By Jan-Hendrik de Villiers
The Sernick Bonsmara breeding stock auction was held on Tuesday 25 March on the farm Liebenbergstroom near Edenville in the Free State, where the highest price for a bull was R150 000.
This bull was sold to Thinus Maritz from Vaalwater in Limpopo.
Nick Serfontein, seller and shareholder of the Sernick group, said the bull’s quality is very good. He has a good conformation and breeding values.
All 20 bulls were sold and achieved an average price of R66 000. The average prices were R27 000 for 35 three-in-1 cows, R20 000 for 75 pregnant cows, R19 000 for 103 pregnant heifers and R26 000 for 80 cows with calves.
Serfontein said that although he had low expectations for the auction, it did better than he had expected. “It wasn’t a bad auction. I would say it was a little above the average market price at this time of year, but it’s not where it should be yet.”
“February’s prices were much lower than at this auction,” he added.
He believes the average price of the bulls auctioned is relatively low. “We’re only offering a few bulls, just for guys who are looking for bulls at this time of year. It’s not really ‘bull time’. The actual bull season only starts around May to June.”
Breeding animals will also become expensive again in the next two to three months, because if farmers start harvesting maize again, the cattle industry will improve, Serfontein said.
“The cattle industry has been under terrible pressure for the past few years. Very marginal, but it will come back again. Good rains have fallen and the crops are there. The pastures are there and have recovered incredibly and the quality is good. In about two or three months we should see a different picture in terms of the meat and cattle industry.”
“We are in the middle of the grain areas and the crops are good, but with the droughts and waterlogging, the farmers have taken a beating in the past two years.”
As for the demand for herd animals, more than 80% of the buyers were black farmers who bought female breeding animals. Bonsmaras are very popular among them, Serfontein said.
“We have built a strong market among our black farmers, which is good.”
Sernick hosted the auction and SwiftVee handled the online portion. Johan van der Nest was the auctioneer.
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