Deon Schlechter

WINDHOEK - A devastating drought could not keep Heinz and Almut Gruhn of Otongovi Farming from winning the overall first place in the Agra 2019 Slaughter Ox Competition at a ceremony held at the Agra/ Bank Windhoek ring recently.

This was the fourth Slaughter Ox Competition hosted by Agra Auctions since the competition’s inception in 2016. The competition forms part of an initiative to provide ox producers with a platform to compete in an organised competition, similar to the Agra Weaner Competition.

Reflecting on the competition, Herman Lintvelt, Agra Regional Manager: Central Auctions was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the 2019 Slaughter Ox Competition.

“Despite this year’s drought, the Slaughter Ox Competition exceeded all expectations.
Agra Auctions hosted five Slaughter Ox competitions where a total of 190 oxen were judged, compared to 155 oxen in 2018. This is a clear indication of the number of resilience oxen producers possess to ensure that they continue to produce quality oxen, under these difficult climatic conditions,” says Lintvelt.

The first competition was held at Aub on 22 May, followed by Gobabis on June 11, Windhoek on July 3, Nina on July 19 and concluded at Otavi on July 25. The main sponsor for this year’s competition was Old Mutual. Other sponsors included Feedmaster, MSD, Efekto and Brakwater Abattoir.

All sponsorships were used for rewarding various category winners at the awards ceremony. To participate in the competition, each producer must enter two animals to be judged on their hooves and carcass. For the hoof category, key aspects for judging comprise age, fatness, masculinity, temperament, as well as good farming practices such as branding, dehorning, among others. These constitute 40 percent of the total points. On the carcass, the cattle will compete on the quality of meat, which constitutes 60 percent of the total points. All animals are slaughtered at the Brakwater Abattoir, which also supplies steak at all the competition points for a braai for participants and sponsors.

Judging was done by Theunis Johnston, Neels Dodds and Petrus Maritz, the Head of Meatboard’s Classification Services, Tiaan Steenkamp at Agra and John Pearson from Brakwater Abbatoir.
Winners were:

Otavi:
1st Place Karl Heinz van Biljon (Nehlen Farming), 2nd Place P. Frenzel
3rd Place Karl Heinz van Biljon (Nehlen Farming)
Windhoek:
1st Place Heinz and Almut Gruhn (Otongovi Farming), 2nd Place C.J Steenkamp, 3rd Place H.B Swart
Gobabis:
1st Place Bertus Calitz, 2nd Place M.C Human Snr
3rd Place W.V.R Versfeld
Aub:
1st place T.A. Johnston, 2nd Place Heinz and Almut Gruhn (Otongovi Farming), 3rd Place J.W Esterhuizen
Nina:
1st Place Phoenix Farming, 2nd Place J.J. Human
3rd Place Phoenix Farming.