https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjV0dTdupxw?si=njHWf_KZX4cD5lqw
Queen Arusha arrived at a cattle auction in Limpopo province and left with a 6.4 million rands ($385K) price tag, reportedly the highest ever paid for a female animal of any cattle breed in South Africa. She is an in-calf Ankole heifer from Ntaba Nyoni, the cattle operation owned by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The sale happened on 3 October at the Ntaba Nyoni & Friends auction at Phala Phala in Limpopo. Farmer’s Weekly reported that Queen Arusha, registered as NANK23 001 and offered as Lot 20, went to an anonymous buyer.
JP Smith, chief operating officer of auction company Veilingswinkel, told the farming publication that the sale set the national record. The auction turned over R22.5 million in total, which means one heifer accounted for more than 28% of every rand spent on the day.
The price rests on Queen Arusha’s genetics. Smith described her as a full sister to Optimus Prime, an Ankole bull with horns measuring 1.73 metres (68 inches).
Two straws of sexed semen from Optimus Prime sold for R250,000 each at the same auction, another reported South African record across cattle breeds. Queen Arusha’s buyer was paying for the chance to produce and sell calves, embryos and other genetic material from the same bloodline.
“The buyer is buying access to future genetic production,” Smith told Farmer’s Weekly.
The auction results show just how enormous the premium was. Four pregnant heifers fetched R7.48 million between them. Remove Queen Arusha and the remaining three averaged R360,000 each, making her nearly 18 times more expensive than her pen-mates.
That is pedigree doing some fairly violent arithmetic.
The wider sale included 19 embryos for R1.445 million and 37 semen straws for R1.235 million. Ten bulls brought in R2.75 million, with the most expensive selling for R650,000.
Ankole cattle entered South Africa through a complicated route. The Ankole Society of South Africa says disease restrictions prevented direct imports from Uganda, so embryos produced in Kenya were brought into the country instead. The breed was formally approved in South Africa in May 2019 after performance testing under the Animal Improvement Act.
Ntaba Nyoni says Ramaphosa first became interested in Ankole cattle during a 2004 visit to Uganda. The operation now lists Ankole, Bonsmara, Boran, Nguni and Wagyu among the breeds it farms.
The R6.4 million is an auction price paid to the cattle operation, not proof that the same amount landed in Ramaphosa’s personal account. Costs, commissions and tax still have to come out of the sale proceeds.
For Queen Arusha’s anonymous buyer, the expensive part is over. Turning one record-breaking heifer into R6.4 million worth of future genetics is the longer job.
