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North Dakota cattle heading for Kazakhstan

leanin' H

Well-known member
Kazakhstan flies in ND cows to boost beef industry
October 12th, 2010 @ 12:27pm
By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press Writer


BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Dozens of hardy cattle bred to withstand North Dakota's harsh winters took off on a jumbo jet to Kazakhstan on Tuesday, the first wave of animals being sent to help rebuild the former Soviet republic's beef industry.

Most of Kazakhstan's cattle were sold or slaughtered after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and its herd has been reduced from about 35 million animals in the early 1990s to about 2 million today, said David Yerubayev, chairman of the government-supported KazBeef Ltd.

The oil-rich nation is now spending billions of dollars to rebuild its agriculture industry, including its beef production, Yerubayev told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Astana on Tuesday.

A $50 million deal between Bismarck-based Global Beef Consultants LLC and the Kazakh government calls for 2,040 Angus and Hereford cattle to be shipped on a dozen flights to central Asia by Dec. 15, Global Beef chairman Mike Seifert said.

About 170 pregnant cows and heifers weighing more than 80 tons were loaded in metal crates at the Fargo airport Tuesday and shipped by air freighter to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. A veterinarian and two North Dakota cowboys accompanied the cattle on the 22-hour flight operated by UPS Inc.

UPS officials said it was the first time the company had hauled a herd of bovines in the belly of one of its Boeing 747 freighters.

"We've shipped all kinds of animals, from whales to pandas but I can't recall cows," said Ronna Branch, a UPS spokeswoman at the company's headquarters in Atlanta.

Herds of U.S. dairy cattle have been shipped abroad before but usually by ship and trains, Seifert said. The beef cattle were flown because it was quicker and less stressful for them and because Kazakhstan is landlocked, he said.

"I believe this the first of its kind for beef cattle," he said.

The animals being sent from North Dakota will go to two 2,500-animal breeding facilities and a feedlot, Yerubayev said. Eventually, the country, the ninth-largest in the world, could buy as many as 50,000 cows from North Dakota, he said.

"This is just a pilot project," Yerubayev said. "But it is the biggest upgrade of cattle in our history.

"Everyone in our country knows about this project, including the president."

A delegation of Kazakhstan officials were invited to North Dakota in frigid January to look over cattle herds. The bitter conditions proved to be a big selling point.

"The winter in northern Kazakhstan gets hard like in North Dakota," Yerubayev said. "That's why we chose North Dakota cattle."

North Dakota cows typically have thicker coats and more marbling and fatty tissue "because of the environment in which they're raised," Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said.

Bill Price, president of Global Beef Consultants, said cattle for the Kazakhstan project would come from ranches throughout central and western North Dakota.

"We have the northern genetics that everybody is after," said Price, who runs a ranch with his mother and brother north of Bismarck. "That's our selling point."

Kazakhstan already is the fourth-biggest importer of North Dakota products, mostly farm machinery. The state exported $40.3 million in goods last year, up from $25 million in 2005.





Holler if you all need any good desert cows :D
 

redrobin

Well-known member
leanin' H said:
Kazakhstan flies in ND cows to boost beef industry
October 12th, 2010 @ 12:27pm
By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press Writer


BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Dozens of hardy cattle bred to withstand North Dakota's harsh winters took off on a jumbo jet to Kazakhstan on Tuesday, the first wave of animals being sent to help rebuild the former Soviet republic's beef industry..........



Holler if you all need any good desert cows :D
Most of these cattle were born and bred outside ND. Probably some from your neck of the woods.
 

mrj

Well-known member
That pilot and that airline may not have hauled cattle before, but it is rather 'old hat' I believe.

That is how cattle are shipped from Hawaii to the mainland to be fed out and processed here, since they are not allowed to move cattle on ships which do not fly the US flag....and there are no ships flying the US flag which are equipped to haul cattle!!! Due to the Jones Act, a union accomplishment some years ago.

Just an earlier example of how self-serving union politician/leaders make life more difficult for other workers in the USA, IMO.

mrj
 

rancherfred

Well-known member
I just lost my vet to that project. I don't know if he is the only one going over, but he is supposed to be there for at least a year. It sounded like a pretty interesting job for someone that didn't have any familial commitments.
 

gcreekrch

Well-known member
Well, that's a relief H. :D

Thought someone had sucked you in to ramrodding a trail drive over there. Would have been a long swim for a desert dweller. :p
 

per

Well-known member
You can see Russia from Alaska. Go far enough north and no swimming necessary. :)

My question would be that if they need beef and we want to sell beef, wouldn't continuing to sell them boxed beef be a better solution? An entrepreneurial outfit from here sent cattle over to Russia pre BSE and went over to set up a feedlot and Abattoir.
 

okfarmer

Well-known member
Nah, we are America. We will happily educate foreign children while overlooking many of our own. We'll send ya millions if you ask us to, but we can't pay our own debt. We'll give you our technology, even if you won't trade fairly.

