А. Khodjanazarov about the Australian farm: I wish we had the same.

Kazakh businessmen, agricultural specialists and officials during a trip to Australia assessed the activities of two large feedlots for cows and sheep, reports World of NAN with reference to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The first was the state-of-the-art Southern Cross Feedlot with a capacity of 35,000 head of cattle of simultaneous housing.

"This is just a huge fattening ground, 35 thousand heads of simultaneous fattening. Along with us came cattle breeders from Kazakhstan with great experience. We have studied the ration, how they feed, our farmers are discussing ways of partnership and how to develop cattle breeding in Kazakhstan. We see that in Australia all fields are either sown or grazed by cattle, and we would like to have the same," said Majilis deputy Aidarbek Khodzhanazarov.

Investments in the construction of one cattle station with a feedlot on the Southern Cross Feedlot farm amounted to US $750. For a 35,000-head farm, that's about US $25m-$30m, with a return on investment taking place in a year or two, after which the farmer starts to make a net profit. According to Australian farmers, if you have built a feedlot for 5,000 heads, then further expansion of its capacity does not require additional investment.

The processes of tagging, registration, parameters and history of the animal upon arrival at the fattening station are automatically read from the ear tag. The animals are separated into different fattening programs according to the standards of the countries for which they are being prepared for sale. On this farm there are 4 fattening programs: for EU countries, for 150, 200 and 350 days. The category of the program depends on the initial weight of the animal with which it arrived at the site.

The fattening farm handles an average of 1500 animals per week: intake - 1500 animals, and the same number for slaughter. On the farm, the animals give a weight gain of 1.5-2 kg every day. As with the bulk of Australian farmers, production is cheaper due to the rotational grazing method and three stages of fattening: growing on grass, growing up with the addition of a quarter of grain to grass feed, and grain fattening.

Similar economic approach to fattening of sheep. Kazakh specialists familiarized themselves with it during the visit of fattening site of sheep at Bakersfield Feedlot. Here the system of feeding is fully automated, that allows to put on simultaneous fattening of 16 thousand lambs simultaneously, annual turnover - more than 65 thousand heads. The fattening period is 48-58 days, depending on the quality of the cattle that arrive at the site.

"If we compare it with the Australian fattening method, here they release cattle for export every two months, while we do it every four months and seasonally. At the same time, it is cheaper to raise sheep here, and in summer the lambs graze on pastures and come to the fattening site with a good weight. A semi-automated feeding system, like at this site, would be useful for our production," said Ilyas Zhananov, representative of Alakol Agro LLP.

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