Finalists announced in the 2021 Santam Agriculture National Silage Competition

Source: vivros62 via Pixabay

This year’s entries

A total of 23 companies and producers entered their clients or their own farms. Eleven of these companies are new to the competition.

The companies that entered this year were Afgri Animal Feeds, Quantum Foods/Nova Feeds, Welgemoed Farm, Kemin Industries, RCL Foods/Epol, Nutribase, Meadow Feeds Paarl and Meadow Feeds Natal, Winterstorm Investments, Pannar Seed, Sparta Baby Beef, Strapping & Profile, EC Contracting, Kameeldrift Voere, Hurwitz Farming, Saxeni Agric, White Gold Farms, Malati Farm, JW Nel & Seun Boerdery, Lactimar, Mas Corporation, Limpopo Dairies, Pioneer, and Envarto.

Sponsors

The head sponsor in this year’s competition was once again Santam Agriculture, who has been the name sponsor since the competition’s inception and has been hugely supportive throughout their involvement. The prize sponsors are Labworld, Claas/Kempston Agri, Pannar Seed, Kemin Industries, Strapping and Profile, Nutribase and Hurwitz Farming.

Sampling

The sampling was conducted by four post-graduate animal science students from various South African universities. They were Gerrit Putter and JG Els from the University of the Free State, Timothy Chilemba from the University of Pretoria, and Henlo Smit from Stellenbosch University.

These students were trained in the sampling process by Richardt Venter of AgSci, the competition’s coordinator. The sample testing was conducted by Dr Elrisa Taljaard and her team at Labworld. The analysis was done by the creator and overseer of the competition protocol, Prof Robin Meeske of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture’s Outeniqua Research Farm.

Meet the finalists

There are three formal categories in which finalists are announced, namely maize, feed (forage) sorghum, and oats. There is one test category, namely silage bales, and finalists are announced in that category as well.

For the first time in the history of the competition, the top ten maize entries are equally split between bunkers and silo bags. Among the maize finalists are three previous competition winners, which bodes for an exciting finish and speaks to the competitiveness of the entries, as well as the importance that the results have for our participants.

Maize category finalists in alphabetical order:

The small grains category also boasts with some fantastic results this year and three out of the four finalists are previous category winners.

Small grains (oats) finalists in alphabetical order:

Feed (forage) sorghum finalists in alphabetical order:

Bales test category finalists in alphabetical order:

Winners will be announced during a live streaming and watch party on 3 December at 6pm. To watch the announcement of the finalists, click on the link:

For more information regarding the competition, 2022 entries, or other queries, contact Deidré Louw at 066 231 2430 or deidre@plaasmedia.co.za.