October 14, 2010

Kazakhstan buys US cattle to boost beef industry

About 170 North Dakota beef cattle were flown to Kazakhstan recently, the first wave of animals being sent to help rebuild the former Soviet republic's beef industry.

A 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 December 15, said Global Beef chairman Mike Seifert.

The US$50-million project also includes construction of two 2,500-animal breeding facilities and a feedlot, said David Yerubayev, chairman of the government-supported KazBeef Ltd.

Eventually, Kazakhstan, the ninth-largest nation in the world, could buy as many as 50,000 cows from North Dakota, he said.

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 two million today, Yerubayev explained.

The oil-rich nation is now spending billions of dollars to rebuild its agriculture industry, including its beef production.

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

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

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