A SHIPMENT of 20 Holstein bulls, including some of the leading genetics from big NSW dairy seedstock supplier, David Blanch at Gloucester, will fly to Vietnam later this month to help boost the Asian country’s fast-growing dairy industry.
The purchase has been made by a team of Vietnamese government dairy industry representatives for an undisclosed price.
The bulls, from leading Lone Pine cow families including Roxy, Libby and Destiny, and top-end North American sires, will go to a government-run artificial insemination centre in Hanoi.
While most international dairy genetics sales are either semen or embryos, the Vietnamese made initial contact with Lone Pine stud via its website early this month, seeking an on-farm inspection of bulls for sale and a list of criteria.
“They wanted bulls by dams producing more than 10,000 litres a lactation; a minimum of 3.5 per cent butterfat content and with strong legs and feet,” Mr Blanch said.
“They also wanted 50pc black and 50pc white because that is what is attractive to the Vietnamese.”
That was a criteria the Blanch family, in more than 20 years of supplying bulls, had never before been given and in order to meet it some additional bulls had to be sourced from Southern Highlands breeder, Murray Sowter, Murribrook stud, Moss Vale.
“It was actually good for our existing clients because most Australians want bulls with 90pc black content,” Mr Blanch said.
The representatives said there were about 200,000 head of dairy cattle now in Vietnam, with the average farmer milking 12 cows and producing two cream cans a day.
The larger farmers collect the cans daily on motorbikes from farmers in their area, delivering to factory, and payments are made predominantly on butterfat content.
The plan is to build the industry and the visitors expected to be back in Australia within three years sourcing more genetics.
“They were very professional and knew what they wanted, which was primarily bulls that would last and would do the job needed for their industry,” Mr Blanch said.
For Lone Pine, which sells about three to four bulls a month, the strong prices achieved for the sires and the large-scale nature of the deal has been a coup.
It represents the second international sale for the stud, with one bull going to the Arabian Peninsula to an artificial insemination centre
run by the United Arab Emirates Government three years ago.
