Red Angus Tour of Africa
It is 4:00 a.m. December 23, 2005, but high noon in South Africa, and we are still trying to adjust to South Dakota time. Neither Lois nor I could sleep, so we are both up and going. Four days ago we returned from South Africa after a 3 weeks vacation. We spent seven days exploring three game reserves that a total of about 750,000 acres. Each of them was taken out of Ag production (mainly cattle and sheep) in the last 50 years. These areas are very rugged and would be similar to the Black Hills of South Dakota without the pine, spruce and cedar trees. There are grassy areas with brush (known as bush veldt in Afrikaans) where it is relatively easy to see all the many animals, including Rhino (both white and black) lions, African buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe, cheetah, kudu, eland, reedbuck, impala, warthog, monkeys, baboon, many deer/antelope type animals and others, not to mention hundreds of birds. It is possible to drive through these wildlife reserves in a car (we rented a 4 door Nissan) but we also took several trips in a touring bus, an open air Toyota land cruiser that seated 10 people, 10 feet above ground level.
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Today is the first full day of winter here but in South Africa is the first day of Summer. We left to go out on game drives at 4:20 a.m. We had to wear a heavy sweater or jacket to keep warm, with temperatures being 55 degrees while we were cruising down the road at 15 or 20 mph in the open air. Fortunately they had blankets to cover everything but your face (we did not want to miss a lion or elephant who might come across the road looking to make a kill of a wildebeest) while riding in the tour bus, which all have 2-way radios. One morning we had a call from another ranger who had spotted 2 lioness and 2 cubs that had made a kill (probably a wildebeest). We drove within 200 yards of the kill where the lioness and cubs were having a feast. There were 7 hyenas trying to steal some of the kill, but the lioness would frequently drive them off. After an hour of this activity the lioness strolled off into the bush for a sleep (a lion only needs to eat twice a week.). They left what was remaining of the kill to the hyenas. Hyenas have powerful jaws so they ate the remaining carcass bones and all. There was no need for burying the carcass because if anything is left, the vultures will pick the bones clean in a day or so. I thought the Umfolozie game reserve would be flat or gently rolling, but the hills are steep. When we where traveling on the gravelly, slightly graded trails and crossed the Black Umfolzaie River, with no bridge, only a concrete ford with water running through 2 small culverts, just ahead we spotted two pickups stopped on the trail. We could see they were backing up, and suddenly we saw a 40 year old bull elephant (photo enclosed) strolling down the trail headed for the water, the river we had just crossed. It was no use asking who has the right of way , when a 12 foot high 12,000 pound African elephant is coming down the trail at your vehicle; we decided that perhaps we should back up and smell the bush veldt for 15 or 20 minutes. This elephant wandered off the trail and ploughed through some 15 foot high rushes. He stopped at the river bank, sucked up 5 gallons of water 2 or 3 times for his morning tea time!! After the game parks, we drove on into central Natal, home of King Shaka, a mighty Zulu chieftain warrior. He forged a nation out of the blacks who lived in that region in the first part of the nineteenth century. Shaka was famous for inventing the short spear, as they could fight better with it. Shaka met his demise when he was killed by his half brother who thought he had gone mad. King Dingane followed his reign and met his match when he sent 12,000 warriors out to stop the Afrikaners (pioneer farmers). They had 468 men, women and children with muzzle loading rifles and one small cannon. These Vortrekers (farmers) successfully defeated the Zulu's and laid claim to an area of Natal. The Battle of Blood River reads like the pioneers who settled the western USA. Blood River Day is the 16 of December and is a holiday and is also known as Vow day. We traveled to the Indian Ocean, stayed at a Bed and Breakfast and enjoyed the sand and the surf. Then on to Penny Land B&B, from there we traveled out to visit Red Angus Breeders.
Kevin and Margie Culverwell hade a herd located in the Natal Midlands area. This area has had favorable rainfall and at the photo with Kevin in his cow herd shows excellent management and very good Reed Angus cattle. The bull in the photo is a chieftain 3080 son also Photo (0176) showing yearling bulls on pasture. Most of the bulls are sold at two-year-olds or long yearlings. He is an accountant, avid birdwatcher and an excellent cook. Margie took Sandra and Lois around and looked at the land shopped!! A good time was had by all... The next day we were off to John and Karl Bronner's to see their Red Angus. What a lovely place. Excellent cattle and beautiful scenery (photo displays John Bronner, Lin Oldfield and Treavor (photo (0181) showing Ron and John with a great view of the countryside.) Karl, John's wife has beautiful Friesland horses.
How are Red Angus performing in South Africa? Just 33 years ago the first Red Angus were imported into South Africa. Twelve head were initially brought in and of the 10,000 head now registered 7400 are Red Angus. This of course is a real testimony to the breeding value of Red Angus cattle because the majority of them came from breeding herds in the USA.
Neville Mylie a leading breeder of Angus cattle both red and black tells about the Angus board of directors standing around a barn stall at the Capetown show discussing the first importation of Red Angus. Their conclusion was to register these Red Cattle in the Angus Association. How valuable are Red Angus to the beef industry in South Africa? They have become increasingly important to improve the beef qualities of beef cattle. The majority of beef cattle have some Brahman blood, mainly to give tolerant to tick diseases. Many of the bulls are sent to performance test stations and at these stations several breeds of cattle participate. They are finding that the Angus (both red and black) have considerable less and therefore adapt to their environment. The Red Angus are in the hands of competent breeders of cattle that and there is much indication that they will continue to gain a greater share of the beef breeding market.
South Africa is the home of Dr. Jan Bonsma, one of the more interesting stories I heard while at the Duprees home was about David de Villers who was a breeder of pinzgauer cattle. While at a show at Pretoria he requested Dr. Bonsma to pay a visit to his cattle at the show, to give him some advice concerning his breeding program. Bonsma arrived late in afternoon, made a quick evaluation of the deVillers cattle and said “Sell your pinszgauer's buy Red Angus”. DeVillers took Bonsma' advice to buy a Red Angus herd. Before his death he was becoming a leading breeder of Red Angus.
Lieb and Marianne Dupreez have a fine herd of cattle that numbers 400 producing cows both red Angus and commercial. Part of the commercial herd includes Bonsmara cows that are bred to Red Angus Bulls. These cattle would be very competitive in our southern US environment. One of Lieb Dupreez major objectives is to produce cattle that thrive on grass with very limited supplement feed. This results in breeding heifers at close to two years of age and they are expected to breed back in season. The Dupreez started in Red Angus early in their agricultural enterprise Red Angus became part of their operation after they became disappointed with the production of another breed of cattle. By crossing with Red Angus bulls they saw remarkable improvement and soon started breeding Red Angus in 1983. The rest is history as the Dupreez's are leading breeders who have had production sales annually for 15 years.
The last few days of our trip we visited with William Lotter, who was an intern at our ranch in 1988. He is married and has three children, is still working for Escom (the electrical company), they have moved to his parents farm and enjoy being in the country. We also saw JM Styne; he was an intern here in 1998. JM is married and has a son 18 months old. He farms and runs a Red Angus herd with his father; they are very dry and praying for rain. Chuck Pritchard now lives in Australia and Hannas Slabbert was in St Paul, working so we were unable to see him, he will arrive home on the 18 of December. Coenraad Nel is in South Africa he lives on the western side of the country so we did not see him.
We arrived home in time to enjoy the Christmas holidays and get back to normal. Home is great.
