November 8, 2011
Kazakhstan to receive 400 heads of Australian cattle
Kazakhstan will receive 400 heads of cattle from Australia on November 8, the Kazakh state firm said Friday (Nov 4).
The cattle are of the large-horned variety, the Kazakhstan Today (KT) news agency reported KazAgroFinance as saying.
The import of cattle is part of a larger programme to bolster Kazakhstan's domestic beef industry.
KazAgroFinance says it is planning to import a further 7,000 heads of cattle, in conjunction with a company in the northern Kazakh city of Kostanay.
Last month, Kazakhstan received a shipment of hundreds of cows from the US state of North Dakota as part of a 10-year deal with North Dakota ranchers.
The climate of North Dakota is thought to be similar to that of Kazakhstan, and it is believed the cattle reared there will have little difficulty becoming acclimated.
A large part of the country's cattle population was slaughtered shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, reducing Kazakhstan's cattle numbers from 35 million to two million, Universal Newswires said.