EXEMPLARY PRODUCERS REWARDED
Published: 03 Oct 2016

Agra announced and awarded the 2016 National Champion and Regional winners for the Agra Weaner auction competition at a gala dinner held in Windhoek on Thursday, 29 September 2016. Agra established the weaner calve competition to reward producers on their well-bred weaner calves.

Mr Heinz Grühn and Mrs Almut Grühn of Otongovi Farming from the central part of the country were crowned the 2016 National Champion. The duo also won in the regional feedlot potential category for the regional central.

The national champion is selected out of all the regional winners in the categories in which the competitions were held: calves with feedlot potential, calves with veld potential and heifers with breeding potential.

The regional winners were as follows:

North:
Feedlot Potential : Kuhn’s Farming
Veld Potential : Kuhn’s Farming
Breeding Heifers : Kuhn’s Farming

Central:
Feedlot Potential : Mr. & Mrs. Grühn
Veld Potential : Mrs. L M van Heerden
Breeding Heifers : Mrs. M K Woker-Wilckens

Southern:
Feedlot Potential : Mr. H Leeb
Veld Potential : Mr. A van der Merwe (van der Merwe Boerdery)
Breeding Heifers : Mrs. Leeb (EMK Boerdery)

Ryno van der Merwe, President of the NAU and Chairperson of Agra Board of Directors opened the event by congratulating the producers for the quality produce they entered into the competition. “Thank you for choosing Agra’s services to market your weaners. This is the opportunity that Agra uses to both reward exemplary producers for their efforts and to educate the farming community at large on prevailing market requirements,” he said.

Titus Koen, Agra’s General Manager of Auctions gave an overview of the 2016 weaner auctions competition. “As was expected, the numbers were far less than the norm for this time of the year. On a positive note, all animals were sold and the price was much better, according to the buyer and seller perspective,” he said.

The first auction was held in Grootfontein on 20 July 2016, and the last auction was concluded in Nina on 23 August 2016. A total of 11 auctions were hosted where lots of 12 weaner calves with the ideal weight of 220 – 260 kg each were entered for the competition. For the past financial year which ended on 31 July 2016, Agra sold 120 000 cattle.

The historical record for the weaner auction was Otjiwarongo last year with 2 453 weaner sold. This year, Otjiwarongo again achieved the record, but the number was down to 1 227.

The categories in which the animals competed are feedlot potential, veld potential and heifers with breeding potential. Within these categories, judges looked at fertility, growth ability and capacity to produce meat and farming practices such as de-horning, branding, mass uniformity etc. The judging was done by Dawid Krause and Christo van Zyl of Feedmaster.

Arnold Klein, Agra’s CEO thanked all the stakeholders for their involvement in the competition during difficult times. The total value of N$ 450 000 prizes, was contributed by the main sponsor: Bank Windhoek; senior sponsors: Feedmaster, Sanlam and Santam and co-sponsors: Bayer; Henco Engineering; Indongo Toyota; Marsh Namibia and MSD. These were awarded to winners of the competitions at the various auction points, the regional winners and the national champion. The awards ceremony was also made possible through the sponsorship of Bank Windhoek. 

The sponsors were also actively involved throughout the weaner auction season by attending auctions, hosting exhibitions and networking with clients. “We are proud that this competition attracted the diverse farming community, ranging from small scale resettled farmers to established commercial farmers, from both the communal and commercial farming areas,” Mr Klein concluded.