A Holstein heifer calf sold for a massive $251,000 at International Dairy Week in Tatura this week.
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The calf, which sold during the World Wide Series Evolution Sale run by Dairy Livestock Services, smashed the previous Australian record of $112,000 set in April 2015 at a sale at Lardner Park, Victoria.
The calf, Lightning Ridge CMD Jedi Gigi, was bought by United States based company Sexing Technologies, Texas, and will be transported live back to the country.
Jedi Gigi is a full sister to dam Blondin Halogen Golden V6-2yr and was the highest ever genomic Total Production Index (GTPI) heifer to be sold in the world.
DLS auctioneer Brian Leslie said it was a significant investment for the industry.
“For us these guys have brought the best genetics from the other end of the world to here, it shows you now that the world is a very small place for genetics,” Mr Leslie said.
“The buyer was from the US, the losing bidder was from Canada, we had a lot of activity for her.
“It’s a world-class pedigree, she is highest GPTI animal that has been sold in the world.
“Did I expect her to make that? No, but I did expect her to break the record.”
Top-priced vendors, Callum Moscript, United States, and Declan Patten, Sale, Victoria, own a number of cattle together.
Mr Moscript said her genomic numbers were what really stood out.
“She was the highest heifer ever to sell on GTPI in the world and because of that there was strong interest from some of the biggest AI (artificial insemination) companies in the world who are looking for high females for their own internal breeding programs,” Mr Moscript said.
“Declan and I own a lot of cattle together and we are always looking for unique opportunities to bring to Australia and Declan found these embryos.
“Our goal was to have a couple of heifers, which would be good heifers for Australian breeders and we just hit a home run with this one.”
Mr Patten said the journey started with a Canadian heifer they bought a few years ago.
“We bought her for $175,000 (Canadian) – I loved her breakdowns, her genomics, she was good, she had great pedigree, so I bought embryos from her and then brought them here (to Australia),” Mr Patten said.
”I bought them for $2000 per embryo. I think what we worked out was that it was a $25,000 investment for everything. and we made $280,000-290,000 today for two heifers and there are two more as well.
“I think by all reports its a $300,000-plus return on a $25,000 investment all in about 15 months.”