Dr Oswald Jannasch, the Specialist Doctor Who Chose Nguni Cattle

Who is Oswald Jannasch?

Dr Oswald Jannasch came to cattle breeding from medicine. He is a medical specialist and scientist by training, and in 1995 he bought his first farm near Polokwane in South Africa's Limpopo province. He is now the owner of the Matla Nguni Stud and president of the Nguni Cattle Breeders' Society of South Africa. As a living person, this profile covers only his public professional record.

Nearly everything below comes from one September 2026 Farmer's Weekly feature, The Doctor Who Chose Nguni Cattle, in which Jannasch describes his own experience. Where the figures are his estimates rather than measured results, this page says so. Because the documented material is limited to that article, the entry is marked thin and uses breed-society context to reach full depth.

Why a scientist chose the Nguni

Jannasch first kept crossbred cattle. He then researched breeds and visited established breeders before switching to Nguni. The Farmer's Weekly article describes his reasoning as practical: he wanted an animal that needed little intervention but still rewarded good husbandry and regular observation.

The Nguni is an indigenous South African breed. A separate Farmer's Weekly article, Nguni: the legacy of the land, says its genetics were shaped by nature over millennia and lists tick and tick-borne disease resistance, ease of calving, good mothering, efficient use of poor-quality fodder, strong browsing ability and a docile temperament as its main traits.

Matla Nguni Stud: the farm

The stud sits on roughly 500 ha of mixed bushveld about 10 km north of Polokwane. Rainfall is 350 to 450 mm a year, and the vegetation includes mixed grasses, thornveld and browse species. Jannasch says the farm can carry about 150 head of cattle.

It is a small operation by commercial standards, and that is part of the point. The feature shows a breeder who sells quality and a method, not a large volume of animals.

Low intervention and what he reports

Jannasch told Farmer's Weekly that Nguni need much less intervention than other breeds. He reports that tick-borne diseases and mastitis are far less common in Nguni, and that mastitis is virtually unknown in the breed. After two years on the farm, he discarded unopened veterinary supplies that neighbours had advised him to stock. In his whole time on the farm, he says, he has assisted at only four Nguni births.

These are one breeder's reported experience, not trial results. He also offers a theory that the Nguni's relatively high blood urea, recycled into the rumen, acts as an inborn winter lick that helps it use poor-quality forage. The article presents that as his view, not an established finding.

Selection and marketing

The culling standard is simple. Cows must calve regularly, keep their condition and wean a calf, or they go. Animals with poor temperament or calving difficulties are also removed. Jannasch sells veld-reared beef and contrasts it with feedlot production, and says he has built a loyal customer base for Nguni beef, according to Clayton Swart's Farmer's Weekly report.

At the broader market level, the Nguni society article reports that at some auctions up to 70% of animals are bought by commercial buyers, and that the breed's productive lifespan can reach 20 years.

Leading the Nguni Cattle Breeders' Society

Jannasch is president of the Nguni Cattle Breeders' Society of South Africa. The feature says about 100 stud breeders manage roughly 19,000 to 20,000 registered Nguni, and he estimates 2 to 4 million Nguni-type cattle exist across South Africa, mostly with subsistence farmers and some commercial farmers.

Another Farmer's Weekly piece names Nico Harris as president of the society, so the office has evidently changed hands or the two articles describe different periods; the society's own site is the place to confirm the current officer. The society's stated purpose is to protect the breed's genetic identity, with a founding aim of describing the breed as nature had shaped it.

Learn more

See the ranching coverage on farm.FM or read a farm.FM story about Nguni cattle.