Four year venture teaches "self-sufficiency"

At last week’s Livestock SA southern region meeting at Willalooka Bruce Creek shared his experiences developing 7500 hectares of bare land near Karablyk, 50kms south of the Russian border.

In late 2011 he was offered the role after a Kazakh delegation organised by Rural Solutions SA and Expo Trade spent half a day with Bruce and his wife Libby at Hillcrest Pastoral Company, Avenue Range where they were business managers. 

Today Kazakh Blacks is running 3750 breeders. This is run in conjunction with 60,000 hectares of cropping land also owned by Sever Agro N.

The venture was born out of the Kazakhstan government’s program offering financial incentives to grow the nation’s cattle herd.

Kazakhstan is a significant grain producer but despite its large land area has only small numbers of cattle.

Many rural households own a couple of dairy cows which are housed in a barn over winter and then communally graze with a Kazakh cowboy.

Mr Creek says the harsh climate, language and cultural barriers and lack of agricultural technology were often a challenge but it has been an “incredible experience” for him and Libby and their son Will who also worked there.

“Kazahkstan was going to be for two years but then it went into the third and fourth year,” he said.

“They are great people and it has taught me so much about how to handle people and respect them for their ways,” he said.

In particular he has learned how to “think outside the square” to repair farming equipment, put up hundreds of kilometres of fencing and develop a sophisticated watering system.

“There is no Elders or Landmark or equivalent merchandise shop around the corner so you learn to be very self sufficient and to adapt or modify what you can resource. It taught me that there really isn’t any problem that can’t be solved one way or another,” he said. 

In the first year Sever Agro N imported 2500 Angus heifers from Australia plus Angus bulls.

The majority of these heifers were shipped to the Novorossiysk port in Russia and trucked 3000km with around 1000 airfreighted to Kazakhstan's capital Astana and then trucked 1000 kilometres by road.

Mr Creek says Australian producers can be proud of the way the cattle handled their live export journey but also have adapted to their Northern Hemisphere home.

These heifers were joined in 2013 and are calving their third calves.

“Kazakhstan and Russia have handled a lot of cattle from Australia, the United States and Canada but Australia has a reputation for quality and our animal welfare practices are world’s best practice.” 

Winter in Kazakhstan lasts six months of the year with temperatures dropping as low as –45 degrees and a metre of snow, but incredibly the cattle remain outdoors year round.

A high-energy ration of barley, oats and straw has been key to this with up to 10,000 cattle fed twice a day during winter in confinement areas.

“Our cows in winter are getting 130MJ/day whereas here the rating for a cow with a calf is 89MJ.”

“In the second winter we went from cattle looking for shelter to staying out on the flat in the middle of the confinement areas.”

The large-scale business is being used as an example to other Kazakhstan farmers. 

Last June Kazakh Blacks held its first on-property bull and female sale attracting buyers from across Kazakhstan and Russia and the Kazakhstan government’s Minister for Agriculture.

Their aim is to sell yearling bulls to local villages and buy the Angus cross progeny back to put in their recently expanded feedlot.

Mr Creek sees a bright future for Kazakhstan’s beef industry with a growing appetite for red meat although most beef is still piece meat.

“They are still learning the value of eating a good steak. An average person would eat meat only every second or third day.” 

Sanctions on Russia have also made it difficult for imported boxed beef to be brought into neighbouring Kazakhstan, making a domestic herd even more important.

Mr Creek has returned home to SA but encourages other Australian farmers and farm managers to spend some time working in agriculture overseas gaining knowledge and sharing their skills.

“If you are a young sheep or beef producer grab any opportunity like this and run with it. As Australians you know what you are doing,” he said.

While Bruce will always hold a special interest in the people and business in Kazakhstan, he has accepted the role as general manager for an aggregation of livestock properties on Kangaroo Island and the Fleurieu Peninsula owned by Kerry Stokes -White Corsair and Peter Murray.