“The main thing is to establish trade” - Australian company Elders on raising livestock in Kazakhstan
Elders has experience working with Kazakh partners to build farms from scratch.
“We worked with the Sever-Agro company when a program to update the red meat industry was underway in Kazakhstan. Two production facilities were launched in Karabalyk (Kostanay region): “Sever-Agro” and “Terra”. We brought about 4.5 thousand breeding stock of Angus cows from Canada, the USA and Australia to Sever-Agro. We also organized rain-fed land for a farm of about 6 thousand hectares, and fenced it with fences for raising livestock in the summer. We built an industrial feedlot to support livestock in winter and all the necessary infrastructure. Everything was made from scratch. Thanks to good fattening in winter, the cattle did not freeze. We use good nutrition - this is our method. Australia has more problems with heat, while Kazakhstan has more problems with temperature changes. I believe that in your country everything can be the way you want. You have land, investment opportunities, you are centrally located, you can feed many countries. The main thing is to establish trade,” said Elders agricultural manager and consultant Bruce Crick.
“In the Kostanay region we have a feedlot for 20 thousand heads of cattle. We were in Australia 12 years ago and adopted their experience, since there were simply no farms of such capacity in Kazakhstan. And today our site is the largest in the country. There are prospects for further growth, so we came to Australia again to learn a new experience, because it is one of the largest exporters of beef in the world. We plan to expand and increase efficiency. For example, “Terra”, with a capacity of 20 thousand heads, last year made a turnover of 27 thousand heads. Our other feedlot for 5 thousand heads in the West Kazakhstan region missed 7 thousand heads. And, as we see, this is not the limit; with minimal investments you can increase your turnover by at least 2 times,” said Kaiyrzhan Nauryzgaliev, partner of the Terra group of companies.
The press service reports that Elders sells about 1.3 - 1.7 million head of cattle (about 12% of total sales turnover in Australia) and 10 million sheep per year (about 20% of the market). As company representatives note, the current price for cattle is: 1.5 - 2 Australian dollars per 1 kg of live weight and 3-4 dollars per kg of carcass. Cereal sales are estimated at about $13 billion annually. In Australia, about 22 thousand companies are engaged in crop production, the crop area is approximately 20 million hectares. 65% of grain products are exported. In 2023, the wheat harvest amounted to about 25 million tons, barley – 10 million.
Photo: press service of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan
