Excalibur Pp ? Actual herdsire at Neuhof Stud

Excalibur Pp – Actual herdsire at Neuhof Stud

24 SOUTHERN AFRICA
Gunzel Kaspar –
Top Fleckvieh genetics from Namibia
Dr. Thomas Grupp, Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics
The first Fleckvieh breeding cattle arrived in Namibia in the year 1893. They came from Miesbach/Upper
Bavaria to Swakopmund, the only harbour in the former colony „Deutsch-Südwestafrika“. After some
weeks on the sea the animals had to walk all the way up to the future capital Windhoek at 1.900 m above
sea level.
Meanwhile the dual purpose breed
Fleckvieh spread to almost all parts
of Namibia and is regarded to be
the best adapted European cattle
breed in this extremely dry and hot
South African country. Namibian
Fleckvieh breeders made an important
contribution to international
Fleckvieh breeding and the success
of Fleckvieh as adaptable beef
breed to a large extend owes to extensive
research done in Namibia
(Omatjenne-trial). Meantime the
Simmentaler Fleckvieh breed has
gained even more importance
through the synthetic breed „Simbra“,
a cross between Simmental
Fleckvieh and Brahman. This „new
breed“ has shown a nearly incredible
increase in numbers of breeders
as well as registered animals.
Grootfontein –
The center of agriculture
Grootfontein (Big Fountain), located
450 km north of the capital
Windhoek, is the home of the breeder´s
family Kaspar and Stefanie
Gunzel, who are of German origin.
In the Otavi-Triangle („Corn-Triangle“),
at 1.460 m above sea level,
they dedicate their lives to breeding
Simmentaler Fleckvieh and
White Brahman. Besides breeding
in years with enough rainfall also
corn and other crops are grown.
Grootfontein was found by Boer-families,
the so called Dorslandtrekkern
in the year 1885. In the year
1896 the German colonial government
opened up a military base. At
this time the region of Grootfontein
was contaminated with malaria,
however, the swampland was drained,
the disease was eliminated
and agriculture got new impulses.
The agricultural potential of the re-
The Gunzel family – breeders from Northern Namibia.
gion of Grootfontein was recognized
quite early, therefore in Rietfontein,
about 35 km to the west, a dairy
was opened up where mainly
cream and butter was produced.
The farmers separated the milk on
the farm, delivered the cream to the
dairies and fed the skimmed milk to
their fattening pigs. These sales
provided some extra-income to the
farmers who apart from that only
had the returns from selling their
fattening cattle once a year. A very
far sighted farmer and the founder
of the dairy, August Stauch, who
gained some wealth through diamond
finds aimed to develop the
whole country through this additional
milk income. The world wars
put a sudden end to these plans.
However, the dairy earned good
profits till the 70ties of the 20th century.
The raising uncertainty of rainfall
and the increasing difficulties
for dairy farmers led to the cessation
of the business some years
ago.
Gunzel Simmentaler
Tobias Gunzel, the grandfather of
the actual owner, was carpenter by
trade. He was born in Saxony close
to Chemnitz where he run his own
construction company. In the year
1926 he emigrated to South-West-
Africa and worked for different farmers
as farm manager.
In 1940 he bought the Bornholm
farm which is 4671 ha in size, about
66 km south of Grootfontein. Tobias
Gunzel used his position as farm
manager to build up his own cattle
herd which at that time consisted of
Fleckvieh crossbreds. To increase
the Simmentaler Fleckvieh blood
he bought bulls from the pioneer
farms Voigtland (Voigts family) and
Lichtenstein (Rusch family). When
he moved to Bornholm he still worked
as a constructor in the surroundings
of Grootfontein, the farm was
managed by his wife Liselotte. All
cows were kept extensively without
any concentrate but were milked
FLECKVIEHWorld 2009/2010

