Setting The Merino Benchmark

The Fairworld Merino Stud in the Eastern Cape has been at the forefront of genetic fine wool production in South Africa for over a century. It holds the current South African record price of R250 000 for a Merino ram. Mike Burgess assesses the legacy, achievements and future of this 1 000-ewe stud.

- Mike Burgess

“The Fairworld philosophy is a 103-year-old process of eliminating the non-producers year after year,’’ says Willem van Aardt, describing genetic development in his family’s legendary Merino stud. “Every generation has been steering the ship in the same direction, giving us the edge.’’

The Van Aardt family can today look back at over a century of consistent achievements in the Merino stud world, including numerous South African Fine and Super Fine Champion fleeces, a World Champion Super Fine Wool Fleece, and South African record prices for Merino rams.

Willem began working on the family farm Roodewal in 1969. After his father Acton died in 1976, he and his brother Carlie each inherited half of the family’s Merino flock. Both went on to build two exceptional fine wool studs – the Fairworld and Baviaanskrans studs – thanks largely to their father’s lifelong dedication to fine wool. “He always said you can do anything with fine wool,’’ recalls Willem,“ but that you can’t do anything with strong wool.’’

Willem’s grandfather, Carel van Aardt, registered the Fairworld Merino Stud on 12 December 1913. Less than two months previously, he had acquired 400 Bundemar Merino ewes from the local Vosloo and Triegaardt families.

The introduction of Merinos to Roodewal was partly a result of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Carel, a respected horse breeder, was ruined when the British confiscated 350 brood mares and interned him. When he returned to the farm after the war, he found only a few milk cows and a handful of slaughter sheep. Undeterred, he set out reinventing himself by producing butter and introducing livestock, including goats and ostriches. By 1910, he was wealthy enough to loan money to neighbours and three years later bought his first Merinos.