Drakensbergers: shiny black mothers of Africa

Drakensberger cattle pulled the Voortrekkers’ wagons on their epic journeys to South Africa’s inland regions in the 19th century. Susan Marais visited Petrus Taljaard of Talman Drakensbergers in Mpumalanga to find out more about his love for this breed, and how he deals with cattle diseases and the area’s harsh winters.

- Susan Marais

The Drakensberger cattle breed is as much a part of South Africa as the great mountain range that shares its name. When the Dutch-speaking settlers decided to migrate northwards in 1836 to escape the Cape’s British colonial administration, it was mostly Drakensbergers that were used to pull their wagons.

In those days, the breed was used primarily as draft animals, and due to this, the breeding focus was on their front quarters in order to increase pulling strength. Gradually, however, the focus shifted to the hindquarters in order to increase beef production. So says Petrus Taljaard, owner of Talman Drakensbergers, near the Mpumalanga town of Ermelo.

“To be honest, the Drakensberger doesn’t have a single exceptional feature. Rather, it’s an exceptional all-rounder,” he says. “You can milk it, put it in a feedlot, let it graze on natural veld or put it in an ultra-high-density grazing camp. It’ll be very competitive against all other breeds in all of these situations.”

MIXED FARMING

Taljaard’s son, Pikkie, joined the family farming business this year after completing his degree in mechanical engineering at the University of North-West’s Potchefstroom campus last year. Currently, he’s responsible for the farm’s sheep, and will take over more and more of the crop production as time goes by.

He has started at the operation in a remarkably wet year. As a rule, the Vaal River nearby overflows its banks about twice per year, whereas in 2022 it has done so six times already!