NJB 01 0148, bred and owned by Nico Bouwer of the Witkwas Sussex Stud, Delareyville, is this year’s Farmer’s Weekly-ARC Best Elite Cow of her breed.
This superb “calf machine” was born on 20 September 2001 out of the sire Skietlaagte Keystone and the dam Witkwas NJB 97 039. She dropped her first calf at 27 months. On the evaluation date she was nine years old and had had eight calves at an outstanding average intercalving period (ICP) of only 350 days.
This was the best ICP of all the 2011 Farmer’s Weekly-ARC Best Elite cows, beating the second-shortest by a phenomenal eight days. Her reproduction index (reflecting age at first calving and ICP) of 119 was the second best out of all the 14 breeds.
NJB 01 0148’s average weaning index (the average weaning indices of all her calves) is 109. She was pregnant with her ninth calf when Farmer’s Weekly visited the farm in mid-July 2011.
Her birth weight (direct) EBV is 2,14kg (accuracy 73%) and her birth weight (maternal) EBV is 0,98kg (accuracy 74%). Her weaning weight (direct) EBV is 11,90kg (accuracy 75%) and her weaning weight (maternal) EBV is 12,10kg (accuracy 76%).
Three of her eight calves were heifers and five were bull calves. All the heifers were retained in the Witkwas herd, all the bulls were sold as breeding stock.
Another award for Witkwas
The Witkwas Sussex stud herd of 80 breeding cows and 25% replacement heifers is run on 200ha veld grazing, 300ha pasture and 50ha maize stover in winter.
The 12-week breeding season starts in December. Cows and heifers are run separately with the bulls in single-sire breeding herds of 30 females per bull. The conception rate is 94% of females mated. Calving rate is 90% and weaning rate 88% of cows mated. Weaning weights average 245kg for heifers and 274kg for bull calves.
The Witkwas Sussex herd has participated in the National Beef Recording and Improvement Scheme since its inception, and Nico’s goal of breeding well-adapted beef cattle, with emphasis on beef production and fertility, has won it several notable honours.
Apart from NJB 01 0148’s own achievement, her son NJB 05 0043 won the prestigious Vleissentraal-ARC Special Performance Test Class in 2007. Nico says this was his greatest triumph. In 2008, the bull NJB 06 0009, son of the elite cow VKSK 00 87, won a Bayer-ARC Platinum Bull Award and also represented the Sussex breed in the Vleissentraal-ARC Special Performance Test Class.
In 2010 and again in 2011, the Witkwas herd won the Sussex Society award for fertility in medium-sized herds.
An experienced farmer
Nico established the Witkwas Sussex stud herd on the farm Leeuwpan between Delareyville and Kameel in North West in 1994. The farm encompasses 8 000ha. Nico, his wife Trudie and his son Danie also produce maize, sunflower and wheat on arable land, run a commercial beef herd on 4 000ha veld grazing and 1 500ha pasture, and rear sheep on 30ha pasture, of which 5ha is irrigated.
An experienced farmer well respected in the district, Nico is candid about his greatest disappointments in farming – visiting a fellow farmer in whose herd a bull from his herd did not perform, and a cow with a stillborn calf. His advice to a young cattleman is straight to the point: “Farm with the breed that you like. Enjoy your cattle and keep your administration and records up to date. And don’t keep unproductive animals.”
Contact Nico Bouwer on 083 272 6158 or email [email protected].
Caption:
NJB 01 0148, bred and owned by Nico Bouwer of the Witkwas Sussex Stud, is this year’s Farmer’s Weekly-ARC Best Elite Sussex Cow.
CHRIS NEL
