Yes, that is what we are talking about today. For a person like me who doesn’t know where the food I eat comes from you would imagine the shock when I heard the announcer saying. Anyone else who would like to challenge this price? Okay, three two one, and it’s sold. That was the bull semen being sold for R17 000 at the Bull ring auction in Mpumalanga yesterday 7th of August 2021.
Why is bull semen so expensive?
At the end of the session, I was having more questions than answers but there was one question eating my heart out. Why is that the bull’s semen so expensive? Like the price of live animals, it varies from R15’000 to R500’000, so there is a big variance with the value of semen.
The reality on the market is that the relationship between supply and demand will determine the price of the product. In this case, we are talking about the semen of Boran one of the highly-priced bulls on the market. The Boran meat is prized as a delicacy in parts of the world, especially Japan, and Australia so for any farmer to have this breed they have to buy the semen from auctions and then artificially insert it in cross or the same breed.
Why the Boran?
The Boran is resilient to African conditions and it’s the best breed for producing high-quality meat with low input costs, a crucial factor in the production of organic grass-fed beef. The Boran has been a pure breed for 1300 years. Which makes it the best option for crossbreeding with the modern breeds and most importantly. They have loose, elastic, and thick skin with a glossy, smooth, oil-rich coat. Which makes them more resilient to tick-carrying disease and relatively low maintenance.
How much is a Boran Bull?
According to the farmers, weekly magazines the highest Boran to be sold in South Africa went for R1.7 million last year and on average most farmers were selling their Borans for R180 000 per beast.
@credits: The bull that was sold for 1.7 million last year photographed above.
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