Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
From 7 to 9 October 2026, the Livestock Registering Federation (LRF) brings the beef industry’s sharpest minds together at Aldam Holiday Resort in the Free State for the LRF Stockman School for three days built around this year’s theme, “Unlocking the Beef Value Chain.” Standard registration is now open.
This year’s LRF Stockman School brings together an unusually deep bench of expertise for three days at Aldam. From Dr Danie Odendaal, a well-known production animal veterinarian, to Prof Armanda Bastos, whose foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and African swine fever (ASF) typing methods set global standards through World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), to Dr Troy Rowan, a leading US voice in beef genomics at the University of Tennessee. Add to that South Africa’s own animal scientists, veterinarians, industry executives, and stud breeders with decades of national and international judging experience. Delegates get an opportunity to converse with industry experts, and find solutions to problems, most producers still struggle with.
The programme itself is built to match. It moves from macroeconomic perspective and consumer behaviour, through disease risk and reproduction physiology, to genetics, genomics and practical breakaway sessions delegates choose themselves, closing with market strategy and networking opportunities available in every meal, tea break, and the gala dinner. Few events on the agricultural calendar pack this much research, hands-on farming experience, and boardroom insight into a single, focused programme. Which is exactly why the school routinely sells out its 200-delegate capacity at Aldam.
Getting to know the speakers at this year’s school.
Dr Danie Jordaan – Today’s beef consumer: Who are they, what do they say and what do they want?
Dr Danie Jordaan is an agricultural economist, agribusiness specialist, and a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria. He works on complex challenges across the agriculture, food and fibre sectors, both locally and internationally. His expertise spans agribusiness management, value chain optimisation, strategic management, finance, marketing and risk management. His current work focuses on the agribusiness operating environment, food system change, sustainability reporting and transition risk, value chain digitisation, and systemic risk. Jordaan’s approach is grounded in driving practical, impactful outcomes, providing the exact lens producers need to understand what today’s consumers actually wants from the beef they buy. He returns later on day 1 as a panellist for the discussion, “Foot and mouth: Where to from now,” alongside Dr Danie Odendaal and Prof Armanda Bastos, chaired by Kobus Bester.
Dr Danie Odendaal – Keeping my herd safe from disease outbreak
Dr Danie Odendaal qualified as a veterinarian at Onderstepoort. After two years as a state veterinarian and two years in private practice, he returned to the Faculty of Veterinary Science, where he lectured in cattle herd health for five years while completing postgraduate studies in the same field. He then spent a decade in the animal health industry, working as a technical director at one of the largest animal health companies in the country. Since then, most of his professional career has been devoted to developing planned herd health and production management strategies for the beef cattle industry. He is the founder and director of the Veterinarian Network (V-Net), which runs a national livestock disease reporting system for veterinarians to track disease trends and priorities with data that feeds into electronic disease prevention plans and a vaccination reminder system for vets and their farming clients. For the past 15 years, he has worked as a consulting veterinarian for large beef cattle herds, and has developed training material with Afrivet Training Services aimed at veterinary extension for cattle herders and smaller livestock producers in southern Africa’s communal areas. His driving passion is turning the depth of research and information around animal health into practical, usable guidance for planned herd health and production management at farm level. He joins the FMD panel discussion later on day 1 alongside Prof Armanda Bastos and Dr Danie Jordaan.
Prof Armanda Bastos – New FMD research paves the way to revisit meat trade restrictions
Prof Armanda Bastos’s research record on foot-and-mouth disease is unmatched. She is a director of the Hans Hoheisen Research Centre and a professor in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases within the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Veterinary Science. A molecular biologist by training, she developed the rapid virus detection and typing methods for FMD and ASF while working as a senior veterinary researcher at the ARC Transboundary Animal Disease laboratory. Her 2003 ASF genotyping method remains a WOAH-endorsed global first step for typing ASF field and outbreak strains, while her FMD typing methods are still used today in South Africa’s FMD SAT-type outbreak strain typing. Over 26 years at the University of Pretoria, she has supervised 85 postgraduate research projects to completion, including doctoral and master’s students. She has published 136 scientific journal articles and 7 book chapters on the molecular epidemiology and diagnosis of vector-borne, zoonotic and transboundary animal diseases. Her current research on assessing FMD risks at slaughter, marks a return to her foundational PhD work on SAT-type FMD viruses in southern Africa at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute. She will join the FMD panel discussion immediately after her session, alongside Dr Odendaal and Dr Jordaan.
Johan Mouton – Maintaining body condition: The key to female reproduction
Johan Mouton’s career reads like a masterclass in every working angle of livestock production. He began in 1989 as a junior animal scientist on a large farming enterprise running extensive livestock herds and feedlots, where his hands-on experience shaped his practical approach from day one. He then moved into a research position with the Department of Agriculture, building expertise in grazing management and animal nutrition while furthering his studies in livestock production systems. From there he spent a decade in the private sector as a livestock and pasture specialist, tackling the nutrition and production system challenges of commercial livestock farming. Since 2009 he has been a technical manager for research and development at Molatek, focussing on product development, applied field research, technical support for advisors, and feed mill operations. Despite his broad experience, his first love remains working with livestock herds at farm level, which is exactly the perspective he brings to reproduction and body condition.
Dr Troy Rowan – Envisioning the beef value chain of the future
Dr Troy Rowan will close day 1 with an international perspective grounded in real cattle country. He grew up on a purebred Charolais cattle operation and has been involved in the US beef industry ever since. Dr Rowan was named the Walter “Mac” Pate Endowed Fellow in Livestock Genetics and is an assistant professor and extension specialist at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, having earned his PhD in genetics from the University of Missouri in 2020 before joining UT’s faculty in 2021. His lab researches genetic approaches to improve the efficiency and profitability of beef cattle production, and his outreach programme directly supports producers across the US as well as multiple breed associations and national organisations, including the Beef Improvement Federation, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), and the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. Delegates will get a rare opportunity to compare notes with someone who is shaping the US beef genetics conversation at the highest level. He will return on day 3 to tackle a topic producers feel but rarely discuss openly (more on that in part 3).
Standard registration are open. Full programme and registration details: https://www.lrf.co.za/stockman-school/
Next: Part 2 – day 2’s genetics, breeding and practical breakaway sessions.
