Nampo Alfa, the livestock expo held at Nampo Park outside Bothaville in South Africa's Free State on 2 and 3 October 2026, staged its most successful livestock programme in ten years despite the continuing foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, according to its livestock coordinator, Albert Loubser.
Animals were able to take part throughout the two days because of strict biosecurity protocols and vaccination requirements. "FMD is not over yet, but we have learnt how to handle it. We are no longer prisoners of it," Loubser said. Producers, he added, had a strong need to market their animals and put their genetics in front of buyers again.
Nampo's managing director, Dirk Strydom, said preliminary figures put attendance at around 5,000 people over the two days, with the final total still being verified. He called the return of livestock a highlight for producers, exhibitors and families, and singled out the schools' Farm Skills competition.
In the rings, the national interbreed male title went to the Brahman bull ARC 22-131, known as Ramkat, owned by José Masciel of Arc-en-Ciel Brahman Stud in Secunda, Mpumalanga. The national interbreed champion female was a Simmentaler cow owned by Kobus Erasmus of Little Creek Simmentalers in Lephalale, Limpopo. At the first BKB Super 10 Goat Show, Andrew and Jumari Roberts of Maize Valley Farms won the Boer goat section and the overall interbreed championship with the Savanna ram Demolisher.
Organisers now plan to widen the programme. The compact Super 10 format is to be extended to a sheep breed and to dogs in 2027, with sheep, horses and other livestock added, and an Africa Livestock Conference is planned for next year. "Alfa stands for African Livestock Expo, and that African component is very important to us," Loubser said.
Photo: Sam Berry / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Farmers Weekly South Africa (reporting by Clayton Swart)
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