Arabic version: نقل أبقار هيرفورد جواً من أليس سبرينغز إلى كازاخستان
According to ABC News, nearly 300 cattle from Undoolya Station near Alice Springs have been flown to Kazakhstan, in a sale Northern Territory producers hope could open a new market. The journey from central Australia to Kazakhstan is roughly 10,000 kilometres.
Undoolya Station producer Ben Hayes said a livestock agent contacted him about supplying heifers for a Kazakhstan order. A buyer travelled to the station with an interpreter, inspected the animals and purchased them. The cattle were trucked to Melbourne, spent about a month in quarantine, and were then loaded into crates for air transport.
The Herefords flew from Melbourne to Singapore before continuing to Kazakhstan. Mr Hayes said he understood Kazakhstan’s government had an initiative to increase cattle breeding numbers and that the animals would become breeding stock. The heifers had to weigh about 180 to 250 kilograms and be pregnancy-tested empty.
Mr Hayes said the price paid was on par with the Australian market, but described participation in the Kazakhstan sale as very special. ABC Landline was told that cattle from Mt Riddock Station in the Northern Territory were also bought for the consignment.
Federal Department of Agriculture data showed two flights of breeder cattle leaving Victoria in October, carrying a combined 1,252 head. A separate flight took 1,617 breeder sheep to Kazakhstan. Australia is understood to have last exported cattle to Kazakhstan in 2019. Undoolya, the Northern Territory’s oldest pastoral lease, was established in 1872 and has been owned by the Hayes family since 1906.
