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Namibians farm with little support from Government. They farm in one of the driest countries in the world. Wilhelm Mosehuus from Agra recently pointed out that Namibian farmers are producing more kilograms of meat per millimeter rain received, than any other country in the world!
Namibia is an exporter of high quality meat to Europe and Scandinavia which must be produced without the assistance of any growth hormones and preferably directly from the veld.
Hartebeestloop Bonsmaras fully supports the principle of meat directly from the veld. Carcass qualities are very important to us, our clients and also their clients. Hartebeestloop Bonsmaras will always have an expert carcass "evaluator" present during bull selection.
This is someone with extensive knowledge and expertise in on-the-hoof-carcass evaluation. Usually it is a Meatco employee or someone that has been with Meatco before. Japie Bestebreutje is such an expert and at Hartebeestloop we use him extensively to assist us in selection for bigger red meat yield.
If our clients make a living by selling meat, we should put meat very high on our list of priorities and breeding objectives.
The above determines the Hartebeestloop breeding philosophy. This is to breed veld-adapted Bonsmaras that excel with little support and produce high quality, drug and hormone free meat optimally, directly from the veld.
- Superior adaptability and the hardiness to perform well in harsh conditions
- Fertile animals that reaches puberty at an early age (14 months)
- Easy calving with moderate birth weights (36 kg)
- Average weaning weight of 240 kg at 205 days to maximize feedlot potential and profit
- Moderate post-weaning growth under extensive veld conditions with seasonal lick supplements
- Excellent veld feed conversion rate
- Good carcass qualitieswith early fat deposition and high meat yield
- Medium framed, well muscled animals with good confirmation and constitution
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