WINDHOEK – Agra ProVision opened its bi-monthly interactive breakfast meetings last Friday in Windhoek with an experts’ session on the “Farmers’ Catalogue”, which was greeted with great excitement by representatives from the livestock sector, financial institutions and agricultural feed producers.
Keynote speaker at the meeting at the Bank Windhoek, Agra Ring at the Windhoek Show Grounds, Dr Joggie Briedenhann, an independent specialist in Orthodontics and Anthropology, as well as owner of the Hartebeestloop Bonsmara Stud, gave an insightful presentation about all the components of the catalogue. The catalogue explains the estimated breeding values of the bull in an easy to understand manner, and has proved itself to be of vital importance for breeders countrywide.
The catalogue specifically contains a list of cattle to be sold, describing in detail the different traits of the bull to be sold. It therefore empowers the buyer to make the right decision according to his/her needs. The interactive breakfast session served the purpose of informing representatives and stakeholders about the Farmers’ Catalogue, describing the bull’s genetic capacity for reproduction. Dr Briedenhann is the co-producer of the Farmers’ Catalogue and is currently working on a project to design an easy-to-understand Farmers’ Catalogue for all breeds after he started out with it on his own world-renowned Bonsmara Stud. Last year, one of his bulls broke all Namibian records when it sold for N$500 000 at the annual Hartebestloop Bonsmara Stud Auction.
Briedenhann made it clear that the Farmers’ Catalogue is aimed at the producer and is a concise summary, in farming language. “It describes the bull’s genetic capacity for important re-productive characteristics, based on calving ease, growth potential, maturity type, adaptability, fertility and the bull’s mother’s and daughters’ achievements.” Dr Briedenhann stated that these traits are then allocated marks, which are based according to the SA Stud Book Breeding Value Indexes and the Southern Africa Veld Data. “The marks allocated are on the scale of 1-5 where score 5 is 120 bred value and score 1 is 80 breed value. Farmers have to take into consideration that the breeding values of the older bulls with performance tested progeny are more accurate compared to that of younger bulls. There is a much higher risk when purchasing younger bulls,” he noted.