for cream production in Rietfontein.
The cream was brought to the farm
building on ox wagons and later
delivered by car to the dairy 1 or 2
times a day. From the skimmed
milk the Gunzels produced casein
which they fed to their 50 pigs. The
Foot-and-Mouth disease put an end
to the cream sales which resulted in
a breakdown of the whole cream
production. The Gunzel Simmentaler
stud continued with beef production.
At Bornholm the average rainfall is
quite low (200 - 350 mm) so only
grazing is possible. In 1995 Helmi
Gunzel bought a farm in a good
area close to Grootfontein with higher
rainfall (up to 700 mm) to produce
maize, sunflowers and other
crops for human consumption.
During the 70ties the first three
breeding cattle were imported from
Germany. By that time Helmi Gunzel
had taken over the farm from
his father Tobias. Some years later
he bought some animals in Europe
again and brought them to Namibia,
at first the sire Graf, a Graberson
and in the year 1988 four female
animals and the sire Haribo.
These animals were imported with
the aim to improve milk production
and udder quality.
From the year 1990 on, Helmi and
his son Kaspar did the breeding
work together, till Kaspar took over
the farm in 2005 after the sudden
death of his father. Helmi Gunzel
came to Germany almost every year
and visited Bavarian Fleckvieh
Genetics in Munich. Thus he was always
excellently informed about
Fleckvieh breeding in Bavaria and
used horned and polled sires from
Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics in his
herd. Helmi and Kaspar always were
very critical and it sometimes
took a long time to convince them
of a sire. Zimbo and Eisenherz did
very well on their farm. Actually
mainly bulls from South Africa and
own bulls are used in the herd.
A milestone in their breeding work
was the purchase of cow-calf pair
Wisp-Will-Patty with heifer calf Pam
(S: Henkel, a Haxl-son) in 1992 from
the famous South African breeders
Willy and Llewellyn Angus. This
cow impressed the Namibians
especially with her soundness and
faultless type traits. Wisp-Will Patty
at that time was due to Wisp-Will-
Mandrake, out of this mating Gunzel
Patty was born. The Gunzels were
the first to use embryotransfer in
FLECKVIEHWorld 2009/2010
Wisp-Will-Patty, dam of Wisp-Will Pam.
Wisp-Will Pam, dam of Gunzel Patty and Gunzel Kaspar.
Gunzel Patty, daughter of Wisp-Will Pam.
SOUTHERN AFRICA 25

26 SOUTHERN AFRICA
Kaiser was imported directly from Germany.
Namibia on their farm in the same
year when they bought Patty and
Pam.
The cow Wisp-Will Pam was one of
the most famous breeding cows of
Southern Africa. Already at an age
of 2,5 years she was awarded
champion of the Windhoek Show
and in the following years she remained
unbeaten.
On the occasion of the World Simmental
Fleckvieh Congress in the
year 1996 the International Championships
took place in Pretoria.
The Gunzel family drove over
2000 km with several breeding cat-
Original German pedigree of Kaiser.
tle in order to take part in this unique
event, an incredible stress for
the family and their cattle. The cow
Wisp-Will Pam won the senior- udder
class, also junior-class honors
went to a cow out of the barn of the
Gunzels, though she was out of a
different bloodline. Wisp-Will Pam
took part in the final round for the
selection of the champion cow. An
indisposition she contracted on the
way to the show detained her from
a victory. The author of this article
was completely fascinated from the
femaleness, type traits and soundness
of this cow. In his opinion she
was the best breeding cow he had
ever seen in Southern Africa. The
Pretoria Show 1996 was a very special
show in Fleckvieh history, since
never before more Fleckvieh cattle
have been exhibited at the same time
than at this World Congress and
therefore competition was very
strong.
The Gunzels also took part in the
International Championships in
Pretoria in the year 2000, where
they celebrated considerable success
in a hard competition. The sire
Gunzel Uranus was awarded champion
sire over all.
In the year 2002 the World Congress
was hold in South Africa / Namibia
already for the third time.
Once again the International Championships
took place in Pretoria on
the occasion of the World Congress.
At this show the Patty-family
celebrated great success – Pattys
son Gunzel Mocca was Reserve
Grand Champion in a first-class
competition with excellent sires.
The Patty-daughter „Petina“ won
the udder class and completed the
breeding success for Namibia.
In the year 2006 Gunzel „Giola”, a
granddaughter of Pam, was overall
champion of the Windhoek Show
and won the newly invented award
„Champion of the Champions of All
Breeds”. Doubtless it is unique that
FLECKVIEHWorld 2009/2010

