The farm that Richard manages is a Charolais Stud farm as well as a beef farm with other cattle breeds. I knew absolutely nothing about cattle when I first moved up to Riversfield from Durban, but I am slowly learning! I accompanied Richard to the National Charolais Bull sale which was held in Kroonstad, Orange Free State. Riversfield sent up two young bulls, so for me, it would be a first and I was interested to see what went on. The drive up to Kroonstad was 5 hours or so and I had forgotten how flat the Free State is! Once we arrived we drove to the sale grounds to see that the bulls had arrived safely and were settled in. They were housed in a large barn with 19 other bulls and were looked after by Norman and Sifiso, two of the staff from Riversfield. The following day they were screened and checked by the Charolais Society and then cleaned and washed by their handlers. Charolais are quite a docile breed so they are a lot easier to handle than most other bulls. That night we attended the Charolais Society's annual dinner which was quite an eye opener! We were the only English speaking people present so we struggled to understand much of the proceedings. I can understand Afrikaans quite well, but the pace was lightning fast and we missed much of the details in the speeches and accompanying banter! The main entertainment of the evening was provided by Pieter Koen who sang many Afrikaans songs that went down very well with the guests but was not such a hit with us 'Engelse'. But each to his own! The dinner provided was excellent and overall it was an interesting experience. The following day was sale day and we arrived at the grounds to find last minute preparations being made to the facilities and final last touches to the bulls. We took our seats in the sale arena and were surprised at the low turnout - there were not many buyers which ultimately affected the final sale prices as it was a real buyers market and they took full advantage. One by one the bulls were sent in to the ring where they walked about, whilst the auctioneer rattled off their statistics and then launched into their ' auctioneer speak' - it's quite amazing how they just merge their words together at lightning speed! It was all over in just over half an hour and the Riversfield bulls were sold at rather disappointing prices , but thats how the game goes. Next year may be better! Then it was the long drive back with the Drakensberg welcoming us back home to KZN
