Kazakhstan's aim to compete with Australia on beef exports

It may be more than 10,000 kilometres between the two nations but when it comes to beef cattle a strong history exists.

Australia has previously exported live cattle to Kazakhstan, with our genetics forming the base of several herds but now with their national herd building rapidly the focus has turned to technology, infrastructure and cattle management.

A delegation from the Republic of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Agriculture and business representatives from different areas of the Central Asian nation has spent three days in Australia this week, learning what they can take back to improve their practices and bring their beef industry onto the global stage.

Along with attending a store cattle sale at the Northern Victoria Livestock Exchange, Wodonga, meetings with Elders, seeing irrigation and visiting a sheep property, the delegation was on farm at The Glen Angus, Walwa, Vic.

Stud principles Mike and Joy Gadd spoke to the group on their operation with a focus on explaining the self-replacing herd, genetic testing, AI, and electronic tags, as well as their infrastructure including electric fencing.

Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Serik Zhumangarin, said these were the kinds of things they wanted to take back to their own industry.

"We want to understand how Australia produces beef and the processes to be able to implement that experience in Kazakhstan to lower the cost of production," he said.

"We want to understand what aspects of cattle breeding and feeding are lacking in Kazakhstan so we can fix those things we don't do properly."

With strong investment in improving the industry, Mr Zhumangarin said their next goal was to become a major beef exporter.

Kazakhstan's national herd has now reached numbers to meet their own domestic consumption and they export to China, Russia and other central Asian nations.

"Now we're not exporting so much - 40,000 to 50,000 [tonnes] but we haven't long started," he said.

"We want to reach the same as Australia - one million tonnes each year."

Mr Zhumangarin said this was a long term goal in ten years, however in the shorter term he hoped to reach 100,000 tonnes a year.

While he said their national herd had been growing by about 6 per cent to 7pc per year there needed to be a stronger focus on quality.

"We need to get quality, not only capacity but it's also about breed regulation like we see on this farm," he said.

To achieve this Mr Zhumangarin said it came back to what they can learn from Australia.

"The meat in Kazakhstan is more expensive and animals more expensive," he said.

"In Australia the technology is more effective and streamlined and the production chain is very good, the whole business chain."

Mr Zhumangarin said the system is Kazakhstan was very traditional and because of that there was a reluctance among some producers to adopt new techniques and technology but bringing in business was key to this.

"We have our own historical system of the beef industry. It's not as effective as Australia and those who work in agriculture sector can be so arrogant," he said.

"In this sector technology is changing every year, every day, and we need to study."

Mr Zhumangarin said they have launched a pilot with six companies from all areas of the country to start copying systems from Australia and implementing them on farm with a strong focus on data, as well as trialling different livestock management and feeding methods.

He said integrating electronic information systems and looking at the whole life chain of the individual animals was one of their main goals in the short term.

"The standards of animals in Australia is also very important for us," he said.

The delegation included businessman from processors and agricultural holding companies.