AGRA CONCLUDES SUCCESSFUL WEANER SEASON
Published: 09 Oct 2017

Agra announced and awarded the 2017 National Champion and Regional winners for the sixth Agra Weaner Competition at a gala dinner held in Windhoek on Thursday, 5 October 2017. The Weaner Competition aims to recognise and reward producers for good quality weaner calves.

J.A. (Bertus) Calitz of Okatjeru farming from the Gobabis district was awarded as the 2017 National Champion. He was also the National Champion for the 2015 Agra Weaner Competition.

The National Champion is selected from all the regional winners in the following competition categories: calves with feedlot potential, calves with veld potential and heifers with breeding potential.

The regional winners were as follows:

North: Heifers with Breeding Potential: Kuhn’s Boerdery Feedlot Potential: R.G. Dorgeloh Veld Potential: N. Ngawetene

Central: Heifers with Breeding Potential: Marco Farming (N Du Plooy) Feedlot Potential: J.A. Calitz Veld Potential: L.M. Van Heerden

South: Heifers with Breeding Potential: Leeb Farming Feedlot Potential: Leeb Farming Veld Potential: J.H. Knipe

Ryno van der Merwe, President of the NAU and Chairperson of Agra Board of Directors opened the event by praising the producers for the quality weaners they entered into the competition. “Thank you for choosing to market your quality weaner calves through Agra and in-turn yield full advantage of the current favourable market prices. 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 best practise and market requirements,” he said.

Reflecting on the competition, Titus Koen, Agra’s General Manager for Auctions said that after three years of drought, the conditions this year were very favorable for the industry and resulting in a successful weaner season with record numbers and record prices. “As a result the producers significantly benefited from the high market prices,” he said.

Koen said, “A total number of 15 940 cattle were sold at this year’s weaner auctions compared to 5 977 cattle sold in 2016. The average weaner calve prices for last year was N$3 900 compared to this year’s N$6 800, which represents a growth of 74%,” he concluded.

The main sponsors for this year’s Weaner Competition are Bank Windhoek, Sanlam, Santam and Feedmaster. The total sponsorship for this year amounted to more than N$430 000, which was used to award the various category winners and the national champion. Dawid Krause and Christo van Zyl both from Feedmaster, facilitated the judging process of the competition. Speaking at the event, Krause said, that the judging criteria within the categories included fertility, growth ability, capacity to produce meat as well as farming practices such as de-horning, branding and mass uniformity.

He advised farmers, especially those located in the southern regions, to implement effective animal feeding programmes to better their chances of winning the National Weaner Competition.

Arnold Klein, Agra’s Chief Executive Officer, expressed his gratitude towards various sponsors who made contributions towards the Weaner Competition. “Your dedication, through your active involvement by attending auctions, exhibiting your products and services and by networking with the producers and Agra staff is indeed commendable”, he said.

“We believe that you have gained some return on your investment, by not only getting exposure but also by reaching customers and we hope to have you on board with the 2018 weaner competition”, he concluded.