Producing well-balanced animals for maximum profit
Willie Landman and his business partner, Jean van der Merwe, both mechanical engineers, run a Drakensberger stud on the farm Rooipoortjie between Potchefstroom and Parys. Their stud, Black Hills Drakensberger, was registered in 2009.
The focus of their stud, they emphasise, is to breed well-balanced animals. This calls for the implementation of a holistic selection programme, which includes all possible aspects of successful animal husbandry.
Landman and Van der Merwe say that animal recording, for example, is not the be-all and end-all of producing a top-performing animal, although they do keep detailed records of each animal on the farm. Instead, the essence and value of animal recording is in the interpretation of the data collected.
‘WE ENJOY APPLYING SCIENCE IN A PRACTICAL WAY’
