The sale of a large livestock farm on the farm Welgegun near Excelsior, which operated as Circle C, marks the end of a Free State landmark that has operated under two “farmer brands” over the past four decades.
Johan Norval
Kevin Cloete, a businessman and entrepreneur from Boksburg who operated the Welgegun property as Circle C for the past 17 years, has sold the land to the state for farmer resettlement for R25 million.
At a total dispersal sale of all movable assets on 27 February at Welgegun, Cloete realised a further almost R5.5 million. The most expensive movable item was a John Deere 5625 tractor, which fetched R290 000. Various other goods such as farm equipment and utility items from the reception and auction room realised more than R1 million. The sale of 254 crossbred cattle yielded about R4.4 million.
The previous owner of Welgegun was Hennie Bezuidenhoudt’s Benchmark group, which developed the farm into a beacon in the stud cattle industry. Benchmark was known, among other things, for selling the most expensive Bonsmara bull, AG 980338, in 2006. This R800 000 transaction included 6 000 straws of his semen. Bezuidenhoudt bought the bull at a production auction in 2004 for R180 000, which was also considered a record price for Bonsmaras at the time. The bull was bred by Arthur de Villiers of the Arcadia Bonsmara stud near Vrede.
The original purchase transaction included a 3 000 ha block on Welgegun and five adjacent farms. The main farm has a comprehensive auction complex, an artificial insemination and embryo centre built to international standards and laboratories and livestock handling facilities where basic research and practical training can be conducted. There is also a 700 m² barn.
The 69-year-old Cloete says he will now focus on his passion for aircraft and the art of flying, which he has pursued for the past 17 years. He even obtained a helicopter licence three years ago at the age of 66 and says age does not hold him back, as he still feels like a fifty-year-old.
Among other ventures, he operates a butchery in Boksburg and says other development opportunities await him. “I started my own butchery when I saw that the price of meat in the retail sector remained high, even though the producer price was falling.”
Circle C once boasted one of the largest top gene pools of Boran cattle, but Cloete has since scaled back his herd of 1 000 top cattle. He sold out his Senepol stud three years ago at the breed’s national meeting and continued with a commercial crossbred herd.
The average prices for the cattle were as follows: commercial and stud bulls R21 294 and R26 000 respectively, commercial cows (3-in-1) R20 605, pregnant commercial cows R14 467, non-pregnant commercial cows R9 000, commercial cows with calves R17 200 and non-pregnant commercial heifers R10 783.
The auction was presented by Vleissentraal Bloemfontein in collaboration with SwiftVEE, with Ian Grobbelaar as auctioneer.
