Record weaner season closes

A total of 15 940 cattle were sold at this year's weaner auctions compared to 5 977 cattle sold in 2016. The average weaner calf prices for last year were N$3 900 compared to this year's N$6 800, which represents a growth of 74%. Agra announced and awarded the 2017 national champion and regional winners for the sixth Agra Weaner Competition recently held in Windhoek. The competition aims to recognise and reward producers for good quality weaner calves. Bertus Calitz of Okatjeru Farming from the Gobabis district was awarded as this year's national champion. He also won the 2015 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 Namibian Agriculture Union (NAU) president and chairperson of the Agra board, Ryno van der Merwe, 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 take 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.Agra's general auctions manager Titus Koen said that after three years of drought, the conditions this year were very favourable for the industry and resulted in a successful weaner season with record numbers and prices. “As a result the producers significantly benefited from the high market prices,” he said.The main sponsors for this year's competition were 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 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. STAFF REPORTER

Record weaner season closes

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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Record weaner season closes

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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