What is meant by disease free buffalo in RSA

[Neil Molendyk]

There was actually a state vet present at the end of my hunt adjacent Kruger. She made the villagers boil the meat before they could take their share with them.

Interesting, they do take the disease containment seriously. We had a decontamination protocol afterwards as well, Scotch and Cuban cigars.

 

[spike.t]

Interesting, they do take the disease containment seriously. We had a decontamination protocol afterwards as well, Scotch and Cuban cigars.

When the EU threaten to take away favored export status from SA or Botswana due to any disease infringements on beef......shit hits the fan.....lot of money involved for those countries

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

When the EU threaten to take away favored export status from SA or Botswana due to any disease infringements on beef......shit hits the fan.....lot of money involved for those countries

Exactly
The whole protocol is to protect cattle really
Just the buff are carriers of diseases so have to restrict them to protect the cattle industry

 

[Piet-Vis]

When I was in school these projects started to take off. What has perhaps not been focused on in the preceding discussion is the role that enterprising game farmers had in the grand scheme of things and the prevailing sentiment at the time.
One of our neighbours was one of these so called "buffalo breeders" and there was a lot of discussion about the topic at the time. Lots of people objected about keeping buffalo cows in kraals. It was not natural. Many objected to the calves being removed so young from their mothers, and those in know did not really like the fact that young weaner bulls often ended up killing the poor cow in the process.
Distasteful stuff.
I those days there were very few real game farms in the Bushveld were I grew up in, and almost no Buffalo, Sable and Roan.
Eventually the numbers increased and now there is a buffalo behind every bush.
People forgot the distaste that was at the very beginning of the project and now see Buffalo as a legitimate investment, and local hunters can now afford to hunt a buffalo. Something which was not the case in previous decades.
There are still distaste about other species being bred in similarly distasteful circumstances. Peoples memories are short.

 

[spike.t]

When I was in school these projects started to take off. What has perhaps not been focused on in the preceding discussion is the role that enterprising game farmers had in the grand scheme of things and the prevailing sentiment at the time.
One of our neighbours was one of these so called "buffalo breeders" and there was a lot of discussion about the topic at the time. Lots of people objected about keeping buffalo cows in kraals. It was not natural. Many objected to the calves being removed so young from their mothers, and those in know did not really like the fact that young weaner bulls often ended up killing the poor cow in the process.
Distasteful stuff.
I those days there were very few real game farms in the Bushveld were I grew up in, and almost no Buffalo, Sable and Roan.
Eventually the numbers increased and now there is a buffalo behind every bush.
People forgot the distaste that was at the very beginning of the project and now see Buffalo as a legitimate investment, and local hunters can now afford to hunt a buffalo. Something which was not the case in previous decades.
There are still distaste about other species being bred in similarly distasteful circumstances. Peoples memories are short.

Sorry but I will be a bit negative on your post....probably going to piss off the SA people big time...but i think its time its called out...whatever...yes the Buffalo calves have to be removed from the herd before a certain age....here obviously in the beginning due to the fact there were no disease free animals the calves were taken from wild herds......oops and obviously taken from herds in sa not so wild.....I knew the person here who is no longer with us who did the first wild buff capture for this here .....and to be blunt the Sable Roan etc etc breeding programs in SA in the early 2000s onwards that created a ridiculous unsustainable market ....was a fkup....they used animals from outside..ie ...zambia...zim sable stated from matetsi ( sometimes brought in illegally)..in industrial breeding programs to generate animals with big horn sizes.....it was a pyramid...ponzi fiasco that collapsed around 2018 or so onwards......example recently have seen Sable...individual specific ones to be hunted in 49 or 50 inch category ...the original price nobody was interested in even though supposedly cheap for that size.....but from memory to be hunted..could be wrong was around 9000 maybe bit more....then went down in price...that Sable at auction in the pyramid heyday especially with western Zambian supposed facial markings. Would at auction have been in the usd 500 000.00 up to a 1000,000.00 range.....could say a lot more on Sable in SA....and other industrial bred species there......but am sure have fkd off enough there already.....always amuses me when SA person puts cheap Sable offer on....then says it's due to their breeding programs saving the species.....nah it's because they had industrial breeding programs to maximize their income from the auctions....and now have surplus due to those breeding programs.just look at the colour variants on different species.....total fkup.....and if you think am taking shit ..I was at one of the big auctions in early 2014...my friend I was with ran one of the serious places in sa....he said I give it 4 years....he was bang on.....

