Bovelder: the all-terrain beef cattle breed

The Cilliers family has farmed on Swartfontein, near Vrede in the Free State, since 1880. Carel, the third generation on the property, today farms with his son, Willem.

In 1978, Carel joined forces with 10 other commercial beef producers in the Vrede, Memel and Warden areas to develop a highly commercial cattle breed that would excel under South Africa’s taxing farming conditions. The new breed was called the Bovelder, and as part of the initiative, Carel launched his Wicar Bovelder herd a couple of years later. “We opted not to follow the stud breeding route. We were committed to a truly South African commercial breed developed