ARC National Emerging Beef Farmer of the Year Awards

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The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) will once again present its National Beef Performers Awards in 2022. This is the 44^th instalment of the awards, the aim of which is to showcase the best of the best in seven categories, all relating to beef cattle performance and beef cattle producers. Each of the seven categories is sponsored by various agricultural companies and role-players, and serve to honour those who have excelled in their breeding and production practices, as well as the mentoring of fellow producers. The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has been a key stakeholder in these awards since its inception and continues to play this role this year. As of 2022, Plaas Media is the main sponsor of the awards and will also be sponsoring certain categories.

The ARC National Emerging Beef Farmer of the Year Award is sponsored by Plaas Media/Stockfarm Magazine. This another flagship award of the ARC that acknowledges emerging beef farmers that are members of the Kaonafatso ya Dikgomo (KyD) scheme of the ARC and that have excelled when it comes to how they manage and improve their herds and enterprises making use of record keeping, among other things.

This award category commemorates its 26th anniversary this year. Finalists, aiming to become fully fledged commercial farmers, from each of our country’s provinces are identified and they ultimately contest for the title of National Winner.

The KyD scheme focuses on assisting emerging beef cattle farmers to apply beef recording and improvement technologies to facilitate accurate selection for economically important traits and increased productivity and profitability of their herds. Emerging farmers serviced and developed through the KyD scheme are also registered on the INTERGIS (national database). To date more than 8000 emerging farmers are members of KyD.

The purpose of the award is to acknowledge members of the KyD scheme who:

Perform well on specific criteria related to recording, management and performance of their herds.
Encourage emerging cattle farmers to improve their standard of living through higher returns from animal production and job creation.
Promote participation in the KyD scheme.
Promote sound breeding and management principles in the beef industry.
Demonstrate the benefit of performance testing, practically by identifying outstanding herds. – Dr Ben Greyling and Frans Jordaan

Click on the links below to read more about the ARC Beef Performers Awards:

For more information, send an email to Dr Ben Greyling at ben@arc.agric.za or to Frans Jordaan at fransj@arc.agric.za. You can also visit the Beef Cattle Improvement Scheme website.