A LOCAL dairying family has established a new Australasian record for the sale of a dairy cow at auction.
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Alex, Craig and Jared Cochrane of Nowra and Geelong, who run Parrabel Genetics, in partnership with Rocky Allen of Cobargo and Jeff Nelmes of the Gold Coast, sold the three-month-old Parrabel Rockstar O’Kalibra-Imp-ET for $112,000 at the Global Impact Sale at Lardner Park in Gippsland, on Tuesday.
After spirited bidding the calf was purchased for Frank and Diane Borba of California by American agent Dusty Schirm.
The first of 67 lots to go under the hammer, the heifer was the first direct daughter of the excellent 97 dam, 2013 world champion cow Decrausaz Iron O’Kalibra RC, to be sold in Australia.
Decrausaz Iron O’Kalibra RC has a huge record. As well as being world champion in 2013, it is the only cow to win the Swiss Expo, the European equivalent of the US World Dairy Expo, three times in 2011, 2012, 2015.
The heifer’s sire is Mr Chassity Golchip ET.
The auction price rose quickly, taking just eight seconds to reach $100,000, with the sale completed in just over two and a half minutes.
Jared Cochrane said because the dam was in Europe and embryos could not be sent from Europe to the US, there was always going to be big interest in the sale.
“We’re delighted with the result,” he said.
“We thought there would be plenty of interest in this heifer. It’s the first time ever a calf from a 97 point dairy cow has been sold.
“It was a rare offering. It’s also the first Goldchip daughter out of Europe.
“It took us a couple of years to convince the owners to sell us the embryo, which was raised at Rocky’s farm at Cobargo.”
While there had been bigger private deals, Mr Cochrane said this was the highest public auction sale.
It eclipsed the previous record of $101,000 for an Apple calf in 2012 set by Bluechip Genetics in Victoria.
“I saw O’Kalibra in Switzerland while on my honeymoon in January this year at the Swiss Expo, which she won, and she is one hell of a cow,” he said.
“She was the best cow in the world in 2013, the best cow I’ve ever seen.”
The Cochranes had previously held the auction record from 1994-2012 with Parrabel Quality Pluto, which had sold for $50,000, and the record for the highest Jersey sale.