Seems like agriculture is one of the last large products that we can export, so it makes sense that we should probably supply other countries with our genetics and knowledge to soften the market. We are getting WAY to close to turning a profit! (Sorry Canada, due to the North American Free Trade Agreement- you'll probably have to suffer along with us)

How does the old adage go?
Sale a country boxed beef... you ranch for another year; Sale a country your cattle... you lose the farm and go on welfare and eat government purchased Kazakhstan beef the rest of your life???

I look at Japan and how tight they hold the genetics of the Wagyu breed. From my understanding, only a few decent animals were exported, and that was by someone being sneaky. Gosh, if they were to open trade with us on these cattle, the whole world would have it free the next day.

Sorry, I needed to get a little sarcasm out. And I'm probably too simple minded to understand foreign trade policy anyway. I still use logic as a crutch.
 

Frank in West Dakota

Well-known member
redrobin said:
Most of these cattle were born and bred outside ND. Probably some from your neck of the woods.

Where did ya read that? :???:
Clearly states in the article, most of cattle come from central and western ND!

Bill Price, president of Global Beef Consultants, said cattle for the Kazakhstan project would come from ranches throughout central and western North Dakota.
 

jingo2

Well-known member
This makes no monetary sence.

Why bother shipping full grown cattle when yiou can ship embryos and implant them into prep'ed recips?

somebody is really rich and really stupid to send grown cattle
 

Silver

Well-known member
mrj said:
That pilot and that airline may not have hauled cattle before, but it is rather 'old hat' I believe.

That is how cattle are shipped from Hawaii to the mainland to be fed out and processed here, since they are not allowed to move cattle on ships which do not fly the US flag....and there are no ships flying the US flag which are equipped to haul cattle!!! Due to the Jones Act, a union accomplishment some years ago.

Just an earlier example of how self-serving union politician/leaders make life more difficult for other workers in the USA, IMO.

mrj

I don't know how many cattle fly, but cattle are shipped from Hawaii to Vancouver BC, then trucked to the US on a regular basis.
 

Silver

Well-known member
jingo2 said:
This makes no monetary sence.

Why bother shipping full grown cattle when yiou can ship embryos and implant them into prep'ed recips?

somebody is really rich and really stupid to send grown cattle

Maybe they're in a hurry. By my math doing it their way they save about 2 years. Perhaps time is money.
 

jingo2

Well-known member
Silver said:
mrj said:
That pilot and that airline may not have hauled cattle before, but it is rather 'old hat' I believe.

That is how cattle are shipped from Hawaii to the mainland to be fed out and processed here, since they are not allowed to move cattle on ships which do not fly the US flag....and there are no ships flying the US flag which are equipped to haul cattle!!! Due to the Jones Act, a union accomplishment some years ago.

Just an earlier example of how self-serving union politician/leaders make life more difficult for other workers in the USA, IMO.

mrj

I don't know how many cattle fly, but cattle are shipped from Hawaii to Vancouver BC, then trucked to the US on a regular basis.

In this day and time, even that is stupid if you're trying to set up a breeding herd.

For butcher cattle...diff'n issue...but for breeding stock....STUPID waste of moneym
 

hopalong

Well-known member
jingo2 said:
Silver said:
mrj said:

In this day and time, even that is stupid if you're trying to set up a breeding herd.

For butcher cattle...diff'n issue...but for breeding stock....STUPID waste of moneym

Must not be too stupid or they would not be doing it!
I am sure that they looked into it from all angles including embreyo transplant, which is not that good of a quick fix anyway.
 

PATB

Well-known member
I talk with a angus breeder from virginia yesterday at a meeting and he was selling bred heifers to turkey. They are importing the heifers, calving them out, raising calf and then turning everything into beef and making money. Seems like the North American should be able to ship box beef in at a better price.
 

mrj

Well-known member
Hope none of you missed my point that the cattle 'air-lifted' from Hawaii to the mainland are for slaughter, not breeding. Unless some do so, but what I know about are for meat.

There is little processing over there. The eco-freako's have ended a lot of that in the Islands.

mrj
 
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