By Johan Norval
With very good prices and an affordable average price of R75 000, bulls reigned supreme at the 33rd production auction of Arthur de Villiers & Son’s Arcadia Bonsmara stud. The auction was also characterised by buyers from far and wide, as well as strong interest from online buyers. De Villiers thanked the online buyers from various South American countries and Australia in his opening speech.
His stud is one of twenty that will be honoured in 2024 at the sixtieth anniversary of the Bonsmara Cattle Breeders’ Society for their membership of 45 years and more. He also received a special honour for his work as ambassador and president of the World Federation to market the Bonsmara breed in South Africa and worldwide.
André Gloy of Memel, one of the supporters who has believed in the AG Gene bloodlines for years, paid the highest price of R360 000 for the bull AG 180284. He has already bought at least 30 Arcadia bulls.
The underbidder, dr. Wesley Mouton of Namibia, made him work hard in the battle to obtain the bull. Mouton later bought the bull AG 220412 for R150 000.
Dr. Joggie Briedenhann, also a Namibian breeder, bought two bulls, AG 190037 and AG 220040, for R120 000 and R130 000 respectively. Due to the ban on livestock to Namibia, these bulls will first be taken to Brits for sperm washing.
The bull AG 190185 also attracted great interest, but the 18th bid was eventually awarded to Christoffel van Deventer of Middelburg (Mpumalanga) at R160 000. Another bull, AG 210198, was sold for the same amount to Jonathan Fetting of Fort Beaufort. Other bulls that reached the R100 000 mark are AG 180440 and AG 220869, which were sold to Rudolf van der Veen of Naboomspruit (R110 000) and Hogart Gevers of Vryheid (R100 000) respectively. The average price of the 49 bulls sold was R75 714,29 and the lowest price was R45 000.
The average price of commercial cows with calves was R19 843,75, commercial cows R18 000, pregnant commercial cows R19 300, pregnant stud cows R22 7619,90, stud cows R37 500, 3-in-1 stud cows R29 500 and stud cows with calves R25 000.
Vleissentraal Ermelo hosted the auction on 9 April on the farm Arcadia near Vrede in collaboration with SwiftVee. The auctioneer was Mike Killassy.
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