Hobson & Co would like to thank all their clients, associates and friends for a very successful 2014, and wish you all a wonderful festive season and all the good fortune, happiness, good health and prosperity in 2015.
2014 has indeed been a great year for Hobson & Co, with most sales showing increased numbers and turnovers, prices showing an upwards curve and farming just seems to be a little more fun. Breeding stock prices have not kept up with the increase in slaughter prices but must surely turn now that there has been widespread rain, especially in the Eastern Cape. There were many highlights on the Hobson & Co calendar in 2014, and here we would once again like to thank all of you, buyers and sellers for the confidence you have shown in us. We are trying to keep up to date with new technology etc. but our absolute passion to keep old fashioned values as the cornerstone of the business really has paid off. The regular monthly auctions have consistently produced market related and better prices. A new record price was paid for an ox at the Charlgrove Sale in 2014. Congratulations to Boetie Muller of Zuney who sold an outstanding Brahman X ox weighing 1115kg for R20000.
We had a very proud record of almost 100% clearance on all our Bull Sales this year. Congratulations to all our stud partners on their sales this year. We are very proud of being part of your increasingly popular brands. Special mention must be made to the following; the Frontier Bonsmara group who had their 9th successive 100% clearance sale with JJ Park achieving R180000 and R150000 for two bulls, Darryl Fetting for averaging R32500 at his Alphaeton Bonsmara sale, Umsenge Ngunis for once again having the most successful Nguni sales in South Africa and the EP Dorper club for making great strides with the two sales this year, which have shown great improvement. All the stud sales, Quattro Boergoats, Mickey Phillips Dorpers, Classic Cattle, Osterloh Brahmans, EC Boran, Glenheath Tulis and JJ Park’s Brakfontein Sale performed admirably under tough selling conditions.
Another highlight of 2014 was the very successful Farmers day held at Brakfontein, which we organised with Frontier Bonsmaras. So many people arrived that we stopped registering at 250 people. It was wonderful to see so many successful businessmen and farmers all together at the venue. The theme for the day – “only the best is good enough” really seemed very apt.
In February we said goodbye to Jane Evans and welcomed Sunell Lockwood in her place. She fitted in very quickly and it has been great being able to do our advertising from the office. The Hobson & Co staff are having a well-earned rest and will be officially back on duty from Monday 12 January. Please feel free to contact us though if you need any help or have slaughter stock between now and then. The Feedlots are closed until then as well, so we are basically on forced leave.
Murray Hobson is joining the Hobson & Co team as a Management Accountant in 2015. We do believe he is going to add a new dimension to the business. This will take many of the administration responsibilities off me and loosen me up to do more marketing.
A few thoughts to ponder and put into practice in 2015- Winning is the science of being totally prepared and Choice determines direction, and direction determines destiny!
Paul Hobson