Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Most beef cattle producers want to brag about their bull being the best. Well, the finalists in the Agricultural Research Council’s National Platinum Bull Awards can do precisely that! This category is a favourite in the ARC’s National Beef Performer Awards and is sponsored by GMP Basic/Leader Products.
What is expected of these platinum bulls?
Besides possessing exceptional performance figures themselves, bulls can only qualify for this award if they were bred from an Elite cow; hence the saying that this is the ‘best of the best’ award category. More than one bull per breed can be eligible for this award, although as a rule very few bulls qualify due to the stringent adjudication criteria.
Eligible bulls must have received a gold merit certificate when they completed an ARC phase C test, and his dam had to receive her Elite cow status during the year in which the bull received his gold merit award. Eligible bulls also had to complete their Phase C tests between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023.
GMP Basic/Leader Products SA, one of the ARC’s valued partners, has been sponsoring this award category for 14 years in a row – a category that has been contested for 29 years already.
Read more about the ARC National Best Elite Cow.
The 2024 finalists are:
| Breed | Owner | Town |
| Bonsmara | Gert Nel | Danhof, FS |
| Bonsmara | Nick Serfontein | Edenville, FS |
| Hereford | Carl Scholtz | Clocolan, FS |
| PinZ2yl | Bertie van Zyl | Mooketsi, L |
| Santa Gertrudis | Desmond Robertson | Bloemfontein, L |
| Sussex | CB Cillié | Bloemfontein, FS |
Let’s take a look at what the ARC had to say about this awards category:
Tune in to Plaas TV on 28 November at 18:00 to see which bulls are this year’s best of the best.
– Agricultural Research Council. For more information about the awards, send an email to zelda@arc.agric.za
