Ansoria Gelbvieh impresses once again

Ansoria Geldenhuys has won her second Farmer’s Weekly-ARC Best Elite Gelbvieh Cow award with ANS 00 0016. Chris Nel reports.

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ANS 00 0016, bred and owned by Ansoria Geldenhuys of the Ansoria Gelbvieh Stud, Klerksdorp, is this year’s Farmer’s Weekly-ARC Best Elite Gelbvieh Cow.

This superb and phenotypically correct SP cow was born on 28 April 2000 out of sire ANS 93-0020 and dam ANS 97-0041. She first calved at 24 months, and at 10,5 years old had had nine calves at an average intercalving period (ICP) of 387 days.

Her reproduction index (reflecting age at first calving and ICP) was 114 and her weaning index (the average weaning index of all her calves) was 115. She was pregnant with her 10th calf in mid-July. Her birth weight (direct) EBV is 0,58kg (accuracy 84%) and her birth weight (maternal) EBV is 0,81kg (accuracy 84%).

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Her weaning weight (direct) EBV is 7,8kg (accuracy 83%) and her weaning weight (maternal) EBV is 6,6kg (accuracy 83%). Of ANS 00 0016’s nine calves, the first eight – five heifers and three bull calves – have all been approved for registration, and the latest, a bull calf, is still too young.

Four heifers were retained in the Ansoria stud herd and one was sold as breeding stock. Her son, ANS 07-0113, was the ARC-Vleissentraal Special Performance Test Class winner in 2009. He was retained as herd sire, while another son was sold as breeding stock and the youngest bull calf is still in the herd.

The Ansoria stud herd consists of 235 breeding cows and heifers older than 24 months. The six-week breeding season starts in mid-December. Cows and heifers are run together with the bulls in single-sire breeding herds at a ratio of 25 females per bull. To introduce new genetics into the herd, 30% of the females are selectively inseminated annually with semen imported from around the world.

The conception rate with natural service averages 89% of females mated. With AI it averages 65%, at a rate of two straws per conception. The herd’s average age of first calving is 33 months, and its average ICP is 438 days.

The calving rate averages 85% and the weaning rate 84% of females mated. Weaning weights average 255kg for heifers and 285kg for bull calves.

A herd of many awards
The Ansoria Gelbvieh stud was established in 1990 on the farm Jakkalsfontein between Klerksdorp and Wolmaransstad.
The initial breeding stock of 200 animals was obtained as embryos. This model mixed farming enterprise includes a livestock division consisting of the Gelbvieh stud, a flock of Kalahari Red goats, and Friesian and Miniature horses.

Today the stud herd is one of the foremost Gelbvieh herds in the country with a long list of achievements in the National Beef Recording and Improvement Scheme and its predecessors. It has also won two Farmer’s Weekly-ARC Best Elite Cow awards (in 2003 and 2011) and has twice won the Vleissentraal-ARC Special Performance Test, with ANS 02 0088 in 2003 and with ANS 07 0113 in 2008.

In addition, Ansoria Gelbvieh bulls have represented the breed in the Vleissentraal-ARC Special Performance Test Class: ANS 91-026 in 1993, ANS 93-020 in 1995, ANS 99-009 in 2001, ANS 01-068 in 2003 and ANS 09 064 in 2011. Outright winners of this class were ANS 02-088 in 2004 and ANS 07-113 in 2009.

In 2000, Ansoria Geldenhuys won the Female Farmer of the Year award in the national markets category in North West.

Contact Ansoria Geldenhuys on 083 250 4679 or email [email protected].

Caption:
ANS 00 0016, bred by Ansoria Geldenhuys of the Ansoria Gelbvieh Stud, this year’s Farmer’s Weekly-ARC Best Elite Gelbvieh Cow.
CHRIS NEL

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