Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
BKB welcomes digital marketing for livestock
The uptake of digital technology as a tool to market livestock was “exciting”, according to BKB’s general manager of livestock, properties and auctions,
Dr Cobus Oberholzer. Oberholzer was speaking at the recent annual Voermol Sheep/Cattle Farmer of the Year Awards in Bloemfontein.
This included the use of various social media or digital platforms by industry role players to create content that enabled them to communicate effectively with potential buyers.
He also said that BKB had observed increasing demand for online auctions, which were driven by various factors, including convenience and simplified logistics, as well as welfare benefits for animals.
However, it was important for BKB to create an online auction platform that offered the same level of transparency as live auctions, he said. BKB was planning to look into this over the next year, but needed to ensure that legislative requirements for the livestock industry were adhered to, he said.
Over the past year, BKB had held about six livestock auctions per working day and had so far traded nearly one million livestock units this year. The total value of animals traded through the company’s system amounted to about R4,4 billion a year, Oberholzer said. The award for Sheep Farmer of the Year was presented to Andrew Jordaan of Cradock in the Eastern Cape, while the Beef Farmer of the Year award went to John Eustace of Underberg in KwaZulu-Natal. Other finalists in the sheep producer category were Henry du Plessis of Kareedouw in the Western Cape and Andries Greyling of Vrede in the Free State. The other cattle finalists were Mark Anderson also of Underberg, and PeterJohn Hussard of Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal. – Sabrina Dean