ARE TOP-PRICED GENETICS REALLY WORTH IT?
In 2014, a Dorper ram, Bolt, made history when Mickey Phillips sold it to Martin Compion, who farms at Lonziekvlei in the Northern Cape’s Bushmanland, for R600 000.
The purchase, which took place at the Upington National Dorper Sale, represents the highest price ever fetched by a Dorper, and one of the highest prices paid at a public auction for any sheep breed.
Compion remembers the auction as if it were yesterday.
THE TWO RAMS HAVE HUGELY BENEFITTED HIS STUD, AND THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY
“It was a tough purchase. Two Namibian consortiums were the main contenders, chasing the price up to R400 000 before I joined in the bidding.” The purchase, however, did not work out the way Compion had envisaged.
“Buying Bolt for such a high price made sense, because I managed to negotiate a deal to sell embryos to a Brazilian consortium. The consortium, however,
