The Afrikaner: 'new' hero breed in Namibia

The demand for Afrikaner cattle in Namibia has recently increased to such an extent that demand for this hardy, adaptable local breed far exceeds supply. Annelie Coleman spoke to Afrikaner breeders in that country to discover the reasons behind this spike in popularity.

- Annelie Coleman

Indigenous to Southern Africa, the Afrikaner cattle breed was instrumental in the development of commercial beef production in Namibia.

The breed reached that country in the late 1800s and early 1900s from South Africa, and proved highly adaptable to arid desert conditions, extreme heat, tropical diseases and both internal and external parasites.

The ancestors of the breed crossed into Africa from Aden (the capital of today’s Yemen) and gradually migrated southwards, with only the best-adapted animals finally reaching Southern Africa.

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In the early days of commercial cattle farming in the region, the Afrikaner was the most popular breed, and contributed its genetics to many synthetic breeds.

It was initially dual-purpose (kept for milk and meat production) and also used as a draught animal.

In 1896, the rinderpest almost exterminated the breed in Southern Africa. As a result, various breeds were imported, mainly from Britain and Europe, to build up the region’s depleted cattle numbers. This led to the development of composite breeds through crossbreeding, of which the Bonsmara (which is 5/8 Afrikaner) is probably the best known.

The past few years, however, have seen renewed interest in the hardy Afrikaner.

“It’s the breed for the future because of a shift in focus towards adaptability and productivity,” says Manie Blaauw, a fifth-generation Afrikaner producer on the farm Salztal in the ||Karas region of southern Namibia.

“It’s as competitive today as it was in its glory days, and we aim to see it regain its rightful place in Southern Africa’s beef cattle-breeding sector."