Better slaughter oxen produced this year

AGRA Auctions awarded the 2017 Slaughter Ox competition winners at a ceremony held at Agra Hyper at Lafrenz Township last month.

This is the second slaughter ox competition hosted by Agra Auctions since the competition’s inception in 2016. The competition is part of an initiative to provide ox producers a platform for organised competition, similar to the Agra Weaner competition.

The main sponsor for this year’s competition was Old Mutual with a sponsorship of more than N$110 000. Other Sponsors include Feedmaster, Beefcor and Esterhuizen Transport. The entire sponsorship was used for rewarding various category winners. Agra Auctions hosted four slaughter ox competitions where a total of 155 oxen were judged at an average slaughter weight of 252 kg, compared to 120 oxen judged at an average weight of 240 kg in 2016.

The first competition was held at Aub on 14 June 2017, followed by Windhoek on 28 June 2017, Okahandja on 18 July 2017 and the last was at Nina on 15 August 2017.

Each producer entered two animals to be judged on their hoof and carcasses. For the hoof category, key aspects for judging criteria comprised cattle age, fatness, masculinity, temperament and good farming practices such as branding, dehorning, etc ,which constituted 40% of the total points. The carcass contributed 60% of points based on the quality of meat. TH Johnston was awarded the overall first place Slaughter Ox Competition national winner and A Helm won second place.

Ryno van der Merwe, Agra board chairperson congratulated the producers on their quality meat. “I would also like to thank Agra for their commitment towards providing producers with an opportunity to participate in this excellent initiative despite the challenging times,” he said.

Herman Lintvelt, Agra regional manager of central auctions said the quality of animals entered this year was better than that of 2016.

“This can be attributed to the better grazing conditions experienced by farmers this year. The competition also received very positive feedback from producers and this is a competition that Agra would like to expand in the future,” he concluded.

The judging in all the competitions was done by Tiaan Steenkamp (Agra) and Petrus Maritz, Head of Meatboard’s Classification Services on the hoof category. Maritz also judged the carcasses after slaughter.

The Competition winners are:

Windhoek: TH Goldbeck, TH Goldbeck and H Rusch.

Okahandja: H Kruger, Cloudy Sky Investment, TG Giersch.

Aub: TH Johnston, CJ Steenkamp, A Helm.

Nina: R van der Merwe, P Z Jansen van Vuuren, R van der Merwe.

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.