 

[Piet-Vis]

Sorry but I will be a bit negative on your post....probably going to piss off the SA people big time...but i think its time its called out...whatever...yes the Buffalo calves have to be removed from the herd before a certain age....here obviously in the beginning due to the fact there were no disease free animals the calves were taken from wild herds......oops and obviously taken from herds in sa not so wild.....I knew the person here who is no longer with us who did the first wild buff capture for this here .....and to be blunt the Sable Roan etc etc breeding programs in SA in the early 2000s onwards that created a ridiculous unsustainable market ....was a fkup....they used animals from outside..ie ...zambia...zim sable stated from matetsi ( sometimes brought in illegally)..in industrial breeding programs to generate animals with big horn sizes.....it was a pyramid...ponzi fiasco that collapsed around 2018 or so onwards......example recently have seen Sable...individual specific ones to be hunted in 49 or 50 inch category ...the original price nobody was interested in even though supposedly cheap for that size.....but from memory to be hunted..could be wrong was around 9000 maybe bit more....then went down in price...that Sable at auction in the pyramid heyday especially with western Zambian supposed facial markings. Would at auction have been in the usd 500 000.00 up to a 1000,000.00 range.....could say a lot more on Sable in SA....and other industrial bred species there......but am sure have fkd off enough there already.....always amuses me when SA person puts cheap Sable offer on....then says it's due to their breeding programs saving the species.....nah it's because they had industrial breeding programs to maximize their income from the auctions....and now have surplus due to those breeding programs.just look at the colour variants on different species.....total fkup.....and if you think am taking shit ..I was at one of the big auctions in early 2014...my friend I was with ran one of the serious places in sa....he said I give it 4 years....he was bang on.....

As one of my Oxford educated Waterberg cattle farming friends described it - it was without a doubt the biggest bubble in history, even larger than the Dutch tulips.
As LOT of people lost a LOT of money when than bubble burst.
However, I don't care for the lawyers from the city who lost a lot of money breeding funny looking animals. Some foreign hunters like to pay extra for colour variants, so I guess there is a place for that.
What is more important to me is that game numbers in SA increased multiple fold over the past 3 decades. The exact opposite of what happened in Zambia for instance.
What makes me happy is that many marginal cattle farms are now converted into game farms, and more land is preserved for wildlife than there was before.
Distasteful or not. Here were I live in the Zambezi valley on the Zambian side absolutely nothing is alive. Not even a rabbit. If I go down to visit my parents who still live in the Waterberg there is game everywhere.

 

[Philip Glass]

I’m currently in the planning phase of a trip to South Africa for a buffalo hunt in 2025 with my outfitter from this past June in the Eastern Cape. As I research I keep running across terms and scenarios I’m not familiar with around buffalo hunting. What exactly is meant by disease free buffalo in rsa? Were Buffalo dispersed through rsa, then extirpated, then reintroduced as disease free so as not to spread disease to cattle? Is this why the appearance is so different (tons of hair on their face). Are there truly different breeds of Cape buffalo?

Yes you are right. They are farmed buffalo that have been extensively tested for brucellosis etc. this way when they are on a game farm next to a cattle ranch there are no issues when they get out.

 

[Philip Glass]

for a visiting hunter diseased or disease free has zero relevance.
diseased or disease free buffalo only has an implication on moving live buffalo accross a vetrinary line(the red line). on one side (east ) of the red line are disease buffalo, on the other side are disease free buffalo.
the disease buffalo carry four diseases, brucellosis, contagious abortion, foot and mouth, bovine tuberculosis (TB) i may stand to be corrected here.
they are only carriers and it doesnt affect them. they can pass these diseases on to domestic livestock that die from these diseases.

if you hunt a buffalo east of the red line, so near kruger park etc, the trophy, must be salted and dried and may not be moved for a period of 30 days i believe, then it can get moved to a taxidermist etc.

all buffalo in south africa are cape buffalo, only one species, there are some different bloodlines, so where they came from originally.

none of this(bloodline stuff) make any difference to me personally, i see a buffalo as a buffalo and they dont like people!!!

if you want more in depth info feel free to DM me.

regards

Yes but brucellosis causes abortions in Buffalo and cattle.

 

[Hunt anything]

Yes but brucellosis causes abortions in Buffalo and cattle.

Philip, there’s a political argument in that statement somewhere but I’m not about to open up that can of worms.LOL, seriously though disease in a cattle herd is no laughing matter, we almost lost a years worth of yearlings due to blackleg.

 

[Neil Molendyk]

seriously though disease in a cattle herd is no laughing matter, we almost lost a years worth of yearlings due to blackleg.

And that is why we vaccinate our domestic herds , to protect them, because bulls are bulls and if they get the chance they're willing to help out the neighbours, and I don't know what the neighbours vaccination protocol is. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure