Any Afrikaner cattle in the USA?

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Aussie27

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Does anyone know if there are any Afrikaner cattle in the USA?

The breed appears to be lost here in Australia at least in pure form and I am unable to import cattle genetics from South Africa into Australia.

My hope is to bring the breed back to Australia.
 
In most countries the Afrikaner have been used for composite breeding or absorbed into local Zebu herds, there might still be some left in Argentina, I will make some enquiries through my contacts there.
 
Thank Muddy. I thought so but you don't know if you don't ask.


Thanks Andybob, any information is helpful. I can't import genetics from Argentina into Australia at the moment but it gives me another option to pursue.

There were pure Afrikaner cattle here until about 40 years ago when the last were bred out.
I think almost everywhere they were introduced they were used for a composite program and no purebreds were retained for future use.
 
Out of interest what is your plans for them. There may be semen out there sitting in a tank somewhere. What state are you from, might be worth contacting the Queensland department of primary production.
 
Hi Redgully,
My plans are to bring the breed back to life in Australia. I like the look of the breed, it's uniqueness and that it is said produces tender beef wile still having traits like a hooded eye.

I live in northern Victoria near the Murray River. It's not Queensland but we still suffer 45+C day in summer, summer drought, lots of dust causes pink eye and spring born calves can struggle some years.
I work on our family farm where we sell Bio-Dynamic beef. I hope to eventually introduce some Afrikaner blood to our herd to help Spring calves with Summer as long as the meet our beef quality standards. We calve in spring and Autumn to ensure constant supply of 18-24 month old steers. Even if they don't meet our meat standards I will still breed them.

I have a passion for rare breeds and with Afrikaner cattle being some of the first cattle in Australia I believe they should be bred here again.

I know at the moment the Afrikaner isn't a very profitable breed but Sahara Afrikaner in South Africa have achieved improved efficiency and daily by infusing it with Bonsmara. I would need to cull vigorously on fertility as well.
If I can secure semen straws I would breed up from Bonsmara cows. Bonsmara being 5/8 Afrikaner I would be partly there at the start. I would hopefully eventually end up with similar cattle to the Sahara stud.

I think if the beef quality is as good as the Afrikaner society says it could be used in more crossbreeding programs for domestic beef production in Northern Australia. Bull breeders could breed F1 Hugenootes and AfriSim bulls to use over Brahman cross cows and complement Belmont Red and Bonsmara breeding operations.
I don't expect this to happen and if it does it would take time.

I have been contacting several different cattle genetics businesses and have found one that has clients with Afrikaner semen in storage in Queensland. I have contacted one of those clients and I am waiting to hear back. Hopefully I will find someone willing to sell me some and I'll start the process.
 
Hi Redgully,
My plans are to bring the breed back to life in Australia. I like the look of the breed, it's uniqueness and that it is said produces tender beef wile still having traits like a hooded eye.

I live in northern Victoria near the Murray River. It's not Queensland but we still suffer 45+C day in summer, summer drought, lots of dust causes pink eye and spring born calves can struggle some years.
I work on our family farm where we sell Bio-Dynamic beef. I hope to eventually introduce some Afrikaner blood to our herd to help Spring calves with Summer as long as the meet our beef quality standards. We calve in spring and Autumn to ensure constant supply of 18-24 month old steers. Even if they don't meet our meat standards I will still breed them.

I have a passion for rare breeds and with Afrikaner cattle being some of the first cattle in Australia I believe they should be bred here again.

I know at the moment the Afrikaner isn't a very profitable breed but Sahara Afrikaner in South Africa have achieved improved efficiency and daily by infusing it with Bonsmara. I would need to cull vigorously on fertility as well.
If I can secure semen straws I would breed up from Bonsmara cows. Bonsmara being 5/8 Afrikaner I would be partly there at the start. I would hopefully eventually end up with similar cattle to the Sahara stud.

I think if the beef quality is as good as the Afrikaner society says it could be used in more crossbreeding programs for domestic beef production in Northern Australia. Bull breeders could breed F1 Hugenootes and AfriSim bulls to use over Brahman cross cows and complement Belmont Red and Bonsmara breeding operations.
I don't expect this to happen and if it does it would take time.

I have been contacting several different cattle genetics businesses and have found one that has clients with Afrikaner semen in storage in Queensland. I have contacted one of those clients and I am waiting to hear back. Hopefully I will find someone willing to sell me some and I'll start the process.
I really like the sound of what you are doing. I too have an interest in rare breeds and keeping them alive. I breed red polls over here in Western Australia, a breed that was one of the original breeds in Australia and did very well for many years.

Some problems i have encountered which i dare say you will too, is genetic diversity. You will have such a small gene pool to breed from and if the animals are not up to what you would hope for improving that will prove difficult and frustrating.

Once you start searching you will be amazed at the odd places you can find semen, just need to keep your ear to the ground. I was chasing a particular bull which was an old one and everywhere i asked was told people had been searching for him for years but he was all gone. One day i was buying some semen from a breeder and mentioned that bull and he said he was pretty sure when he bought his can there was some in there, yep, three straws and he gave it to me!

Good luck with your endeavours and be sure to keep us updated.
 
Thanks for the encouragement Redgully.

I have a mate that has Red Polls and Maine-Anjou. He's a young Bloke so he only has a few but the crosses of the 2 I saw were excellent. On the family farm where I work we breeding Maine-Anjou and Shorthorn in rotation. The Afrikaner will end up as part of that program probably as F1 bulls.

I get what what you mean about genetic diversity. My hope is that I can start breeding up and in 4 or 5 years time be able to import some Embryos from South Africa. I will have to plan as if that won't happen. Embryos Plus in SA believe the import protocols for Australia could be back in a year or two.

I will let you know how I go.
 
Thank Muddy. I thought so but you don't know if you don't ask.


Thanks Andybob, any information is helpful. I can't import genetics from Argentina into Australia at the moment but it gives me another option to pursue.

There were pure Afrikaner cattle here until about 40 years ago when the last were bred out.
I think almost everywhere they were introduced they were used for a composite program and no purebreds were retained for future use.
No information from Argentina so far, I still have one breeding company to check with which have a Tuli herd and might know about the Afrikaner if still available. There is an Australian group on facebook for people interested in African genetics -https://www.facebook.com/groups/1845266292191223
 
I'm looking for African cattle USA bc they don't have the A1 casein in their milk apparently. I found this forum. Did you think of trying zoos?
I read they are also known as anjoles? Spelling is off. But the web says zoos imported some back when.
 
Ank
I'm looking for African cattle USA bc they don't have the A1 casein in their milk apparently. I found this forum. Did you think of trying zoos?
I read they are also known as anjoles? Spelling is off. But the web says zoos imported some back when.
oleand Watusi have been in the USA as a minority breed for some time and are often kept by hobbyists. You could look into the Mashona and Tuli breeds which have larger populations, and see if they meet your criteria, there are several composites available which might carry thetrait you are looking for - Senepol, Bonsmara, Barzona and Southpoll.
 

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