Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Plaas Media’s popular Santam Agriculture National Silage Competition has just completed its twelfth instalment, and with great success. The 2025 competition received 60 maize silage, 14 oats silage, and ten feed sorghum silage entries. The competition is also a testament to the loyal long-term co-operation between sponsors, participants, the sampling team and the competition’s supporters.
This year’s entries
The 2025 competition drew 86 entries of which only 84 were eventually sampled. Two companies had to take the difficult but responsible decision to withdraw from the competition due to concerns relating to the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.
The participants who were entered either by companies or themselves this year, were TWK Agri, Quantum Foods (Nova Feeds), Sentraal-Suid Koöperasie Bpk (SSK), Nutribase, Lake Agriculture (Pty) Ltd, AFGRI Animal Feeds Klipheuwel, Pannar Seed, Kemin Industries, Meadow Feeds Natal, Sparta Beef, AFGRI Animal Feeds, Pioneer Seed, Budissa Bagger, Exact Silage, Boschkop Uyse Boerdery, and Advanta Seeds.
All round support
Santam Agriculture has been the naming sponsor of the competition since its inception in 2014, and has already indicated that it will continue its incredible support in 2026. The 2025 prize and cash sponsors were Pannar Seed, Pioneer Seed, TWK Agri, Nutribase, Greenhouse Technologies (GHTech), Advanta Seeds, and Orkel. Labworld was the laboratory that conducted the sample testing.
Besides Santam Agriculture, the competition has enjoyed excellent industry support from various companies since its inception. A few interesting facts are:
- Over the 12 years of the competition the three companies with the most consistent involvement were Pannar Seed with 128 entries, AFGRI Animal Feeds with 107 entries, and Nutribase with 76 entries over the period.
- A number of companies have contributed to the competition in one way or another over the years, with AFGRI Animal Feeds and Sparta Beef having participated uninterrupted since its inception.
The sampling process
Sampling was done by three Animal Science students from the University of Pretoria. They were Jewyk Pretorius, a post-graduate student, Franco Badenhorst, final-year, and NC Engelbrecht, also post-graduate. The students were trained in the sampling process by one of the competition’s co-ordinators, Richardt Venter of AgSci Unlimited.
The samples were tested by Dr Elrisa Taljaard and her team at Labworld, after which the final test results were processed and captured by the competition’s organising team.
Competition webinar
The various category winners as well as the 2025 Santam Agriculture Silage King were announced during the first ever competition webinar, held on 25 November. The webinar was open for attendance by all interested persons. A recording of the webinar is available at the following link: https://youtu.be/NB2hMs0BUpk?si=5A34hD5wnwr6wPLn
During the webinar Richardt Venter and well-known milk producer and long-time competition participant, Joubert Fourie, were the guest speakers. Venter discussed some of this year’s competition data while Fourie shared his firsthand knowledge of silage-making. The winners were announced shortly afterwards.
The category winners
The 2025 competition was remarkable in a number of respects. Besides the consistent performance of the overall winner across various categories, it is also clear that improved silage-making practices are making a major difference in the performance of silage crops other than maize. For example, the best feed sorghum silage in the 2025 competition performed equally as well as the second placed maize silage. It is also worth noting that more silage producers are embracing different storage formats and crops, thus diversifying rather than relying on only one storage format and crop.
Plaas Media and Santam Agriculture are proud to announce the top three winners in each category.
The oats category:
| Position | Producer | Enterprise name | Farm name | Entered by | Storage format |
| 1 | Jaco Kok | Elstelm Boerdery | Riet Valleij | SSK | Bun/drive-over pile |
| 2 | Dian Landman | Lactimar | Bergsig | Nutribase | Gravel wall bunker |
| 3 | Johann Nel | JC Nel Junior Familietrust | Hoëkraal | SSK | Gravel wall bunker |
The feed sorghum category:
| Position | Producer | Enterprise name | Farm name | Entered by | Storage format |
| 1 | Marcu Jansen van Rensburg | Winterstorm Investments | Huntly | Budissa Bagger | Silobag |
| 2 | Burger Marais | Exact Silage | Kameeldrift | Exact Silage | Wrapped bales |
| 3 | Kobus Pieterse | HJP Boerdery | Witbank | Exact Silage | Wrapped bales |
The maize category:
| Position | Producer | Enterprise name | Farm name | Entered by | Storage format |
| 1 | Kobus Pieterse | HJP Boerdery | Witbank | Exact Silage | Wrapped bales |
| 2 | Joubert Fourie | Limpopo Dairy | Limpopo Dairy | Nutribase | Cement wall bunker |
| 3 | Russell James / Doug Armstrong | Dendolor Investments | Goxhill | Pannar Seed | Silobag |
The winners in the various storage format categories were:
The category for wrapped bales:
| Position | Producer | Enterprise name | Farm name | Crop category | Entered by |
| 1 | Burger Marais | Exact Silage | Kameeldrift | Feed sorghum | Exact Silage |
| 2 | Kobus Pieterse | HJP Boerdery | Witbank | Feed sorghum | Exact Silage |
| 3 | Kobus Pieterse | HJP Boerdery | Witbank | Maize | Exact Silage |
The category for wall bunkers:
| Position | Producer | Enterprise name | Farm name | Crop category | Entered by | Wall type |
| 1 | Shane Simpson | Simpson & Son Farming | Cooperdale | Maize | Meadow Feeds Natal | Gravel wall |
| 2 | Joubert Fourie | Limpopo Dairy | Limpopo Dairy | Maize | Nutribase | Cement |
| 2 | Shaun Griffin | PR Griffin Farming cc | Langewacht | Maize | Pannar Seed | Gravel wall |
| 3 | Rob Stapylton-Smith | Stapylton-Smith Farming | Elsan | Maize | Pannar Seed | Gravel wall |
The bun/drive-over pile category:
| Position | Producer | Enterprise name | Farm name | Crop category | Entered by |
| 1 | Willie du Preez | Vizicor | Altenburg | Maize | Pannar Seed |
| 2 | Justin Boettiger | Broadview Farm | Broadview | Maize | Lake Agriculture (Pty) Ltd |
| 3 | Rob Strachan | Rydal Farms Trust | Rydal | Maize | Pannar Seed |
The silobag category:
| Position | Producer | Enterprise name | Farm name | Crop | Entered by |
| 1 | Russell James / Lutho Nozulo | Dendolor Investments | Broadside | Maize | Pannar Seed |
| 2 | Marcu Jansen van Rensburg | Winterstorm Investments | Huntly | Sorghum | Budissa Bagger |
| 3 | Russel James / Doug Armstrong | Dendolor Investments | Goxhill | Maize | Pannar Seed |
And the 2025 Santam Agriculture National Silage King is …
Kobus Pieterse of HJP Boerdery. His maize silage bale entered by Exact Silage ticked all the boxes. His performance is all the more special as he also took third place in the feed sorghum category, while grabbing second and third place in the category for wrapped bales. This is a noteworthy achievement and attests to good silage-making practices across the board. Congratulations to him and his entire silage-making team. – Press release, Plaas Media
For more information regarding the competition, entries for 2026 or other queries, contact Deidré Louw at 066 231 2430 or email deidre@plaasmedia.co.za
