Strong demand for females at the Braunvieh SA national auction, held on 6 August at the Afridome in Parys, resulted in record prices for the breed.
By Johan Norval
Abie Rademeyer, chairman of Braunvieh SA, says a prize-winning cow, HB 150008 Witbek Zan, from Hans Bester and his daughters’ Witbek stud near Vrede, was the most expensive female at R85 000. This was a South African breed record price for a pregnant SP cow. The 3-in-1 cow was the 2026 SA Stud Book national Elite Platinum beef cow of the breed and received a national cow award from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in 2024. She has five stars for fertility value, and her intercalving period over nine calves is 364 days. The buyer was Tom Yzel of the Lezy stud at Marquard. Bester’s Witbek herd has produced about six Elite Platinum cows for the breed in the SA Stud Book competition in recent years.
Lot 37 (HB 260002), a daughter of Witbek Zan by the bull Eduan Turbo’s Bester, also set a breed record. Her price of R50 000 was a South African record for a Braunvieh weaner heifer. She has 4.5 stars for fertility value and 3.5 stars for cow value and calf growth value. Bester says he was pleasantly surprised by her price. She is six months old and initially entered the auction ring with her mother. Yzel also bought her when she was auctioned separately.
The most expensive bull was HB 230005, also from the Witbek stud, which fetched R90 000. He passed a Phase D test and was genomically tested. He also has good calving ease and calf growth values. Yzel also bought this bull. He started his stud about six years ago after buying Braunvieh cattle from the Besters and importing semen.
Bester bought Yzel’s bull TEY 230010 (lot 5) for R65 000. The bull is of imported Canadian genetics and is a medium-framed bull with good masculinity. He also comes from an exceptional dam with a milk value of 129. Bester says TEY 230010 already has progeny at Marquard that he will evaluate for selective matings in his herd. TEY 230010 also represented the Braunvieh breed in Vleissentraal and SA Stud Book’s performance test class during Bloem Show 2026.
According to Danie Erasmus and Fanie Els, who conducted the pre-selection for the auction, the bulls displayed good musculature, body length and comfortable movement. The females had good balance and wedge shape.
Rademeyer says the average price of the 13 bulls was R63 462, the highest average ever achieved at a national Braunvieh auction. The average price of the pregnant cows was R52 500 and that of the heifers R29 250.
Vleissentraal Bloemfontein presented the auction in collaboration with the Meerkat platform, with Allan Sinclair as auctioneer.
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