Cattle loaded for Taiwan

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33434, 16 January 1974, Page 2

Cattle loaded for Taiwan

(New Zealand Press Association)

TAURANGA, January 15.

Loading of the first shipment of cattle in the biggest cattle export order from New Zealand was completed at the port of Tauranga today.

j A total of 854 Friesian incalf heifers was taken aboard the Diana Clausen, which will sail for Taiwan tomorrow morning. More than 2500 Friesians have been ordered by Taiwan Government agencies as part of' the country’s rural reconstruction programme.

A sister ship, the Dona Clausen, will take the remaining Friesians in two shipments in the next few weeks.

The shipments have been arranged jointly by Dalgety New Zealand Limited and Wrightson NMA. Two livestock export co-ordinators, Mr T. P. McCloy, of Dalgety's, and Mr J. Caulton, of Wrightson N.M.A., have supervised the cattle and fodder loading aboard the Diana Clausen.

Mr McCloy said the heifers had been brought from all parts of New Zealand. They were cattle of high quality, selected on production backgrounds, and were in calf to pedigree Friesian bulls. The heifers had been inspected by the New Zealand Friesian Association, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Taiwan officials. For three weeks the cattle had been kept on a Papamoa farm,

near Mount Maunganui, and' fed a special diet, including nuts containing antibotics: and vitamins, he said. Mr McCloy said this was! part of a special condition-! ing to prepare them for ship-1 board feed. Mr Caulton praised thej work of the Mount Maunganui watersiders in loading 6000 bales of hay and straw and 120 tons of nuts yesterday.

The cattle loading today was equally swift, being completed by about mid-day. “It is the fastest loading we have ever seen,” he said. “It could be a record for any port in the world.”