Lindsay cattle dealer, Ed McMorrow, has sent 1,000 registered Holstein cows to China where they will be integrated into a 5,000-head state farm.

An old China hand, McMorrow had shipped two plane loads of 135 cattle apiece from Chicago to China a year ago, with negotiations for this latest shipment beginning three years ago. He began the arduous task of buying in July, viewing about 3,000 animals across seven provinces. He ended up testing 1,800 animals, which he whittled to 1,200. Another 200 were cut by the time of shipping.

All of the animals needed high production credentials. "Dams of bred heifers had to have a production record of 10,000 kilograms," McMorrow said. A tight market for quality dairy cows made his job tougher than it would have been in past years.

Right after purchasing the animals he began testing them and put them in isolation where there was no nose to nose contact. The animals were under quarantine for 30 days at a farm owned by Karen and John Buckley near Port Hope. .

A cattle dealer for more than 20 years, McMorrow says he doesn’t have a dairy herd himself but has a thorough background in dairy cattle. What made buying difficult was that farmers use good cattle as replacements in their own herds. Most farmers will only have one or two animals of the quality he was looking for available, he said.

Many animals on the Chinese farm where the cattle are going are either from Canada or bred by Canadian bulls. However, the dairy industry in the largest country in the world is not strong, because of a lack of electricity for refrigeration. McMorrow said that in previous shipments single cows went to small peasant holdings, where milk would be provided daily.