| Cattle are bigger business than hunting |
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| Written by Staff Reporters | ||||
Page 2 of 2 Take it one further. You hold a 10,000 ha farm with 800 cattle, that gives you a turnover of 250 animals per year, (if you are good) at a price of 4000 per cow and 5000 per ox (again, if you are good). That makes 1,125,000 per annum. At 30000 per hunt, it takes 37 plus hunters to match that. Where are we getting 37 hunters? Your own figures show average of 12 hunters per hunter. And per your figures each hunter shoots about 4 trophies only. And with 4 trophies you do not even match 25,000 per hunt. Ask the normal hunter. These figures are correct. Some established outfits manage quite well as far as numbers go, BUT they all get their trophies on OTHER farms as they cannot produce enough trophies on 10,0000 hectares to satisfy 37 hunters. And the income from that trophy is exactly half the normal trophy price. So an Oryx brings him exactly 2000 NAM DOLLAR. 10,000 US??? And what about the car expenses and the service they have to give. I sometimes feel it doesn’t even pay. A 10000 hectare farm can only hope to deliver perhaps 3 or 4 kudu trophies per year, and that is high. So we can make calculations till we become dizzy. Hunting can be a highly professional outfit with very high prices and very few hunters, but the rest are normal hunting outfits and they struggle to survive. The most lucrative set-up is, have cattle (quality) and take LIMITED trophy hunters to such an extent that the trophies are taken on a sustainable level, and do not indulge in fancy things like high fences, foreign species, fancy hunting cars, a grass roof lapa etc. Do this without spending too much time and always in line with the trophies readily available. Regard this income as the cherry on the top, as it must be taken WITHOUT extra cost to you. But please do NOT say: I had 3 times 2 hunters for a week, and they brought me 6 times 25,000, so that makes 150,000 in 3 weeks, and if I could get hunters the whole year, it would mean 10 months or 40 weeks times 50,000 or a quick 2,000,000!!! Wow!!! I myself am a chartered accountant in the farming business, (fulltime) and I will never give up cattle, and will always try to cash in from hunting without any extra input. And this is my advice to young farmers. Forget the yarns spun by the professional hunters. Some might be true but most only want to beat Jones next door. I do not want to start a long discussion under letters to the editor, but would like to send this letter to you, so that you may see the matter from a different angle.
Chris Koehler |
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