Canadian cattle can thrive in both hot and cold climates, and breeders from around the world are taking note
Isaac Gomez has travelled the world looking for the best in cattle genetics. As a Black Angus breeder and mentor to other Black Angus and Hereford breeders in Mexico, he makes the trip to Regina every November for Canadian Western Agribition. It’s one of the top shows for showcasing Canadian cattle genetics, he said, second only to La Rural, the Palermo Rural Exhibition in Palermo, Argentina.
There are other important shows in Denver, Colorado, and Mexico, but even the cold Canadian winters have not stopped Gomez from flying to Regina for every Agribition since 2016. And he’s been the reason other breeders are also making the trip. It’s not just Angus breeders, he said, with producers from different breeds looking for new genetics to take back to their own herds.
Around 25 breeders from Mexico were in Regina at the end of November 2024, including Gomez and his wife, Sol Bautista. Seeing cattle first-hand and building a Canadian network of cattle breeders has been immensely beneficial to his own cattle breeding operation. And he is not alone, with breeders searching for the top Canadian genetics for decades.
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Boots on the ground
William McLaren has been coming to Agribition since 1988. In the early ’90s, it became easier to transport embryos and semen to his operation in Scotland. Before then, they were transporting live cattle from North America to introduce bigger cattle to their smaller-sized animals.
With top breeders and an easier transportation process than other countries, Canada has always been the place to shop for quality genetics. McLaren has made a lot of connections and friends over the years, he said, but the days of 10-day, 5,000-mile, 20-herd trips are behind him. Agribition has become his one-stop shop, even in the age of social media and digital communication.
“In Canada, the showing is still relevant to the commercial trade, like doing your cow-calf pair, your mature bulls, where in America, it’s all just bred heifers. So you’re seeing cattle at different ages in Canada, and it’s also professionally done, and that’s the main thing,” said McLaren.
Breed groups are creating their own opportunities to open those global markets.
As a long-time member of the Canadian Charolais Association and past-president of Charolais International, Helge By has been a promoter of Canadian Charolais genetics for nearly 35 years. By has marketed cattle semen and embryos — predominantly, but not exclusively, Canadian Charolais genetics — to Australia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Mexico, New Zealand, plus the U.K. and U.S.
Canada held the World Charolais Congress in June 2024. By and his wife, Candace, co-hosted a hundred Charolais breeders from 14 countries around the world, including Australia, England, Estonia, Hungary, New Zealand, Sweden, Wales, France, and the U.S. 14 days of tours spanned Ontario to Alberta as visitors got to experience Canadian farms as well as Canadian culture.
The boots-on-the-ground experience offers so much more than selling genetics through a screen, said By.
“You can’t replace that one-on-one, face-to-face aspect,” he said. “As this thing (the Congress) moves around the world, we get to visit with breeders from multitudes of countries and make those contacts and keep following up to keep marketing our genetics worldwide.”
A complete genetic package
So what are international cattle breeders looking for?
Adaptability, fertility and quality, something Canadian cattle have no problem delivering on, said Gomez.
“It’s a very complete genetic package and a good price. It is a good investment for the Mexicans to come to (Canada), to bring cattle to Mexico, maybe now more than the American cattle,” he said.
“The Canadian cattle genetics are very strong in Mexico, not only in the Angus breed, in the Charolais and the Simmental breeds, and now the Speckle Parks.”
Genetics customers, both local and global, are asking for more comprehensive data when it comes to quality performance and sustainable cattle breeding, said Shawn Wilson, chair of the Canadian Beef Breeds Council. Partnerships with the Canadian Beef Research Council, Canadian Beef Improvement Network, and academic institutions, as well as government funding and marketing strategies, have helped streamline data collection and delivery, said Wilson. No matter the cattle breed, producers and breeders are taking this information and making informed decisions that will influence their operations. New buyers appreciate the level of data they receive from Canadian breeders.
“As we go forward with more genomic data collection and more truthful and honest information that can kind of correlate back to the grassroots, that’s really going to be a key on giving more confidence to that information,” said Wilson.
Healthy cows are high-performing cows, he said, and Canada’s diverse climate makes for hardy animals that can survive and work in both consistent cold and hot seasons. That genetic strength has already been adapted to other extreme climate conditions in Mexico, Brazil and Australia.
“When you think of Australia,” said Wilson, “they don’t have this kind of weather, but they’re looking at our genetics, certain types of genetics that will prosper to be able to blend with them (Australian cattle). It’s a global marketplace.”
Ups and downs
It is expensive to travel and getting travel permits to get into Canada for Agribition is becoming more difficult, said Bautista, who acts as translator for Gomez and other delegates from Mexico. Several people couldn’t attend the 2024 show as they weren’t able to get the proper paperwork, she said. Given how important Agribition is to cattle breeders from around the world, Bautista and Gomez are concerned this is going to cause more problems in the future as they continue looking for the best in Canadian cattle genetics.
The cattle genetic market has seen its share of ups and downs in recent years.
According to the 2024 Statistics of Canada’s Animal Genetics report, live exports of breeding cattle jumped to $15 million in 2023. Embryo markets dropped to $3.6 million in 2023 from $4.2 million in 2022, and semen markets dropped from $10.7 million in 2022 to $5 million in 2023. Dairy cattle saw a huge jump in their genetic markets with $30 million in cattle exports in 2023 and dairy semen exports reaching $137 million.
Brad Sayles, the chief operating officer at Semex, said these numbers do not include Canadian cattle housed in the U.S. Global challenges are affecting who is and isn’t buying Canadian cattle genetics.
“Brazil lost a lot of ground, especially, and we also lost a lot of opportunities in China as well. Canada can’t send any semen to China right now, just because of our political arguments, so that would have had a big impact there.”
Sayles also noticed a lot of replacement heifers and cow-calf pairs being sold to the U.S. as western Canadian producers took advantage of the higher cattle prices in 2023. Stability in the Canadian cattle population has been a challenge, said Sayles, so this will be a concern down the road.
With the 2024 statistics yet to be published at time of writing, Sayles said he expects the numbers to have levelled off over the last year and then he hopes they’ll be seeing some increases for 2025.
“We’re probably going to increase our beef bull purchases by 20 to 25 per cent in 2025 so we’re figuring that several of these international markets are going to rebound significantly. We think Brazil, especially, has a big opportunity for beef semen as well as the U.S. market.”
As the market experiences these peaks and valleys, producers coming from international markets are also competing for global genetic dollars, said Wilson. Any miles he can put on to promote the quality and diversity of Canadian cattle are worth it.
