Beefmaster stands out!

The Beefmaster, which was developed in the US, is a popular beef breed in South Africa due to its adaptability, short intercalving period, and other key traits. Gerrie Jansen van Rensburg, president of the Beefmaster Cattle Breeders’ Society of South Africa (Beefmaster SA), told Susan Marais more about this hardy all-rounder.

-  Susan Marais

Red cattle breeds often come in for criticism, with many farmers and others in the industry saying there are in fact minimal differences between these breeds. What is your opinion on this, and how does the Beefmaster differ from other beef breeds?

If you’re looking at a breed’s breeding goals, or what it’s supposed to be in order to breed calves economically and produce animals both for herd replacement and the feedlot, then all synthetic breeds are supposed to look more or less alike. The appearance of an animal is influenced by its breeding goals, environment and, of course, its breed composition.

The real distinction is in the animal or breed’s performance, and this is where the Beefmaster breed can be distinguished from all other breeds that are performance-tested by SA Stud Book.

Here, it has been shown that the Beefmaster is the leader in inter calving period (ICP) and cow-to-calf ratio, which is the calf’s percentage of its dam’s weight at weaning. When taking this into account, Beefmaster is, on average, more profitable than other breeds.

Beefmaster also boasts the largest herd per breeder, which shows that the breed performs well in any commercial setting.

Please describe the ideal Beefmaster bull.

It is medium-framed, has a good coat, and has a distinctly masculine appearance, with a strong brow ridge and well-developed neck and shoulders. It should have a comfortable gait as a result of good-sized hooves and strong and correct bone structure. The body should be well-balanced.