A second large shipment of Canadian cattle is expected to be in Russia, following a two-week journey. A shipment of 1,500 open and short-bred heifers were headed to two Russian farms as breeding stock.

Three brokers combined to make this shipment possible, one from Quebec and two from Ontario. The shipment comes only two months after Ed McMorrow, of McMorrow Cattle Company in Lindsay, teamed with Alberta-based company Alta Exports, to send 2,000 cows to Russia. That shipment included 1,000 Black Angus and 1,000 purebred Holstein Heifers.

The cows in this new shipment are accompanied by a Canadian and two Russian veterinarians. "These are first time calvers," explained vice president of Holsteins Canada Brian Leach, who was involved in the deal. "They are a maximum of four months pregnant and will have time to settle into their new home before giving birth. All of the animals were tested for leucosis before leaving. It was the only requirement of the shipment."

A number of farmers in Eastern Ontario contributed to the shipment. The counties of Renfrew, Leeds and west Carleton sent 40 to 50 animals in the shipment. All of the farmers were paid in full before their animals left their farms, Leach said. This was the first big deal Leach was involved in since the BSE outbreak in May 2003. He remains optimistic that the U.S. border will open soon and shipments of breeding stock to the U.S will resume.