Australian Brahman genetics continue to take the world by storm, with shipments of live cattle to the Philippines, Botswana, and Pakistan, in recent times further reinforcing the dominance of the breed.
The demand for quality Brahmans remains very high in the live export game, according to Austrex export co-ordinator, Liam Macfarlane, who has overseen multiple shipments to South East Asia and Africa in recent months.
Mr Macfarlane said in particular, one Filipino stud, 5A Livestock, and a team of five other Filipino cattlemen recently spent seven days in Queensland, visiting Brahman producers across the north.
They were sourcing cattle for their Brahman stud as well as other studs in the country, to improve the genetics of their cattle herd.
Mr Macfarlane said the 5A group had visited Australia on several occasions now to source quality Queensland Brahman genetics.
“5A had a shipment go to the Philippines in 2019, then again in December, 2023,” he said.
The most recent shipment to the Philippines left Australian shores on Monday, July 22, and landed in Manila on July 23 after a ten hour direct flight from Sydney airport.
Mr Macfarlane said the cattle were trucked from Queensland to a quarantine facility near Sydney, where they spent 30 days before being flown out via air freight.
“There were 130 head including 30 registered stud females, and 100 very good quality commercial Brahman heifers on the most recent flight to the Philippines,” he said.
“The Brahman job is very strong over there, as they breed quite a few bulls. There are quite a few Brahman bulls being bred for both a stud and commercial market in the Philippines.
“Potentially they are going to studs over there where they use them to breed bulls and sell them to other farmers.”
Mr Macfarlane said cattle from PB Fenech and Token Brahmans made up the July shipment of females, however previously cattle had been purchased by the 5A group from Token, Ooline and Lancefield studs, and prior to this also Raglan.
“The group comes and tours around the properties making their selections of what cattle they want, and are definitely keen for more,” he said.
“The 5A group has often imported cattle from various studs in the US, but they are very happy with the quality of the Australian cattle and there is a bit of a shift towards our genetics which are becoming quite popular in the Philippines.”
Mr Macfarlane believes the most recent tour by the 5A group was a great initiative, and a fantastic PR exercise, as they were introduced to different breeders.
“I’ve been pushing hard for Australian genetics going into our South East Asian clients, so we can gain more market share.”
He said 5A Livestock was a Brahman stud, but they were also involved in consultancy, so purchased some females for themselves as well as for their clients.
“It’s terrific for the Australian Brahman industry, as every time they come out we gain more market share over the US for Brahman genetics. Brahman are still the strongest breed throughout southeast Asia and are still advancing their genetics.”
Pakistan shipment due for November
Another shipment of Brahman cattle in the pipeline for November is an order for 100 red and grey two year old Brahman heifers from Frontier Genetics members, who are currently in negotiations with Pakistan cattle exporters.
Leading the charge is Rodger Jefferis of Elrose Brahmans, Rockhampton, who is one of 11 members of Frontier Genetics – a progressive group making great in-roads into advancing the growth of Brahman bloodlines both domestically and internationally.
“The enquiry for 80 grey and 20 red Stud registered Brahman females came to Frontier Genetics, requiring each animal to meet certain levels of EBVs and be registered with ABBA,” Mr Jefferis said.
“The greys are from Elrose and reds from Rockley and Tarramba studs,” he said.
Mr Jefferis said the cattle would become a benchmark herd for Brahmans in Pakistan.
“This is a great move for ABBA, because they will join the society and Breedplan, and it is intended that this will be the reference herd for Brahmans in Pakistan,” he said.
“This is a very positive move for the Australian Brahman breed.”
The purchasers are Mr Mak (Muhammad Arif Khurram) of IZ Cattle, Pakistan, and Mr Hass of HRM Livestock, who is also the exporter, with Mr Hass visiting Queensland recently, travelling around the member studs to inspect their cattle.
Mr Mak, who owns a Brahman breeding farm, IZ Cattle, said he had also established an association called Brahman Breeders Alliance (BBA) dedicated to improving the Brahman breed in Pakistan.
“To achieve this, I have secured around 100 Brahman cattle from Australia’s top studs, including Elrose Brahmans (Rodger Jefferis), Rockley Brahmans (Ashley Kirk), and Tarramba Brahmans (Adam Gunthorpe) all are members of Frontier genetics,” he said.
“I am grateful to these breeders for helping me acquire the best trait leader Brahmans for Pakistan.
“We plan to perform IVF and embryo transfer on this herd to rapidly propagate these superior genetics. We will be using top donor sires from around the world especially from Australia and USA to achieve the best results.
“As the sole distributor of Moreno Ranches from the USA, we have access to the best USA genetics and its counterparts.
“Driven by a passion for breed improvement in Brahmans, I embarked on a self-taught journey into genetics, seeking guidance from many renowned experts both in Australia, USA and Pakistan.
“My primary goal is to implement IVF on this herd using advanced bull matching techniques and DNA profiling to identify and enhance homozygous traits and transfer them to the progeny.
“I aim to create a disease-free zone in Pakistan, enabling us to export superior genetics globally. Additionally, I am committed to aiding small-scale farmers in Pakistan by providing access to high-quality Brahman genetics, thereby increasing their profitability.”
HRM Livestock announced on their Facebook page in May:
“The world’s top Brahman breeders, Rockley and Elrose agreed to share their top one percentile genetics with Pakistan. Huge moment in Brahman industry in Pakistan. Huge congratulations to IZ Cattle for procuring those genetics.”
Mr Jefferis said he had previously sold Brahmans to Thailand, the Philippines and Brazil, but this was the first shipment of females to Pakistan.
“The greys have been mated with female sexed semen, as that is what they’re hoping for, to proliferate their numbers in Pakistan,” he said.
The deal began with Mr Mak’s quest for Elrose genetics, after finding some of their cattle in Pakistan.
“They found three heifer calves from our reduction sale in 2019 in a herd over there and Mr Mak fell in love with them and tracked me down through our Frontier Genetics website,” Mr Jefferis said.
“He sent me a video of them with our brand on them and said I just love these three cows and you bred them, so I want to talk about some females. That was about three months ago,” he said.
“Mr Hass came and had a look around and took a lot of videos, and has since put a movie of the Elrose, Tarramba and Rockley cattle on Facebook.”
Mr Jefferis predicts a high level of interest, going forward, in both semen and bull sales.
“I think it’s just the start of Brahmans in Pakistan.”
