In October 2019, I visited Kazakhstan to continue to develop this relationship and work on new strategies to support both the Kazakhstan market and the Canadian Angus Association. The establishment of new agreements with the Kazak Angus Association will focus on three areas: data management, genetic evaluations and adding value to leading genetic programs. As the Kazak Association has grown rapidly, they have quickly outgrown their current system capabilities and fear that their current system will not be able to handle their future needs. CAA will work with the Kazak Association to research partners that can provide data management in a format that will work with future initiatives with the CAA. Canadian Angus Association genetic evaluations continue to be one of the leading evaluations in the world and a tool that gives Angus genetics a leading edge in the industry. Kazakhstan is in search of new tools to provide their breeders with information to support their breeding and selection principles. As new developing markets around the world grow, the use of science and technology is a key component to these markets’ growth. EPDs are considered extremely valuable as a genetic selection tool and many associations and countries around the world are establishing minimum genetic levels for eligibility for import. One barrier to exporting Canadian genetics is that a number of traits deemed very important in these developing markets
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were lacking in the Canadian evaluation system and prevented the growth of Canadian genetics. The use of various EPDs as well as an index to help with the understanding of the genetic evaluation is only going to be a more critical requirement in the export of genetics in the future. The Kazak market has asked for CAA’s support in developing a genetic evaluation system for their market that will include the guidelines for data collection, introduction of genomics, on-farm reports for herd evaluation and the processing of the genetic information in a format that is easily understood and comparable to the North American system to promote increased trade and increased value on premium breed-leading genetics. The CAA in partnership with Neogen Canada implemented the first genomic testing on two key leading operations in the fall of 2019. Many breeders have followed Canadian Angus programs for direction and guidance and inquiries about the Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed program and what it stands for has been a topic of conversation with a number of leading Kazakhstan programs. During the CAA visit to Kazakhstan in October 2019, this was one of the main topics of discussion with one of Kazakhstan’s leading operations, KazMyaso. KazMyaso is located in the southeastern part of the country bordering China and Kyrgyzstan. It sits at an elevation of around 2,500 metres and experiences hot summers
and cold windy winters. The operation began in 2014 and their breeding herd now stands at 3,000 breeding females. They plan to run their first bull and female sale in February 2020 with the goal of selling 20 elite bulls and 20 elite females and will also offer the first genomically tested animals in Kazakhstan during this sale. One of the challenges in Kazakhstan is that due to lack of infrastructure that we take for granted in Canada, operations need to be fully integrated to achieve profitability as Kazakhstan lacks a marketing system for commercial calves. In 2019, KazMyaso