Photo: Supplied
South Africa’s top cattle farmers were honoured during the Agricultural Research Council’s (ARC) recent virtual annual National Beef Performer of the Year Awards.
Johan Styger received the award for the National Beef Cattle Improvement Herd of the Year. His stud, BTB Simmentaler, is based near Hartbeesfontein in North West.
DOWNLOAD The 2021 ARC National Beef Performers Awards Supplement
Presenting the award, Dr Ben Greyling, the ARC’s beef improvement research team manager, said the genetic traits and profile of Styger’s herd compared favourably with the breed’s standards.
Eve Ntseoane of Eve’s Eden Farms was named the ARC National Emerging Beef Farmer of the Year. She farms Bonsmaras near Kaalfontein in the Vanderbijlpark area. She expressed appreciation for the ARC’s Kaonafatso ya Dikgomo (KyD) scheme, which focuses on developing emerging farmers’ skills to increase their profitability and productivity.
There were two recipients of the National Mentor of the Year award: John and Tracey Davenport and Nkosinathi Bareki.
The Davenports are Limousin farmers near Balfour in Mpumalanga, and Bareki is a researcher at the North West Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Potchefstroom.
KwaZulu-Natal was honoured with the National KyD Province of the Year Award, which was sponsored by Molatek.
The prize was presented by ARC researcher Justice Mulaudzi, who said the award was given to the province with the highest number of farmers registered on INTERGIS. These producers must also have loaded data onto the database in the year of the award. The Eastern Cape achieved second place, and Mpumalanga was placed third.
Eleven bulls received the ARC National Platinum Bull Award sponsored by GMP Basic, 17 bulls were honoured with the National Special Performance Test Class Award, and 16 cows received the Elite Cow Award for 2021, which was sponsored by Farmer’s Weekly for the 43rd consecutive year.
