Twin Studs For Double Success

According to this father-and-son team, who did well at both shows and sales, listening to judges was as good as attending a cattle-breeding course.

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Two herds are better than one, as they give you a double shot at the show sales.

This is the opinion of Danie le Roux of the farm Kameelpan near Broedersput in the far Western Transvaal [now North West]. He farms Simmentaler cattle with his father, Apie, who began his well-known Jahdal stud in 1977.

When Le Roux came to the farm after completing his military training and wanted to work with the same breed, he and his father decided it would be best if he ran a separate herd, which he began in 1983 under the name of Damaran Stud.

“Running the two studs involves extra book work, and means we have to take two shares in any bull we are both interested in,” he says. “But it has the advantage of making it easier to keep cow lines separate, and we’re able to offer twice as many bulls at show sales.”

There are about 40 breeding cows in the Damaran herd and 60 in the Jahdal herd. Strict selection has been applied from the outset in both herds, and they have both done well at shows – in the show ring and the sales ring.