Good Quality And Boom In Meat Prices Make For ‘pleasant Surprise’ At Auction
The prices that Wikus Bekker received for his ewes in particular, as well as for his rams at the All-In-One Crux Dohnes winter auction, show that there is hope again in the meat market.
By Fredalette Uys
BKB Cradock hosted the All-In-One Crux Dohnes winter auction on Thursday 31 July at the Edenburg Golf Club, with JP Marais as auctioneer. A 100% sale rate was achieved.
Bekker, Voermol’s sheep farmer of the year in 2023, says there is a huge improvement if he had to compare this auction’s result with his auction six months ago, especially when it comes to breeding animals. He holds two auctions every year.
“I think meat prices are better now because the market for slaughter and storage lambs looks better now. We haven’t had these types of prices for a long time. I am pleasantly surprised, because the livestock market was really under pressure for three to four years. There is now a little hope again.”
According to Bekker, he had too few ewes for the interest that was there. He also attributes the good prices to the good quality of the animals, which are the product of 60 years of breeding. He decided to offer some of the ewes he uses in his own flock – rather than the usual bottom end of the flock – at his 21st auction.
At the auction 40 Dohne-Merino rams were offered, as well as 200 open four-tooth to full-mouth ewes, 200 open ewe lambs of nine months old and 200 pregnant four-tooth to full-mouth ewes. The ewes offered consisted of hardy animals that are adapted to veld conditions and do not receive any lick, salt or supplementary feeding.
The most expensive ram was sold for R28 000 to the Kopecta Farm of Reddersburg in the Free State. Rams were sold on average for R14 216. Ewes pregnant with twins sold on average for R3 500, while the average prices for ewes pregnant with single lambs were R2 880 and R2 291 for open ewes respectively.
According to Bekker, the prices for pregnant ewes were around R2 000 a few months ago and the prices he achieved at the auction are a considerable improvement. Although there were no outstanding prices for individual rams, his ram prices were on average R4 000 better than a year ago – “which is a considerable jump”. Quite a few rams were sold for between R15 000 and R30 000, which was also a pleasant surprise.
Local buyers, as well as from the Free State, Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape participated in the auction.
