A bull that represented the Sussex cattle breed in SA Stud Book and Vleissentraal’s bull growth test class in 2025 yielded the only outstanding price at the society’s national auction on 14 August in Bloemfontein.

By Johan Norval, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad

The bull FC 220053 from Carl and Niel Durow’s Sussex herd on the farm Skeefkop near Clocolan was sold for R350 000 after a battle between two bidders.

The winning bid was made by Junior Keyser from the Blema ba Kan stud on the farm Goedehoop in the Kroonstad district in the Free State.

Keyser’s bull GBK 200054 Blema ba Kan Albert 13th was the Sussex breed representative in the bull growth test at the Bloem Show in 2023.

Bidding was slow on the 25 bulls on offer and several were taken out of the ring unsold.

Also read: Record price for Sussex bull the crown on 80 years of stud achievement

The studs that fared best were the well-known Platdrif Sussex stud of Nollie Stofberg and sons of Worcester, whose most expensive bulls fetched R100 000, R75 000, R70 000 and R60 000.

Theo van Zyl’s Faurzyl stud’s most expensive bulls were R80 000 and two of R65 000 each.

The average price of the 16 bulls sold was R75 625. The average price of five pregnant stud heifers was R22 800 and that of seven commercial non-pregnant heifers was R9 000. A total of 70 semen straws achieved an average price of R392.

The auction was presented by Vleissentraal Bloemfontein in collaboration with SwiftVEE. The auctioneer was Alan Sinclair.