Agribusiness | Xcell Breeding Services
best returns Now the biggest related company in the South Island, managing director Greg McKay explains it also likely has the most unusual beginnings. “We started in 1996 with just myself and Ian Macdonald, who is still here today. We worked out of an 18 foot caravan which we had gutted and turned into a mobile lab. We collected semen from cattle, deer and sheep, cryo-preserved it and stored it for clients. “It was basic pioneering for a company which is now a significant player in the industry.” An opportunity came up to lease a purposebuilt breeding centre, after its previous occupiers changed direction and relocated to the North Island. “We continued collecting semen, storing it and began offering an export and import service. We’ve basically grown and diversified from there.” The diversification he is referring to was the 2003 purchase of a veterinary practice in Templeton run by Jim McPhee. “We had plateaued in the business and gone as far as we could with what we were doing. The vet business was key to our expansion. Essentially it allowed us to double our business and we took on extra staff to accommodate that growth. “Today we are quite literally a one stop shop — we offer everything from veterinary advice through to reproductive advice, planning and systems,” McKay says.
Today Xcell offers excellent reproduction services in semen collection and processing, embryo transfer of deer, sheep, goats and cattle, and post mortem sperm recovery. The company operates a farm animal and horse clinical veterinary practice, including a full 24 hours a day, seven days a week service by utilising an after-hours roster with four veterinary associates. Xcell continues to offer a comprehensive cryogenic storage and dispatch service, with full material damage insurance, inclusive of earthquake cover, to protect your semen and embryos, both at the Xcell facility and in transit to and from your property. Quite simply, the key is semen collection and processing. “Our clients have elite sires, which are capable of producing elite progeny. We collect and process semen for merchandising, insurance purposes or exporting. “We collect, process and store this semen, but we also offer exporting, dispatch of product to artificial technicians around the world, as well as offering our own insemination service.”
Excelling in the industry Xcell produces a beef semen catalogue of what it considers the best bulls available, which goes to all the beef farmers in the country, including the data, figures and other information of the different bulls available. “It’s a substantial industry today,” McKay says. Feature continues on next page
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Xcell Breeding Services Ltd is backed by over 50 years of experience in the Advanced Animal Breeding and Genetics service fields both domestically and internationally. 175 Main Road | PO Box 165 | Kaiapoi 7644 | Ph. 03 327 9555 | Fax. 03 327 9088 | www.xcell.co.nz www.canterburytoday.co.nz December 2011/January 2012 | 119