Tulis Flourish On The Free State Highveld

Cornelis Rautenbach runs his Nonnie Tuli stud on the farm Mooipan in the Reitz area of the Eastern Free State. His determination to one day run his own stud was born during his school days in the 1970s.

- Izak Hofmeyr

The Tuli breed immediately impressed him when he first heard about the breed’s remarkable traits.

“My farm isn’t big enough for a commercial cattle enterprise, which meant that I had to add value to my herd in another way. One of the features of the Tuli that impressed me from the outset was its fertility,” he says.

Rich African history

Well-known agronomist, Len Harvey, first encountered the Tuli in 1945 when he spotted them among the Tswana people. The breed’s good constitution compared to other cattle immediately impressed him and piqued his interest.

Later on, Tuli cattle were purchased with the permission of Ian Smith, former prime minister of Zimbabwe, and kept at the Motopo breeding station on the Zimbabwean Highveld to preserve the breed’s purity. During the freezing weather of 1968, which saw temperatures dropping suddenly to -16°C, the only mortality at the breeding station was an old cow of 21 years.

The bulls of Paul Goodwin, Zimbabwean beef farmer of the year in his day, stood out to Cornelis because they were veld raised. Bulls were only sent to the market after the age of three, which meant that the best bulls were available for breeding.

A good intercalving period

Cornelis liked the way records were being kept in Zimbabwe. According to those records, an average intercalving period (ICP) of 365 days was quite common.

As importing animals from Zimbabwe was fraught with logistical problems, Cornelis opted to import open heifers. He offloaded his first consignment of Tuli heifers in 1982.