impala. R305 000 for a spotted impala ram (21 6/8 inches) by G.J. Naudé Boerdery; R280 000 for an impala ram, Bosco (27 2/8 inches), by Regalo Game; R190 000 for a white flanked impala ram by Pamale Game Farm.
Kudu. R320 000 for a bull, Prince (61 2/8 inches), by G.J. Naudé Boerdery; R310 000 for a bull, Maverick (62 4/8 inches), by Mhembwe Safari.
Springbuck. R250 000 for a springbuck ram, Thunder, with horns measuring 19 5/8 inches, from Soetvelde Kransspruit; R170 000 for a springbok ram, Rasta (19 4/8 inches), from Karoo Experience; R80 000 for a Kalahari springbok ewe (15 inches) from Mega Springbuck.
Nyala. R220 000 for a Nyala bull, Tennessee (32 6/8 inches), from Nyumbu Wildlife.
Hunting game fetches good prices
Hunting game also fetched good prices, such as the R530 000 paid for a Kalahari hunt of 20 springbuck, 12 gemsbok, 8 biltong eland cows, 2 eland bulls and 4 scimitars. This also includes 10 Persian slaughter sheep and 3 nights’ accommodation for six hunters and two observers. The hunting package was sold by Piet du Toit African Safaris.
Du Toit was particularly pleased with the results of the auction. He says about a thousand people attended the auction throughout the day, and there were nearly five hundred people at the official reception after the auction.
Also read:
Nu Alcade auction: Rain encouraging to farmers
Exceptional polled bull top seller at Leehan auction
