Australian cattle take off to Botswana

Representative Thapelo Seilaleksos spent the last six months travelling Australia, scouting for suitable cattle on behalf of the government to lift the country's genetic pool and provide quality genetics to its producers at a subsidise rate.

He said the country had been reliant on genetics from South Africa, but wanted to cease livestock trade from there due to "uncontrollable foot-and-mouth disease".

Last year, a representative from Botswana purchased and imported 163 head of live cattle from the United States. This year the country's second consignment were scouted from Australia.

On Tuesday, Mr Seilaleksos' trip came to an end when he returned to Botswana with 92 head of live Australian cattle and 150 head of live dairy goats on a chartered airbus.

A total of 62 head of those cattle were registered females, selected for the purpose of harvesting embryos.

The cattle breeds selected from studs around the country included black Angus, Red Angus, red Brahman, Charolais, red factor Charolais, Droughtmaster, Limousin, Murray Grey, Santa Gertrudis, Simmental, Shorthorn, and Wagyu.

Dairy goat breeds included Saanen, British Alpine, Toggenberg and Nubian.

Mr Seilaleksos spent months assessing the Australian climate and environment to see which side of the country would be most similar to Botswana.

It was believed the Murray Greys would be the first of their breed to step foot in Africa.

"It's extremely hot in Botswana so to me they seem like they will do better than the Angus because they will stand the heat better," he said.

"We bought most cattle from Western Australia as the conditions were closest to our country. It is currently very dry in WA, they haven't had rain for the last six months. The conditions in Botsawana are very hard."

Some cattle and goats were purchased from Queensland including five red Brahman stud heifers and a bull from the Kirk family of Rockley Brahmans in Moura.

Mr Seilaleksos said he became aware of Rockley throughout web searches, online publications and social media while in Botswana.

"We bought Brahmans from Queensland as unlike other breeds they can survive anywhere, so we were looking for and focusing on quality. Mr Kirk seemed to have the quality we were after," Mr Seilaleksos said.

Mr Seilaleksos said chartering costs were significant, but the government considered it a worthy investment.

"Cost to us really doesn't matter, it's the results we are looking for. Any business you start is going to cost you, and we are looking at this like a business. The benefits outweigh the costs," he said.

"Those genetics, like semen and embryos, will be made available at very subsidised prices. A straw of semen might be sold for two to five dollars, even if the market trade is about $100 or so."

He said the other aim of the project was to increase the country's cattle population from where it currently stood at around 1.5 million.

With dairy, he said the country was looking to achieve higher self-sufficiency as only around 13pc of its milk was produced locally.

He said the government had also stopped the import of vegetables, lifting internal production from 5pc to 70pc in two years.

Live export business AUSTREX was integral with the preparation of livestock for export and negotiation of an agreed import permit for live cattle from Australian to Botswana.