A 36.86 kg Dormer super lamb carcass from Tjaart Steenekamp's 2 Broers Dormers near Barkly East in the Eastern Cape sold for R110,580, excluding VAT, or R3,000 a kilogram, at the 2026 Royal Show. The Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) says it is a South African record for the total price paid for a single lamb carcass at auction.
The carcass was bought by Zaid Omarjee of OJ Traders. It beat the previous reported record of R72,000 set at Lamb Champs Boland in Paarl in September 2025 by R38,580, or about 54%, although that 20 kg Dorper cross from Pierre Cilliers' Affi-Plaas Premium Lamb fetched more per kilogram, R3,600. 2 Broers Dormers took both the champion and reserve champion super lamb awards, a class for carcasses over 27 kg.
Johnny Forbes' Vredesig Dormers & Suffolk stud near Darling in the Western Cape won the overall Royal Champion Lamb carcass with a 22.58 kg Dormer and Hampshire Down cross that scored 90.06% and classed A2. It took six of the 12 carcass awards, and its champion carcass sold to Hampshire Down breeder Hennie Jonker for R56,450, or R2,500 a kilogram. Marius Eksteen's Hatari Farming near Bloemfontein won Champion Lamb on the Hoof.
The lambs were judged live on 8 October by Angus Williamson and Brendon Blore of the South African Fat Stock Judges Association, then slaughtered at Halaal Fresh Meats Abattoir, where the South African Meat Industry Company assessed the carcasses; awards and the auction followed on 10 October. Vredesig studmaster Dewald Linde said judges feel along the lambs' backs to estimate fat cover, and the assessment of conformation and fat continues at the abattoir.
Farmer's Weekly stresses that champion prices are not commercial lamb prices: buyers at championship auctions pay a premium for prestige and promotion. The report is by Hanlie du Plessis.
Photo: Kreg Leymaster, USDA / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Farmers Weekly South Africa
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