Kykso Kaimat, one of the few progeny of Kaiser continued the Kater-Line at Kysko Simmentalers.
the cows Pam, Patty and their progeny
won the award for the best dual
purpose cow at the Windhoek
Show 7 years in a row.
In 1992 Kaspar Gunzel started a
new branch on the farm, the breeding
of Brahman. Kaspar wanted to
put his breeding ambitions to good
use in his own herd. Furthermore
this breed is ideally suited for
crossbreeding with Simmentaler
Fleckvieh. Thus the demands of
those buyers could be met who
looked for Simmentaler Fleckvieh
and Brahman sires. Also, with
Brahman the Gunzels are very successful.
The highlight was the year
2008, when all awards went to this
farm and the most expensive Brahman
sire of Namibia was sold for
N$ 170 000.00.
The Gunzel Simmentaler stud has
112 registered cows, the Makalani
Brahman stud has 92 cows that are
registered in the herdbook. Every
year about 20 to 25 bulls of each
breed are marketed on auctions,
cattle shows or directly from the
farm. All bulls are tested for semen
quality, reproductive diseases, tenderness
and marbling and feed conversion.
All Simmentaler Fleckvieh
cattle are judged annually by an inspector
from the Breed Society.
Gunzel Kaspar –
excellent combination
of bloodlines
Strikingly on the Gunzel farm all
cows from the P-line breed excellently,
regardless of the mating, a
fact that can be often seen in dominant
cow families. The male animals
all showed an excellent muscling,
the female animals captivated
FLECKVIEHWorld 2009/2010
through their type traits, soundness
and good udders. 40 % of today’s
breeding cattle on the Gunzel farm
descend from this cow family. The
cows Wisp-Will Pam and Gunzel
Patty were used for embryo production
and some of the resulting embryos
were exported to Canada,
Brazil and Australia.
Today the breeding focus is set on
the selling of hard, adapted and
good muscled sires with excellent
breeding values that are now available
after the introduction of the
Australian Breedplan-System in
Southern Africa. All animals are tested
for their back muscling with
ultrasound and gene tests are done
for feed efficiency, feed intake,
marbling and tenderness. In addition
to all these measures an animal
has to be structurally sound, which
means that appearance as well as
the figures have to make a good impression.
The goal is to breed cattle
that meet the demands of efficient
and productive beef animals with
Gunzel Kaspar was bought by Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics.
SOUTHERN AFRICA 27
excellent maternal characteristics
that can cope with the poor feed in
Namibia.
Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics bought
genetics from Namibia already some
years ago: Hauk Erz, a polled Eisenherz-son,
who has excellent progeny
in Southern Africa.
The combination of Kykso-blood via
the sire Kykso Kaino with the P-family
on the Gunzel farm fully represents
our idea of a combination of
the best genes. The Kater line that
already is extinct in Germany on the
father side, was used a lot on the
Swart farm, and thus Kater-blood is
very often found in Kykso farm pedigrees.
For example the mother of
Kaino has two ancestors with Katerblood
in her pedigree. The Kater line
has proven to be very adaptable to
Southern African conditions and
many other countries. It is always
interesting to follow up the paths of
breeding cattle that have been exported
from Germany in the mid
70ties with the help of the Fleckvieh
expert Peter Massmann. The sire
Kaiser unfortunately had only very
few calves, amongst those Kaimat,
who continued the line.
After the auction at Windhoek Gunzel
Kaspar was brought to a quarantine
station at the Western Cape,
where he produced semen for export
purposes, for embryotransfer
and for the use in Southern Africa.
Gunzel Kaspar completes the list of
hard and adaptable Fleckvieh genetics
of Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics
that proves its advantages and potential
especially in hot, dry and
subtropical conditions. We also are
always interested in testing South
African genetics in Germany for its
actual milk- and beef production
and its type traits.