Our Ankole herd was the dream of Petra Pretorius, who acquired the first Ankole in 2018, and rightfully our stud is registered as Petra Pretorius Ankole Stud.
Petra loves Ankole for their diverse, colourful coats and obviously their striking, massive horns. These characteristics are what made her fall in love with these majestic animals, and she immediately knew that she wanted to farm these special cattle. Her passion for her Ankole has only grown over the years and they are even closer to her heart today than ever.
Our vision for our Ankole operation was always that of having a ‘natural’ herd and having a breeding bull in the herd, opposed to breeding with embryos and other means. Although we have used artificial methods strategically, over the long run our breeding still happens in the natural way.
Unforgiving environment
Our herd performs like champions, even in the unforgiving environment of the Rooiberg area, which is known for its sourveld, extremely high tick loads and hot summers. This cattle breed has shown to be very resilient against all that nature has to throw at it, including numerous tick-borne diseases, drought and even very wet conditions.
There are always challenges and external factors playing a role in any farming operation. These challenges, such as infectious diseases, drought and higher operating costs, have had an impact on not only how we face these challenges but also how we look to the future and what we learn from it. It has taught us to react and adapt as soon as possible.
The Ankole’s hardness, resilience to diseases and adaptability to different climates is what sets it apart from other breeds.
Breeding
We prefer medium- to large-framed cows. A cow must be big enough to handle an Ankole bull and give birth without complications, but must still be small enough to keep her femininity.
We only use animals in our herd from other top breeders whose animals carry the characteristics that we prefer, including good frame size, calving history, horn mass, horn symmetry and specific coat traits.
Adaptability and herd cohesion is also important to us.
Crossbreeding the Ankole with other breeds like the Nguni can increase hardiness and adaptability in the offspring. Heavier, horns can also be an advantage when looking at the value of horns in the hunting, decor and curio industries.
Although Ankole are not famous for their meat production, I do think that the breed will play a significant role in the beef industry in the future. Areas where less hardened cattle breeds can’t be farmed sustainably and profitably might be areas where Ankole can be a viable option and bring beef production to those areas that historically weren’t known as cattle farming areas.
Looking ahead
We adore our Ankole ‘mothers’ as they are truly something else when it comes to caring for their young. They are second only to Cape buffalo in caring for and protecting their young.
Our herd is going from strength to strength in one of the harshest sourveld environments in South Africa.
It is still early days and we haven’t sold a lot of cattle, but we look forward to hearing some success stories from breeders who have supported us and bought animals from us in the past. One such up-and-coming breeder is Cornerstone Ankole from Makhado, Limpopo.
We are very excited about what Zwakala and Uchawi, two of our top-performing cows, will produce with some of the best bulls in the country like Diambo, Maximus and Mananga.
For more information, Contact Hannes Pretorius on 0824449160/0795238145.
