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This is serious BIG BUCKS to say the least !

Cheers, Peter
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Buffalo Bill flogged for R6m
2010-06-02 23:04 Charles Smith, Volksblad

Bloemfontein - A buffalo named Bill has been sold for R6m - the highest price fetched to date for a wild animal in South Africa and possibly in Africa.

The buffalo was bought by insurance billionaire Douw Steyn's Shambala game reserve in the Waterberg in Limpopo.

Kwanare game farm in Mpumalanga, which sold the animal, said breeding buffalo was becoming more lucrative, with top quality and healthy buffaloes being sold for trophy hunting.

The breeders didn't want to be named.

Kwanare said it and Shambala had the best gene pool in the country and have established themselves as the leaders in die buffalo industry.

Bill was picked from five of the country's best breeding bulls because of his characteristics and build.

Buffalo cows are sold for between R400 000 and R600 000.

How do they make money paying that much for a buff? I have personally turned down investing in buff as I never understood how there was going to be a return.

Hi Larry

It is becoming (patently clear) to me at least, that game animals, particularily in South Africa, are BIG BIG business. This has been so for many years now especially as their natural habit shrinks and with poaching rife in the game parks.

Of cource the PRIME species (Rhino Buff Sable etc) are the big money spinners. Clean Cape Buffalo Projects are (big business) not only in SA but in Zambia and other places as well.

My brother Alan has a private game breeding property in Zambia with (clean Buffallo, Sable, Nyala etc) as the market is there for these type of animal's.

Of cource game breeding is (medium to long term)to get results, but with dedication and lots of patience there is money to be made, a HELL of a lot more money than from hunting and outfitting per se.

In a nutshell, whether we like it or not the wild animals habitat is shrinking and with human starvation the wild game are being decimated in the open, that is why game ranches or private game parks and conservancies are on the increase, particularily in Southern Africa

Regards, Peter
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Here is another example to illustrate ..


High price paid for long horned rhino 2010/06/01

ALMOST R400 000 was paid for a particularly long horned white rhino at the annual Eastern Cape Parks’ game auction near Grahamstown on Saturday. But, the chances of this impressive female living to a ripe old age appear slim thanks to the obscene amounts of money trophy hunters are prepared to pay to shoot a white rhino with a one metre-long horn.

While the world reels under the weight of a recession, some serious chunks of change were flying around in the bush at Thomas Baines as everybody, from hunt operators to butchers and even conservationists, got in on the act.

Eastern Cape Parks scientific services head Dr Dave Balfour told the Dispatch the animals with the most impressive attributes often fetched top dollar among hunters while animals like the 200 black wildebeest that sold for R900 each to a single buyer would “probably end up as biltong in six weeks’ time”. “Generally the bigger horns are for hunting,” he said.

“This is the fourth auction in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal this year and yet we got the highest prices for rhino so far. There may be a recession, but we still got good prices and sold everything.”

Another hot seller were disease- free buffalo that fetched R140 000 each. And while the five longest horned white rhinos probably will not escape the cross hairs when they sold for between R370 000 and R395000 each, the two for the price of one deals of between R320 000 and R360 000 for mother and calf combinations seemed like a good buy for game reserve breeding stock. At R120 000 each, the two entry level “sub adult” white rhinos were obviously not endowed enough to properly “give it horns yet, boet” – to steal a phrase from laugh a minute auctioneer Roy “Choem” Hayes.

“Built like a buffalo” – by his own admission – after 30 years in the game, Hayes is so slick he could sell oil to an Arab. “One fiddy, one fiddy, one fiddy,” he raps, before doing a disco shuffle on the stage – skilfully boosting the price beyond R160 000. “If I want to take R400 000 out of a person’s pocket, I have to make him feel happy. Three auctions ago my trousers came down and I just carried on selling … it is all part of the entertainment.” A born entertainer, when he is not wooing buyers with his banter, Hayes runs a taxidermist business in Tarkastad.
“Sometimes strangers come up to me and they thank me for making them laugh. I normally stutter when I speak – but never when I am auctioning,” he chuckles.

According to Balfour, the animals came from eight nature reserves in the province and were part of a broader plan to manage the areas “according to sound ecological principles”. “We want to remove all alien animals from our nature reserves because of the unknown biodiversity consequences of the way they interact with the indigenous plants as well as other animals.”

Although Springbok and Sharks scrumhalf Rory Kockott bought some red hartebeest for the Ecca Pass Hunting Safaris he has a share in, he assured the Dispatch they would not end up as trophies.

With Eastern Cape Parks having a reputation for only auctioning the best condition animals, Kockott said the prices fetched showed “quality is king” – especially when it came to building up breeding stocks. “I may play for the Sharks, but I grew up in East London. The Eastern Cape is home … I always enjoy coming here and spending time in the bush.”

- BY DAVID MACGREGOR, Port Alfred Bureau, davidm@dispatch.co.za

They must be selling semen? how else could one profit?

Like the whitetail rage in genetics maybe.

Steve

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
How do they make money paying that much for a buff? I have personally turned down investing in buff as I never understood how there was going to be a return.

It doesn't make sense to pay six bar fro a buffalo, unless you are a billionaire.

quote:

are

quote:

It doesn't make sense to pay six bar fro a buffalo, unless you are a billionaire.

Unless there's a long term plan and they hoping that bull will spread its genes over a number of years. Imagine having 20 bulls in 5 years time with the same/expectant trophy potential! Plan looks good in theory, whether it actually works is another story.

quote:

Originally posted by kukhama:

quote:

are

quote:

It doesn't make sense to pay six bar fro a buffalo, unless you are a billionaire.

Unless there's a long term plan and they hoping that bull will spread its genes over a number of years. Imagine having 20 bulls in 5 years time with the same/expectant trophy potential! Plan looks good in theory, whether it actually works is another story.

I suppose I was being flippant.

It could work. If that bull produces 10 bulls that are sold for R600,000 each then he has paid for himself. Not to mention cows and heifers that are produced and sold.

I guess my concern is that these exorbitant prices drive buffalo prices up, and you know where it ends. Your once-in-a-lifetime buffalo becoming unaffordable.

'Milking' bulls for semen. The semen gets sold in straws which inpregnate 2 cows for roughly R100 000 (US12 500) per straw.

The bull gets milked (a period of 24 months) until dying of a heart attack or gets offered to a hunter to be shot...how else and why would they pay R6m for a Buff?...

Aren't they trying to get a genetic stream going that is nagana-free? Could be linked...